Friday, January 15, 2016

Stolen Art Watch, Goodwood House Sees Ides Of March In January, Plus Global Art Crime Snap-Shot

Robber ties up the Lord and Lady of the manor and get away with £700k of jewellery

An intruder struck the owner of a country estate on the head before tying him and his wife up and running off with jewellery worth £700k.
Detectives are continuing their appeal for information after jewellery was stolen from Goodwood House, near Chichester, during a robbery.
A large amount of jewellery, including historic heirlooms worth more than £700,000, were taken during the break-in at around 4.30am on Wednesday (January 13).
Detective Inspector Till Sanderson said: "This was a frightening ordeal and I pay tribute to the courage of Lord and Lady March.
"The intruder broke in after scaling a ladder to an upstairs window, and his activity disturbed Lady March, who went to investigate. She disturbed the man, who was alone, and he pushed her and struck Lord March on the head, causing an injury to his ear. Lady March was then forced to open a safe and the man helped himself to jewellery. The couple were bound before the robber escaped with the items."
The police were called by a member of staff at around 6.30am when he arrived at work.
Detective Inspector Till Sanderson said: "They are devastated at the loss of these treasured items, many of which are irreplacable. We are making a nationwide appeal in a bid for information and to trace stolen jewellery. Forensic teams are working with detectives to investigate the circumstances and we are appealing for anyone who saw any suspicious activity during that night up until 7am or in the previous week to contact us.
"We are doing all we can try to trace the stolen treasures, liaising with auction houses, stately homes, dealers and those with specialist knowledge. I am appealing to anyone who may know anything to contact detectives on 101 quoting Operation Forster or alternatively you can call the independent charity Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555111 (www.crimestoppers-uk.org)."
The historic items, with huge sentimental value, include an 1820 diamond tiara, worth in the region of £400,000; an antique diamond necklace from the first half of the 19th century, worth in the region of £200,000; and an emerald intaglio and diamond ring from 1800, engraved with Duchess's coronet and monogram CL for Louise de Keroualle, mistress of Charles II. More than 40 items were stolen including emerald, diamond and sapphire rings, earrings, bracelets and necklaces as well as antique Rolex and Girard Perregaux watches.
A 26-year-old man from Hampshire has been arrested on suspicion of robbery and has been bailed until February while investigations continue.

Goodwood stolen heirlooms 'likely to be broken up'

Heirloom jewellery stolen from a stately home is likely to be broken up and sold according to a gems expert.
A diamond tiara and a ring given by Charles II to his mistress were among more than 40 items worth £700,000 stolen from Goodwood House.
"The chances are they will dismantle the tiara to take the diamonds," said Filippo Guerrini-Maraldi, of insurance broker RK Harrison.
"The metal will be melted down and used for another item."

'Hit the jackpot'

Sussex Police said the stolen tiara, dating from 1820, was worth in the region of £400,000.
Mr Guerrini-Maraldi said the thieves may not have been looking for specific items.
"They might be main-chancers and if they stumble across a tiara such as this they have hit the jackpot," he said.
But he added that if the thieves tried to sell the items intact they would be recovered.

Jewellery stolen from Goodwood House

  • 1820 diamond tiara worth £400,000
  • Diamond necklace from the first half of the 19th Century worth £200,000
  • Emerald and diamond ring engraved with Duchess's coronet and monogram CL for Louise de Keroualle, Duchess of Portsmouth, the mistress of Charles II
  • Antique Rolex and Girard Perregaux watches

Det Insp Till Sanderson said the theft of the irreplaceable jewellery during a break-in early on Wednesday had "devastated" owners Lord and Lady March.
Police have appealed to anyone who can help trace the stolen items to come forward.
A 26-year-old man from Hampshire has been arrested in connection with the burglary and is in custody.

Suspected 'Pink Panther' robber jailed for 6 years

A robber who was allegedly a member of the notorious “Pink Panther’ gang of jewel thieves has been jailed after pleading guilty to an armed robbery in Monaco. Nicolai Ivanovic, 42, from Montenegro, was sentenced by the Monegasque court to six years in prison on Tuesday (12 January).











