Hatton Garden Gang 'Failed' On First Attempt

A court has heard how a gang's raid on safety deposit boxes ran into problems after they used a massive drill to bore through the walls of a vault.

Four men have gone on trial over the Hatton Garden heist - described as the "largest burglary in English legal history" at £14m.

The prosecution at Woolwich Crown Court described how the London burglary was allegedly carried out, with the men arriving dressed as workmen in high-vis clothing and accessing the vault through a lift shaft.

The phone line to the alarm box was cut and its GPS aerial broken to reduce its range.

But the court heard the alarm was still triggered and the vault's owner, Alok Bavishi, was told police were on the scene.

"The latter part of the message was wrong: the police never came until later," prosecutor Philip Evans told jurors.

Security guard Kelvin Stockwell went to investigate the alarm at around 1.15am on 2 April, but told his boss the main door and fire exit seemed secure.

"He informed him, wrongly, that it was a false alarm. Both men returned home, as the attempts to access the vault, unbeknownst to them, continued inside," Mr Evans said.

He continued: "Uninterrupted thereafter, the men spent the night cutting through the second sliding iron gate and then drilling three adjoining and circular holes in the thick wall of the main vault - on the left-hand side - with the Hilti DD350 drill they had brought with them.

"Their efforts left a 25cm by 45cm breach in the wall."

Despite carving out the hole, their progress is said to have been blocked by the back of a heavy metal cabinet housing the deposit boxes, fixed to the floor and ceiling.

The prosecution believe a problem with the gang's 10-ton hydraulic ram unexpectedly halted the Easter weekend raid and meant it could not be completed on the first night.

Mr Evans said: "It seems, from what happened in the following days, that there was a problem with the pump and hose; what that problem was is not immediately clear, but it seemed it did not do its job and stopped them from moving the metal cabinet, bolted to the floor."

The burglary - said to have taken place between 2 and 5 April - saw 73 safety deposit boxes broken into.

The court heard that while some property has been recovered, "higher value items and many loose precious stones" are still missing.

Among the unrecovered items are gold and platinum bars.

Three men are on trial accused of conspiracy to commit burglary: Carl Wood, 58, of Elderbeck Close, Cheshunt, Hertfordshire; William Lincoln, 60, of Winkley Street, Bethnal Green; and Jon Harbinson, 42, of Beresford Gardens, Benfleet, Essex.

A fourth person, Hugh Doyle, 48, of Riverside Gardens, Enfield, is also on trial, jointly charged with conspiracy to conceal, convert or transfer criminal property.

Four others - said to be the ringleaders - have already pleaded guilty.

They are: John "Kenny" Collins, 75, Daniel Jones, 58, Terry Perkins, 67, and Brian Reader, 76.

The trial continues.