Four men accused of being involved in the £14m Hatton Garden raid were “overwhelmingly” trusted by the ringleaders to take part in the biggest burglary in English legal history, a court has heard.
In his closing speech to the jury on Thursday, the prosecutor Philip Evans said the defendants had lied to the jury in denying involvement in the Easter weekend heist and were likely to have fabricated a story together during their recent time in prison.
Carl Wood, 58, William Lincoln, 60, and Jon Harbinson, 42, have denied charges of conspiracy to commit burglary and conspiracy to conceal, convert or transfer criminal property. Hugh Doyle, 48, has denied the latter charge.
Evans told the jury at Woolwich crown court: “Ask yourself this question: if you had gone to all the trouble to burgle the safety deposit box company in Hatton Garden, would it be likely to let out of your sight someone I didn’t overwhelmingly trust with millions of pounds worth of jewellery and diamonds?
“Just take a step back, because it has become a bit like Groundhog Day, coming to Woolwich in the morning, going back at night – losing a little bit of sight of what this is actually about.
“What we are talking about is £10m worth of jewellery [to] £14m worth of jewellery. That is a staggering sum of money. I imagine many of us would be extremely excited if we were to win the lottery to the tune of £14m. That is what we are dealing with.
“The property belonged to people who have no doubt worked hard to run their businesses, to get that property together and keep their businesses going.”
Four ringleaders – John “Kenny” Collins, 75, Daniel Jones, 60, Terry Perkins, 67, and Brian Reader, 76 – have all pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit burglary at Hatton Garden Safe Deposit in central London on 2 April last year.
Evans asked the jury of six men and six women to consider whether the ringleaders would have trusted those on trial to look after the loot and not take a peek inside.
“‘Some bags of old shit’ – that is how Mr Lincoln describes those bags, as he thought they were,” Evans said. “Do you believe that for one second?”
Evans said the raid was so carefully planned that at one stage it had been considered to be an inside job.
It was clear those involved knew what they were doing and knew where the safe deposit boxes were, where the alarms were, and where the CCTV cameras were, Evans told the jury.
Referring to the defendants’ evidence, he said: “In this case, lies have come from the defendants from that [witness] box. On each of the four occasions that you have heard the defendants give evidence, each of them have told you lies. Some of them might have been half-truths. But in the end, the evidence which you have heard is not true.”
Evans told the jurors that the accused had been able to put their heads together while inside Woolwich prison and come up with a story that they would all stick to.
He said: “The men who have pleaded guilty were a group who thrived on acquisitive crime – taking people’s money and possessions, greed in reality. What they needed were people who wouldn’t question that.”
The trial continues.