He was accused of being part of a €460,000 heist at a jewellery store in 2007 in which 32 Audemars Piguet luxury watches were stolen, as well as a watch belonging to a footballer who was caught up in the robbery. One of the robbers was overpowered at the scene but the rest of them made a getaway in a stolen car which was discovered one month later just over the French border.
The Pink Panthers, hailing from the Balkans, are considered to be the world's most successful jewel thieves and earned their nickname following a raid on a London branch of Graff Diamonds in New Bond Street in 2003. Almost £40 million worth of rings, bracelets and watches were stolen, making it the largest gems heist in Britain at the time. The robbers posed as wealthy potential customers and persuaded staff to open doors for them before helping themselves to diamonds worth millions. Only a fraction of the diamonds were ever recovered; one of them hidden in a pot of face cream – in a scene reminiscent of the 1975 film “The Return of the Pink Panther”, resulting in Interpol giving them the nickname the Pink Panthers. The gang themselves also adopted the name and wore pink shirts for a subsequent raid in Zurich.
tl_files/news_images/2016/01 January/Pink_Panthers_Gang (1).jpg
The robbers are thought to be responsible for some of the most audacious thefts in criminal history, taking place in countries including France, Switzerland, Spain, Germany, Lichtenstein, Dubai and Japan. Their hits included a jewellery store in Saint-Tropez in 2005, with the gang making a dramatic escape on a speedboat.
Ivanovic and another suspect were finally arrested in Paris in May 2009. He was tried separately from his presumed accomplice, Zoran Kostic, who is in jail in France. Kostic, also from Montenegro, is thought to be the leader of the Pink Panther gang.
Ivanovic has already been sentenced by the French courts to three prison terms, and will serve his time in jail in France for these along with the sentence handed down to him by the Monegasque court. He insisted that he acted alone. “I don't know the Pink Panthers, that doesn't exist. I don't have a boss,” he told the court. But Prosecutor, Cyrielle Colle, said the Pink Panthers are not an organised gang with a head but “a community of men who know each other”, adding that Ivanovic could be attempting to protect others by suggesting that he was acting alone.

New sentencing guidelines for heritage crimes
Next month (February 2016) the new theft guidelines announced by the Sentencing Council last October will come into force. For the first time, the significant harm which can result from crimes like theft of public artworks, stripping of lead from historic churches and the activities of ‘nighthawkers’ is being officially recognized within the English criminal legal system. Courts dealing with these ‘heritage offences’ will have to take into account the special nature of the cultural property concerned when sentencing offenders.
Heritage crime is a significant and growing problem. Churches and other historic buildings suffer thefts and vandalism on a daily basis, but it is generally only those high profile crimes which hit the headlines: In the UK, the theft of a Cezanne from Oxford’s Ashmolean Museum in 2000 and more recently, the act of “yellowism” against a £5million Rothko in 2012 at the Tate Modern; internationally, the theft of 13 Old Master paintings from the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in 1990 (interestingly the subject of an article in today’s Boston Globe, which reports on the somewhat mysterious reduction in sentence of one of the long-time suspects).
Cezanne’s Auvers-Sur-Oise, stolen from the Ashmolean Museum in 2000
Cezanne’s Auvers-Sur-Oise, stolen from the Ashmolean Museum in 2000
The harm caused by these offences is often irreversible and widely felt. While it is generally no problem to repair or replace a smashed window, a stolen television or a ransacked car, no such quick fix is available where the theft, or other crime involves a medieval burial site, an ancient shipwreck or a collection of Old Master paintings.
The new guidelines are not a bolt from the blue. Initiatives spearheaded by Historic England have raised awareness of heritage crime over the past five years and there are signs that this has already started to impact on the courts’ approach. In a number of important cases, judges have acknowledged the significance of the damage to cultural property and sentenced accordingly. The drive to increase understanding continues apace and Historic England’s current campaign to get the public on the look-out for lost post-war public art will hopefully provide a useful boost. The related exhibition (‘Out there: Our Post-War Public Art‘ opening at Somerset House on 3 February) will no doubt be fascinating.
The new guidelines have been welcomed by the sector and certainly signal progress in the fight against heritage crime. It will be interesting to track their practical implementation over the coming months and to see whether they will herald further, and perhaps broader and more far-reaching developments to tackle art crime over time.
Emily Gould is Senior Researcher at the Institute of Art and Law

