Six men to be sentenced for their involvement in the Hatton Garden raid

It was the UK's biggest ever jewellery robbery and today six of the men convicted of carrying out the Hatton Garden heist will find out their fate.

In the dock are pensioners and career criminals aged between 49 and 77.

The gang breached the vault at the Hatton Garden Safe Deposit company in central London over the Easter weekend last year.

The audacious plot involved the criminals abseiling down the lift shaft and using heavy cutting equipment to get through thick doors of underground vault.

Credit: Met Police

In two separate visits the masked men worked through the night to drill their way into the underground vault at the Hatton Garden Safe Deposit Company in London's exclusive diamond district.

They smashed open around 70 safety deposit boxes before escaping with jewels, including gold, diamonds and sapphires and other valuables worth up to £14 million. Two-thirds of stash remains unrecovered.

The men who pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit burglary last September are:

  • John "Kenny" Collins, who's 75, from Islington

  • Daniel Jones from Enfield

  • Terry Perkins, who's 67, from Enfield

  • 7-year-old Brian Reader from Dartford in Kent

The vaults were ransacked in April this year

Following his arrest Daniel Jones told police he was willing to reveal where he had hidden his stash as he wanted to "go straight".

He took them to a cemetery in Enfield where a quantity of jewellery was found. But detectives had already discovered an even larger stash of jewels hidden at the grave of a relative of Jones, which he didn't tell them about.

Jones claimed he knew nothing about the second haul in the graveyard.

Carl Wood, who's 59 and from Hertfordshire was convicted along with 60-year-old William Lincoln, of Bethnal Green of conspiracy to commit burglary and conspiracy to conceal criminal property.

Hugh Doyle, a 49-year-old plumber of Enfield, north London, was found guilty of concealing, converting or transferring criminal property.The man known only as 'Basil' who is widely believed to have masterminded the heist has never been caught.

And the other man believed to be an 'architect' of the raid may also never be sentenced. Brian Reader, dubbed the 'Guvnor' has not been in court for the sentencing hearing.

The 77-year-old is in hospital with septicaemia after suffering stroke at Belmarsh prison and may only have months to live.