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Hatton Garden Gang 'Buried Loot In Cemetery'

The gang accused of carrying out the Hatton Garden raid buried some of their loot in a cemetery, a court has been told.

Valuables worth £14m, including jewels and gold, were taken from Hatton Garden Safe Deposit boxes in London's jewellery quarter on 5 April, in what prosecutors described as the "largest burglary in English legal history".

The gang stashed the jewellery, money and gold behind skirting boards, at houses and in several bags hidden under memorial stones at Edmonton Cemetery in north London, Woolwich Crown Court heard.

Among the items were ruby and emerald rings worth £15,000 each, Breitling, Omega, Tag Heuer and Rolex watches and three holdalls stuffed with a "vast quantity" of jewels including sapphires and diamonds.

Carl Wood, 58, of Cheshunt, Hertfordshire; William Lincoln, 60, of Bethnal Green, east London; and Jon Harbinson, 42, of Benfleet, Essex, are charged with conspiracy to commit burglary between 17 May 2014 and 7.30am on 5 April this year.

Hugh Doyle, 48, of Riverside Gardens, Enfield, north London, is jointly charged with them on one count of conspiracy to conceal, convert or transfer criminal property between 1 January and 19 May this year.

He also faces an alternative charge of concealing, converting or transferring criminal property between 1 April and 19 May this year.

Four other men - John Collins, 75, of Islington; Daniel Jones, 58, of Enfield; Terry Perkins, 67, of Enfield; and Brian Reader, 76, of Dartford - are described as the ringleaders and have all pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit burglary.

The jury of six men and six women heard that the gang initially tried to commit the burglary on 2 April, arriving in a white van and unloading their equipment.

Prosecutors say they used walkie talkies to communicate and, once inside, reached the basement via the lift shaft, disabled the alarm and drilled into the vault wall using a drill they had brought.

They failed to get into the vault on the first night and Reader, dubbed the Master, bailed out after that, the court was told.

On the second attempt, Wood was said to have lost his nerve and walked away before the thieves ransacked 73 of the 999 safe deposit boxes in the early hours of 5 April.

They then allegedly used wheelie bins to carry away the proceeds, struggling to move them because of the weight.

Police surveillance is later said to have heard Jones boast that the theft was "the biggest cash robbery in history" and Perkins saying the gold would be his retirement fund.

On 19 May, Harbinson took the loot in his taxi to a car park next to a pub in Enfield but police swooped soon after the gang arrived, the jury was told.

Police later dug up two bags of jewellery under the memorial stone for the grandfather of Jones's children in Edmonton Cemetery.

Jones took police to the same cemetery later and showed them another plot where they uncovered a smaller bag of stolen gold and jewels.

But prosecutor Philip Evans told jurors that Jones had kept the existence of another stash secret from the police, hoping he could keep that for his own use later.

The trial continues.