Dirty Detective? Update

Tucson – David Tarnow was sworn to uphold the law. Now, he's accused of breaking it. 
The former Pima County Detective showed no emotion after returning to Tucson this afternoon on the sheriff's department plane, in handcuffs. He ignored questions from the News 4 Tucson investigators.  Tarnow was indicted last week and arrested Monday without incident at his mother's apartment in San Diego.  He's charged with seven felonies: Three counts of trafficking in stolen property; two counts of fraudulent schemes, and one count each of theft and theft by extortion. The 55-year old Tarnow worked in the burglary unit, and did several interviews over the years on News 4 Tucson. He resigned suddenly in July.
Sheriff Chris Nanos told the News 4 Tucson investigators,“It's just kind of a shame, because here is an investigator who worked for us and really was looked upon from a lot of people as a hero.”
Nanos says when Tarnow found stolen jewelry at pawn shops, instead of returning it to the victim, he pawned it, and kept the cash. The Sheriff's Department investigation into one of their own began seven months ago, after the victim of a 2011 home burglary filed a complaint about Tarnow. More than $1 million worth of jewelry and art work was stolen from the man's home, and he later saw some of his jewelry in pawn shops. As the News 4 Tucson Investigators first reported in August, we obtained numerous pawn shop transaction slips, with David Tarnow's name on them as the seller! 
Nanos told us, “We put together a team of some of our best investigators, that's how important it was for us to say, ‘if we have a thief amongst us, we're going to find him.’”
Investigators say Tarnow also took stolen items from the sheriff's department property room.
While Tarnow said nothing to us at the airport, he answered internal affairs investigators' questions last summer. We obtained audio recordings of those interrogations. At one point Tarnow said, “I know it looks bad, but I had no reason to ever take anybody's stuff.”
Nanos said, “I hope that from this interview, this conversation, if there are other victims out there, that they'll step forward.”
The sheriff's department says during Tarnow's 15-year career, including the past four years in the burglary unit, he was recognized 27 times for doing good work, including recovering stolen items from dozens of burglary victims.
Now, David Tarnow stands accused of making money off for himself, from stolen items. If convicted on all counts he faces a maximum of 62 years behind bars.

'Weak man' jailed for handling priceless antiques from stately home raid
A "WEAK"man has been jailed for handling priceless antiques that had been stolen during a terrifying raid at a stately home.
During the burglary in 2013, during which a 79-year-old was tied to a medieval chair and tortured, items worth between £150,000 and £200,000 were stolen.
They were unloaded at a container storage site in Hull some hours later.
The stolen goods included a gold ceremonial sword once belonging to Saddam Hussein and a suit of armour worn by Oliver Cromwell.
Egidijus Gapsys, of no fixed abode, was caught on CCTV opening the storage locker at T&H Container Storage in Leads Road, east Hull, before the gang arrived to unload the items.
A tearful Gapsys told Hull Crown Court he was punched and beaten into obeying the gang, and said he gave evidence against the ringleader at a court in Lithuania last year.
After the incident, Gapsys, 25, returned to his native Lithuania, but was arrested at the border when he returned to the UK on June 1, last year, as an HGV driver. He was stopped by the UK Border Agency at Dover.
Gapsys pleaded guilty to handling stolen goods as well as possession of a number of Class B drugs and false identification cards, which were also found in the locker.
Prosecuting, Simon Waley said: "The drugs were all Class B drugs and were synthetic cannabinoids and cathinones, total weight 360g."
He said police found about 30 to 40 blank ID cards, complete with metallic chips, ready to be made into fake identifications.
Gapsys was sentenced to four-and-a-half years in prison.
Sentencing him, Judge Jeremy Richardson QC said: "You are a weak individual and became embroiled in a gang of Eastern Europeans from Lithuania.
"In late September 2013, a very serious aggravated burglary was committed.
"His home was ransacked and a large number of high value antiques were stolen.
"You were involved in handling a significant portion of the stolen items found in the lock up garage.
"It appears that your role was to drive in and out of these premises, opening up as required and making provisions for vehicles to arrive with the stolen items.
"A significant amount of Class B drugs was found in the lock-up garage worth £7,000.
"There were a large number of fake ID cards.
"You were, in my judgment, a loyal lieutenant.
"You are just the sort of person that serious criminals recruit."
Judge Richardson said he offered mercy on Gapsys's sentence because of his efforts to bring the gang's leader to justice.
He said: "I have heard from you through a veil of tears that you met this man ... in Lithuania.
"You were working for that man when you came to England and were embroiled in criminal activities of a significant kind.
"And you have had to pay the price today.
"You gave evidence in a Lithuanian court against him, the ring leader. You helped the police in Lithuania
"That's a significant mitigating factor in this case.
"You are entitled to that significant reduction, taking it to four and a half years in prison."

