Hatton Garden raiders 'staged similar heist' five years earlier

Two of the robbers involved in the daring multi-million pound Hatton Garden heist are said to have carried out a 'strikingly similar' high-end robbery just five years earlier.

Terry Perkins, 68, and Daniel Jones, 59, described as "premier league criminals", are alleged to have broken into Chatila jewellers in Old Bond Street on the August bank holiday weekend in 2010.

The men, wearing high-visibility jackets, are said to have gained access to the building before attempting to drill into the safe of a rear office, Southwark Crown Court heard.

They were unable to break the safe, where valuables were kept over holiday periods and which contained more than 50 million US dollars (£40 million) worth of jewellery.

But they did gain access to a ground floor show room, where they are alleged to have stolen £1 million in jewellery and precious stones, prosecutor Philip Evans said.

Perkins, from Enfield, denies one count of burglary at the Mayfair jewellers between August 28 and August 31 2010.

Jones, also from Enfield and a "close associate" of Perkins, pleaded guilty to his role at an earlier hearing ahead of the trial, the jury was told.

Perkins and Jones were part of a gang who carried out "one of the biggest burglaries in English history" when they stole at least £14 million worth of goods from deposit boxes in the basement vault of Hatton Garden between April 3 and April 5 2015, the court heard.

The six members of the gang were jailed for a total of 34 years in March 2016, while a seventh member of the gang, known as Basil, remains on the run.

Both men pleaded guilty to their part in the plot, which prosecutor Mr Evans said bore "striking" similarities to the burglary at Chatila, including the targeting of highly-secure premises over multiple days on a bank holiday weekend and the use of high-visibility clothing as a distraction.

Mr Evans said: "This was, say the prosecution, a premier league crime that required premier league criminals to execute it.

"The Crown say that the evidence relating to a later, highly similar and even more high value burglary demonstrates that Mr Perkins and Mr Jones were indeed two of those premier league criminals who carried out this high-value burglary at Chatila in 2010."

Mr Evans told the jury: "Those similarities, say the prosecution, are not simply explained by coincidence, but because Perkins and Jones were involved in both."

A third man, Charles Matthews, 54, of Virginia Water, Surrey, is also on trial accused of handling stolen goods but is not accused of being involved in the burglary or disposing of valuables from the premises.