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Hatton Garden gang sentenced to up to seven years in jail Hatton Garden heist: Five men involved in £14m raid sentenced to total of 34 years in prison
(35 minutes later)
The men responsible for the Hatton Garden jewel heist have been sentenced for their role in the robbery.  Five men involved in the £14 million Hatton Garden raid have been jailed for a total of 34 years over the audacious raid that the judge described as being in a class of its own.
John Collins, 75, Terry Perkins, 67, Bill Lincoln, 60, and Danny Jones, 60, have each been given seven year sentences.  Three of the ringleaders received seven year jail terms for their roles in what has been described as the largest burglary in English legal history.
Carl Wood, 59, has been given a six year sentence. The judge told the court that Wood was not a ringleader and had suffered “significant money problems.”  John ‘Kenny’ Collins, 75, Danny Jones, 61, and Terry Perkins, 67, will serve half in prison, before they are released on licence. Jones and Perkins mouthed ‘thank you’ to the judge as they were sentenced.
Hugh Doyle, 48, has been given a suspended sentence of 21 months, suspended for two years.  The gang ransacked 73 boxes at Hatton Garden Safety Deposit after getting into the building and drilling through the vault wall over the Easter weekend last year. They escaped with money, jewels and other valuables worth an estimated £14m, with two-thirds of that unaccounted for.
The seventh man found guilty of invovlement in the heist, Brian Reader, 77, will be sentenced at a later date due to ill health. He reportedly suffered a stroke whilst being held at Belmarsh Prison. Judge Christopher Kinch told the men: “It’s clear that the burglary at the heart of this case stands in a class of its own in scale of ambition, detail of planning, level of preparation, the organisation of the team to carry it out and in terms of the value of the property stolen.”
Both Jones and Collins were described by the judge as the “ringleaders of the operation”. Collins, of Islington, north London; Jones, and Perkins, both of Enfield, north London, and the group's oldest member Brian Reader, 77, of Dartford, admitted conspiracy to commit burglary last September. Reader fell ill at top-security Belmarsh prison and will be sentenced at a later date.
Speaking as he sentenced the men, the judge told the court that the case had involved financial and economic loss on an “unprecedented scale” and that the consequences for the safety deposit company which they ransacked and jewellers has been “severe”.  Another burglar, known only as Basil, remains at large. He was said to have been instrumental in helping the gang get into the vault in the heart of London's diamond district. Police have offered a £20,000 reward for his capture.
The £14 million theft was enacted last April and is considered to have been one of the most audacious in history. The judge dismissed claims that the burglars were a bunch of old-school crooks who had stumbled into 21st Century crime. They had dumped their phones so they left no electronic footprint and the van they used during the raid had not been seen again.  “The conspirators were clearly highly aware of leaving traces that could lead to their identification,” said the judge.
An estimated £14 million was stolen when 73 safe deposit boxes were ransacked by the gang. The stolen goods included diamonds, sapphires and a gold bullion. The judge told that court that although some items had been found and returned to their owners, many higher value items were not retrieved Carl Wood, of Cheshunt, Hertfordshire, who walked off the job half way through the break-in and did not receive a penny of the proceeds, was jailed for six years. William Lincoln of Bethnal Green, east London, was jailed for seven years. The pair were convicted of conspiracy to commit burglary and laundering the proceeds after a trial at Woolwich Crown Court.
Plumber Hugh Doyle, of Enfield - who the judge said was “somewhat in awe of these old school villains - was given a suspended jail sentence. He played a lesser role and was found guilty of laundering the proceeds after plotters met outside his workshop with the loot.