$1.5 million jewel theft has dealer on edge

— A Vista gem dealer and sheriff’s investigators are trying to figure out who stole museum-quality gemstones and jewelry worth $1.5 million or more from his car trunk last weekend.
Charles Lawrence told deputies he had placed a gym bag full of the valuables in the trunk of his car the evening of Jan. 9th, checked two hours later to make sure the alarm was on, and discovered his loss the next morning.
Missing are more than 200 rings, a 27-carat diamond tennis bracelet, an 18-carat sapphire and 50 other gemstones, some worth more than $45,000, he said.
“I’m still a little shocked,” Lawrence, 70, owner of Charles & Co. Estate and Fine Jewelry, said in a phone interview Friday. “I’m still trying to understand what happened ... This is an awfully big robbery.”
He said he’d accepted two dozen sapphires, diamonds and other gems and unique Art Deco-style jewelry pieces on consignment from a Tustin owner, and planned to visit jewelry dealers in Orange County on Sunday to try to sell those pieces and others.
They were not insured, but he estimated their value at $1.5 million to $2 million.
“These are rare, near-flawless, very, very, very valuable pieces of jewelry that belong in a museum,” Lawrence said. “Nothing like this has happened to me in 50 years of business.”
Lawrence is offering a reward of $5,000 to $10,000 in diamonds for return of the stolen goods.
He said he has sold several items for the consignment customer since September, and had until Jan. 15 to sell the current items. The theft occurred just five days before he would have had them sold, he said.
“She has emailed me how upset she is,” Lawrence said. “She thinks I stole this stuff. This is a very delicate situation ... I’m numb with fear and fright.”
A sheriff’s official confirmed that Lawrence reported the theft on Sunday, and detectives were investigating.
Lawrence said he and his wife keep their residence on a private Vista road a secret, and has no friends visit there, but thinks the thief must have followed him home at some point. He keeps much of his valuable stock at the San Diego Jewelers Exchange in downtown San Diego, and operates a high-end jewelry store in Bangkok.
When he went outside to his car on Sunday, the alarm appeared to be on but the passenger door had been opened, the glove compartment door was torn off at the hinges, and the back seat was pulled forward to allow access to the trunk, Lawrence said. He said he thought it was odd that a neighbor’s guard dogs had not barked loudly at any nighttime intruders.
He said the owner of the consignment items had not had them appraised or insured, but had certificates of authenticity, which also were stolen.
“I don’t have insurance on this kind of thing. It’s not possible,” Lawrence said, adding that insurance rates are typically 3 percent of the gem’s value, and he couldn’t afford it.

