Hatton Garden raid: Burglar ordered to pay back £50k

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Image of the hole in the vault wall left during the Hatton garden raidImage source, Met Police
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The burglars bored into the vault of the now defunct Hatton Garden Safe Deposit Ltd

A Hatton Garden burglar will face an additional 18 months in jail if he does not pay back more than £50,000.

Carl Wood, 59, did not make any money from the 2015 Easter weekend raid, but was ordered to pay the sum because of his "criminal lifestyle".

Prosecutors said Wood had no benefit from "the largest burglary in English legal history" after pulling out of the job.

The estimated value of goods stolen in the raid is thought be about £25m.

Image source, European Photopress Agency
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Many of the safe deposit box owners were jewellers who had not insured their property

CCTV footage of the raid on Hatton Garden Safe Deposit showed that Wood was present on both nights of the raid, but walked away on the second, before access was gained to the vault, after discovering the fire escape was locked.

"It is further clear from that covert material that Mr Wood was to be paid nothing from their proceeds of that crime," Philip Stott, prosecuting at Woolwich Crown Court, said.

Based on the value of the house Wood shares with his wife in Hertfordshire, and how much was paid into it with the proceeds of crime, Judge Christopher Kinch QC determined that Wood should pay £50,500 within three months or face a further 18 months in jail.

During the trial jurors heard that at the time of the raid Wood, who was on disability pension, was riddled with personal debt.

However, he claimed that at the time of the burglary he was at a family barbecue, and that he had spent the other night at home with his wife Paula.

Wood was found guilty of conspiracy to burgle and one count of conspiracy to conceal, convert or transfer criminal property.

He was jailed for six years.

Image source, Metropolitan Police
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The men sentenced were John "Kenny" Collins, Daniel Jones, Terry Perkins (top row, left to right) and Carl Wood, William Lincoln and Hugh Doyle (bottom row, left to right)

John "Kenny" Collins, 76, of Islington; Daniel Jones, 62 and Terry Perkins, 68, of Enfield; and the group's oldest member, Brian Reader, 78, of Dartford, Kent, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit burglary last year.

Collins, Jones and Perkins were each given a seven-year prison term for their involvement in the burglary.

Reader, who was too ill to attend the initial trial, was later given a six years and three months sentence.

Carl Wood, 59, and William Lincoln, 60, were sentenced for the same offence and one count of and conspiracy to conceal, convert or transfer criminal property, after a trial.

The two men were given six and seven-year sentences respectively.