Three men found GUILTY over the £14million Hatton Garden jeweler

Three men have been found guilty of involvement in the Hatton Garden jewellery raid in which £14million worth of gems were stolen from the centre of London's diamond district.

The raid's ringleaders, Daniel Jones, 60, John Collins, 75, Terry Perkins, 67, and Brian Reader, 76, had previously pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit burglary.

Today, Carl Wood, 58, William Lincoln, 60, and Hugh Doyle, 48, have today been convicted of involvement.

The heist, believed to be the largest burglary in British legal history, saw a gang of thieves carry out the 'sophisticated' and meticulously planned break-in over the Easter weekend last year.

The group of thieves who broke into the vault included participants of some of the most notorious heists of the last century - Reader had been involved in the £26 million gold bullion Brinks Mat robbery, and Perkins was a player in the £6million Security Express raid.

But despite their experience in acquisitive crime, it took the bungling two nights to breach the vault, and they were caught after covert recording devices planted in their cars captured them boasting of their endeavors.

Jones bragged about the raid in one recording, saying: 'The biggest cash robbery in history at the time and now the biggest Tom in the f****** world, that's what they are saying ... and what a book you could write, f****** hell'.'

Tom' is cockney rhyming slang for jeweler and it is thought the gang used the word as shorthand for 'jeweler raid'.

Perkins was caught saying the gold from the raid was going to be his pension.

I'm going to melt my good gold down. The Indian, the 18, that could be my pension if I could get half an idea of what's there, you know what I mean,' he said.

Career criminals' Terry Perkins (left) and Brian Reader (right) were the ringleaders of the heist. They have already admitted taking part in the raid

In his closing speech, Nick Corsellis, defending Carl Wood, acknowledged the burglary had the potential to make it to the big screen, joking: 'You can imagine the film titles. Bad Grandpas.

The gang broke into the safety deposit box company when no one was around on Easter Bank Holiday weekend last year.

The group used a drill to bore a hole 20in deep, 10in high and 18in into the wall of a vault in London's jewellery quarter, before ransacking 73 safety deposit boxes.

The industrial drill needed to be constantly sprayed with water to keep it cool as it bore into the concrete.

After failing to get in on the first night, they returned and managed to gain entry to vault on a second evening before breaking into 77 boxes of jewellery and cash.

John Collins (left) was the driver and lookout for the gang. Daniel Jones (right) got inside the vault 

Police mounted a huge investigation as anger mounted among traders from London's diamond district who feared they had lost their livelihoods.

The gang stashed the jewellery, gold and cash behind skirting boards, at various houses and Jones even buried several bags of jewellery under memorial stones at a cemetery.

However, the police tracked them down through a car which was used in the raid, and mounted a long-running surveillance operation to get evidence.

Detectives later swooped on three of the gang as they met at a house in Enfield.

Detectives also dug up two bags of jewellery stashed under the memorial stone of the grandfather of Jones's children, in Edmonton Cemetery.

Jones later took officers to the same graveyard at a later date he showed them to a different plot where they unearthed a smaller bag of stolen gold and jewels, but he did not tell them about the bigger stash.

Police at the scene of the Hatton Garden heist after £14million worth of jewellery was stolen in April this year

Carl Wood, 58, of Cheshunt, Hertfordshire; and William Lincoln, 60, of Bethnal Green, east London, were today convicted of conspiracy to commit burglary and conspiracy to conceal, convert or transfer criminal property.

Jon Harbinson, 42, of Benfleet, Essex, was cleared of the two offences.

Plumber Hugh Doyle, 48, of Enfield, north London, was found guilty of concealing, converting or transferring criminal property between January 1 and May 19 this year.

None of the men showed any reaction as they were convicted.

Another thief, known only as 'Basil', let his co-conspirators into the building by opening the fire escape from inside. He has not been identified.

All of the men are due to be sentenced by Judge Christopher Kinch QC on March 7.

 

Daniel Jones buried some of his loot in a cemetery. Detectives later established that it was a memorial site for a man called Sidney James Hart - the grandfather of Jones’s children.

It can now also be reported that Perkins's daughter Terri Robinson, 35, of Sterling Road, Enfield, faces being jailed alongside him after she pleaded guilty to concealing, converting or transferring criminal property.

Her brother-in-law Brenn Walters, 43, who is also known as Ben Perkins, also admitted the same offence.

Doyle was readmitted to bail, with Judge Kinch saying: 'I take the view that he has acted responsibly since being granted bail.'

Hatton Garden ringleader hid bags of gold, jewellery and gems under two gravestones - then led police to the smaller stash

The gravestone at Edmonton Cemetery, north London under which some of the raided jewellery was hidden

A ringleader behind the Hatton Garden heist buried his share of gold, jewellery and gems under two gravestone - but only told police about one stash.

After pleading guilty to conspiracy to commit burglary, Daniel Jones, 58, offered to take detectives to Edmonton cemetery, north London, where the thieves had hidden some of the loot.

He had penned a letter from his prison cell to Sky News correspondent Martin Brunt in which he claimed he was trying to lead police the goods, but that they were disinterested.

But Jones was finally allowed out of his cell at Belmarsh prison and led offices to the cemetery, where he showed them a memorial stone bearing the name Sidney John Hart.

The gang drilled through the concrete of the building's basement vault before two of them got inside to steal

Underneath the headstone - which belong to a relative of the mother of his children Valerie Hart - was a Sainsbury's Bag for Life, which contained some of the goods.

But the jury was told how Jones failed to tell officers about a second spot in the same cemetery where two more bags were stashed.

Before allowing Jones to guide them to the site, officers had carried out their own investigations and had uncovered more loot buried under the headstone of Sidney James Hart, his children's grandfather.

One of the bags contained a large quantity of jewellery while the other had many 'brifkas', the name used for envelopes in which diamonds are packaged. Inside each one were precious stones.

Jones was unaware that police knew about the other bags. He insisted he was the only person who knew of the stash and told them: 'There's no other outstanding property. That is all I had.

During the court case, prosecutor Philip Evans said Jones was clearly hoping he could give up the smaller stash and keep the bigger one for himself.