Stolen gems returned to Vista owner

Motorcycle shop owner says he found bag of jewels worth estimated $1.5 million

— The case of the stolen gym bag filled with $1.5 million in gems and jewelry took an odd twist Saturday when a Vista man turned them over to the owner, saying he found them outside his motorcycle shop earlier in the week.
Matt Wilson called The San Diego Union-Tribune Saturday afternoon asking to be put in touch with the theft victim, Charles Lawrence, so he could hand over the bag containing display trays of estate-type rings, including a large sapphire surrounded by diamonds, a diamond tennis bracelet, and other items.
Lawrence, reached by phone, reacted to the news of the jewelry recovery with astonishment.
“Oh my God! Oh my God!” he exclaimed. “I’m in shock.”
He went to Wilson’s shop and took possession of the bag, finding everything intact, Wilson said.
Lawrence reported to the Sheriff’s Department on Jan. 10 the loss of hundreds of uninsured rings, bracelets, gemstones and other items, many of which he had taken on consignment to sell for a Tustin woman. He said much of the jewelry was rare, of museum quality, and some was of Art Deco design. He estimated their value at $1.5 million to $2 million.
He had locked the bag into his car trunk outside his Vista home the night before, with plans to try to sell the jewelry to various dealers in Orange County the next day. But that morning he found his car alarm disarmed, his car back seat pulled away, and the bag missing.
Lawrence operates Charles & Co. Estate and Fine Jewelry and said he has been in the jewelry business for 50 years, with a store in Bangkok, Thailand.
Wilson said he has worked in Oregon and Vista as a private investigator and has owned Motorcycles Plus on South Santa Fe in Vista for about nine months.
He was outside his shop Tuesday night and noticed a plaid gym bag next to a locked Dumpster. He and a friend looked in the bag and saw trays of rings.
“We brought it inside. I don’t know much about jewelry — I didn’t know if it was real, or costume jewelry,” Wilson said. He said he took it to two jewelers, who assured him the gemstones were real.
After finding the bag, Wilson said, he found another gemstone and two rings in the mud another night.
“Did people drop the stuff? Could there be a trail of them?” Wilson asked.
He checked the Internet and Craigslist advertising website, but saw no reference to a loss of valuables. Then, he said, his friend showed him a Union-Tribune story about the theft, and he called the newspaper and the Sheriff’s Department.
Lawrence had said he would offer a reward of $5,000 to $10,000 in diamonds to whoever returned the stolen goods. Wilson said he wasn’t looking for any reward.
“As long as he got his stuff, that’s great,” Wilson said. “The whole thing is weird. How did someone break into the car and then it was put near the Dumpster. ... Nothing is gone. Why put it there?”
Lawrence said he notified the sheriff’s detective assigned to the case that his bag was recovered, and he was trying to reach his Tustin client to tell her the good news.
“It’s a good story with a good ending,” Lawrence said. “Everybody was doing what they should be doing. Everybody was honest.”
He added, “I’m going to sleep well tonight.”

Wednesday, January 13, 2016

Stolen Art Watch, Hatton Garden Heist, Jury Decides Fate !!




