Hatton Garden raid 'planned since 2012', trial hears

Plans to carry out the Hatton Garden raid may have taken place over nearly three years, a court has heard.

Four men have gone on trial at Woolwich Crown Court charged in connection with the raid at Hatton Garden Safe Deposit in London, which saw jewels, gold and cash worth an estimated £14m stolen from a vault over Easter weekend.

A drill was used to bore a hole 20in (51cm) deep, 10in (25cm) high and 18in (46cm) into the wall of a vault in London's jewellery quarter, before ransacking 73 safety deposit boxes.

Prosecutor Philip Evans told the jury it was "the largest burglary in English legal history" and that planning for the heist began in 2012.

The court heard men would often meet only a short distance from the jewellery quarter, making plans at The Castle pub on Pentonville Road in Islington, and Scotti's, a nearby cafe.

The jury heard that a gang of four men who have already admitted their part in the theft were a gang of veteran criminals.

They were so confident when the first attempt at the theft went wrong, they came back for a second day to finish the job, the court heard.

ITV News correspondent Paul Davies reports on the case.

Opening his case, Mr Evans told the jury: “The police have been able to establish that this offence was a considerable time in its planning."

He said analysis of the defendants' computers found one of the people involved was searching the internet for drills in August 2012.

"By May 2014 those searches had escalated to more meaningful searches for the specific drill which was used over the Easter weekend 2015 to drill through the vault wall," Mr Evans said.

He told the court the enterprise was only "partially successful" on the first night, April 2, and the men returned on April 4 "with more new equipment to finish the job."

The court were shown CCTV footage of the raiders arriving in a white van and unloading tools.

Once inside the building, the men used the lift shaft to access the basement, disabled the alarm and drilled into the vault wall using a drill they had taken in with them, Mr Evans told the court.

Some 44 of 73 safety boxes broken into during the raid were owned by 40 victims, the court heard.

The court heard all of the owners of the boxes trade mainly in jewellery, loose precious stones and precious metals.

Based on their statements, the loss is estimated to be just short of £14 million.

Although some of the goods have been recovered, detectives have been left with "thousands of items of jewellery", including hundreds of gold chains and rings and many paper packages used in the jewellery trade - known as "Brifkas" - containing individual precious stones.

Victims have been able to identify some of their property but a lot still remains unaccounted for.

Other stolen and as yet unrecovered items include a quantity of bullion that amounted to gold, platinum and other precious metal bars, ingots and coins.

A large amount of cash was also taken from the safe deposit boxes.

Carl Wood, 58, of Cheshunt, Hertfordshire; William Lincoln, 60, of Bethnal Green, east London and Jon Harbinson, 42, of Benfleet, Essex, are on trial charged with conspiracy to commit burglary.

A fourth man, Hugh Doyle, 48, of Enfield, north London, is on trial charged with conspiracy to conceal, convert or transfer criminal property.

They all deny the charges.

The trial has heard four men John "Kenny" Collins, 75, Daniel Jones, 58, Terry Perkins, 67, and Brian Reader, 76, have all already pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit burglary at an earlier hearing. The men, who prosecutors say were the "ringleaders," will be sentenced at a later date.