Hatton Garden gang member dubbed 'The Ghost' cheated out of millions by greedy fellow burglars, underworld insider claims
The computer genius, given the name Basil in court and who disabled the vault’s alarm systems, is now one of Scotland Yard’s most wanted fugitives
One of the Hatton Garden gang has been dubbed The Ghost after vanishing without a trace following the heist.
The computer genius, who disabled the vault’s high-tech alarm systems, is now one of Scotland Yard’s most wanted fugitives.
Police on Thursday repeated their offer of a £20,000 reward for information about the mystery thief.
But a gang insider believes the “proper professional”, who only got £180,000 and was cheated out of his fair share by his greedy co-conspirators, will never be found.
The underworld source said: “He’s a clever kid and the police won’t have much on him, he’s too good for that.
"He will have hidden his whack somewhere secure in the UK and gone on his toes.
“I don’t know where he is now. On every job you need a good alarm man and The Ghost is the best.”
He luckily kept his distance as the gang reassembled the loot to smelt it down and share it back out.
Police raided the meet but have failed to trace The Ghost.
The expert crook, given the name Basil in court, was headhunted by heist mastermind Brian Reader after the elderly burglar witnessed his nerves of steel when overcoming the most sophisticated security systems.
After planning the raid meticulously for years with Reader, he coolly and calmly executed it without hesitation before disappearing. Even today, most of the gang still have no idea of his true identity.
Details about him and the audacious crime itself can be now exclusively revealed for the first time after interviews with an insider.
A trained engineer, The Ghost, who lived less than a mile from Hatton Garden, was described as the “brains” of the outfit.
Only Reader knew his true identity and even he did not have his phone number.
The Ghost is single, originally comes from the South East, is around 6ft and of slight build.
He has no children and is in his mid-50s, making him the youngest of the ringleaders.
Basil is not believed to be his real name and he carefully hid his greying brown hair under a ginger wig during the raid.
He is believed to have pulled off a number of burglaries in the last 20 years but has never been caught.
The source added: “He got into crime in his mid-30s and he didn’t need much coaching.
“Brian recognised his ability and brought him on board.”
His father has passed away but The Ghost’s mother is still alive and he has brothers and sisters living in the UK.
The gang’s hierarchy was split between The Ghost and Reader, the only true specialist burglars on the team, and the rest – who the source described as “labourers”.
The two master thieves have known each other about 20 years but do not have records for using violence in the past.
By contrast Terry Perkins and Danny Jones have convictions for armed robberies and the Mirror can reveal they swindled The Ghost and Reader out of their £3million share when it came to the “cut up”.
The source, who spoke to The Ghost soon after the raid , said: “It’s poetic justice in the end for those two but I feel sorry for Brian and The Ghost.”
The insider described what happened when the gang got to Kenny Collins’ house with the loot after driving from Hatton Garden.
Collins, Perkins, Jones and The Ghost separated around £300,000, which was the total cash haul.
He said: “They all thought they’d get fortunes in cash but they didn’t.
“The Ghost had bits of gold but didn’t even get a diamond . Afterwards he asked me, ‘Do you think I’ll get anything more?’
“I said, ‘You won’t get a dollar more from them’. Those three must be kicking themselves in the nick now for being so greedy and stupid.”
As well as £80,000 in cash, The Ghost got away with a small lunch box sized stash of gold bullion, worth around £100,000.
The source said: “He had around £1,000 in out-of-date money and some foreign cash. He didn’t know where to find Jones or Perkins, but he knew where Collins walked his dog and said he was going to wait for him there and confront him about it.
"I haven’t seen him since.”
The gang’s meticulous preparations began to come unstuck on the first night of drilling when Reader decided not to return .
The source said: “Brian would have made them cut it up immediately and if they’d done that they probably would have got away with it.
“Collins, Perkins and Jones were just labourers. Those three would never have been able to get through the front the door in the first place without Brian and The Ghost.”
Police appealed for information leading to the capture and conviction of The Ghost.
Det Supt Craig Turner said: “The investigation is still ongoing. We will seek to identify the individual known as Basil and
I will refresh my appeal and offer a £20,000 reward for any information that leads to his identification.” 
Revealed: Mob lover 'grassed up' £14m Hatton Garden jewellery heist gang in revenge for being jilted
EXCLUSIVE: Jilted lover 'grassed up elderly raiders to police in a bid for revenge'
DETECTIVES were on to the Hatton Garden “Diamond Wheezers” within 48 hours after a tip-off from one of their molls.
She is said to have had a relationship with a member of the £14million heist gang and “bubbled him up” in revenge for jilting her.
Officially, police got on the trail of the elderly mob, including three pensioners, through CCTV footage of one of their cars.
But well-informed sources say gang members are convinced they were betrayed by a woman.
One said: “There is a lot of head-scratching going on because they know there is always an informant on a job of this kind and the police were on to them too quickly.
“The strong suspicion is that a woman known to one of the team was upset with him for some reason and bubbled him up.”
Guide ... found at Jones' home
The moll’s revenge can be revealed today after three men — Carl Wood, 58, Billy Lincoln, 60, and Hugh Doyle, 48 — were found guilty at Woolwich crown court, South East London, for their part in the record-breaking raid last Easter weekend.
They will be sentenced on March 7 with ringleaders Brian “The Master” Reader, 76, John “Kenny” Collins, 74, Terry Perkins, 67, and Dan Jones, 60, who all admitted conspiracy to burgle in September.
A book entitled Forensics for Dummies was found at Jones’ home in Enfield, North London.
A fellow raider, known as Basil, is still being hunted by police.
Another source said: “The Flying Squad were on to the gang within a day or two.
“Information was supposedly given by a woman upset with one of the team. It is a jealously guarded secret for good reasons.”
It enabled cops to put listening bugs in Collins’ Mercedes and a Citroen owned by Perkins — and link other gang members through phone records.

READ MORE:

During the trial there was speculation about the identity of a woman nicknamed “Randy Mandy,” mentioned by Perkins while his car was bugged.
He told Jones: “See that bird there, Randy Mandy is a bit better than her, but like her.”
There is no suggestion that “Randy Mandy” grassed up the gang.
Reader, of Dartford, Kent, has a heart condition. Perkins, of Enfield and Collins. of Islington, both North London, have serious diabetes. They have all been detained at top-security Belmarsh Prison since their arrests last May.
The ringleaders’ guilty pleas will earn them a third off the maximum ten-year tariff for non-residential burglary — of which they will then have to serve only half.
But because two thirds of the loot is still missing, the men face further action under the Proceeds of Crime Act, punishable with a maximum of ten years without remission.
One underworld associate said: “They are looking at a death sentence behind bars and are genuinely worried they will never get out alive.”
Yesterday Wood, of Cheshunt, Herts, and Lincoln, of Bethnal Green, East London, were convicted of conspiracy to burgle — and with Doyle, of Enfield, North London, of plotting to launder stolen goods.
Lincoln’s nephew, London taxi driver Jon Harbinson, 42, of Benfleet, Essex, was acquitted of both charges.
He denied knowing that three holdalls he looked after in his garage next to paint pots and bric-a-brac contained gems.
As verdicts were returned after six hours following a seven-week trial, Lincoln turned to Harbinson and said: “Well done.”
Harbinson admitted collecting the bags from his uncle, nicknamed Billy The Fish, and later dropping them off in plumber Doyle’s yard.
The bags, said to contain “lower level” items from the raid, were then taken to the nearby home of one of Perkins’ daughters for a “divvy up” after she was sent away on holiday by her father.
Police swooped on the semi-detached home on May 19 last year and caught Perkins, Collins and Jones red-handed with loot worth millions.
Detectives suspect the ringleaders had earlier divided up the cream of the spoils and put them in hiding.
It can today be revealed how Perkins’ daughter Terri Robinson, 35, along with Brenn Walters, 43, the partner of his other daughter Laura Perkins, have pleaded guilty to laundering the stolen loot.
They will be sentenced with the others.



Three guilty over £14m Hatton Garden jewellery heist

Three men have found guilty of their involvement in the "largest burglary in English legal history".
Carl Wood, William Lincoln and Hugh Doyle were were found guilty of their involvement in the £14m Hatton Garden jewellery raid at Woolwich Crown.
Jon Harbinson - Lincoln's nephew - was found not guilty of involvement in the Easter weekend heist. He has been set free after eight months in prison.
Four men previously pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit burglary.
Daniel Jones, 60, of Park Avenue, Enfield, John Collins, 75, of Bletsoe Walk, Islington, Terry Perkins, 67, of Heene Road, Enfield, and Brian Reader, 76, of Dartford Road, Dartford all previously admitted conspiracy to commit burglary at the London business.
Wood and Lincoln will be sentenced on 7 March while legal discussions are due to take place later regarding the sentencing of Hugh Doyle.

Hatton Garden raid 'was doomed to fail'

When detectives first arrived at the scene of the audacious Hatton Garden heist it looked like the raiders might have pulled off the perfect crime - there were no fingerprints and CCTV hard drives were missing. The thieves were careful, but their meticulous planning was undone by their old school tactics.
Britain's biggest burglary was carried out under the feet of Hatton Garden's diamond dealers.
The ageing gang got hold of a key to the multiple-occupancy building, enabling one of them to simply walk in through the front door. Once inside, the man - known only as "Basil" - let the others in through a fire escape.
Dressed as workmen in high-visibility jackets and face masks, they went unnoticed as they lugged in the gear they needed for the job.
An estimated £14m of gold bullion, diamonds, jewellery and cash was stolen from a concrete-encased vault with a massive combination-locked safe door.
Few clues were left for police - just a gaping hole in the wall, and the heavy equipment the burglars had used to break into the vault.
The Hatton Garden gang's plan was ingenious. They had identified key vulnerabilities in the safe deposit's defences.
It was unmanned outside office hours and there was a disused lift shaft inside the outer ring of security. Crucially, the huge safe door could be bypassed by boring through the thick concrete wall with a specialist diamond-tipped drill.
But the old-school thieves were tracked down with modern policing techniques - high-quality CCTV, mobile phone cell site analysis, and a network of ANPR (Automatic Number Plate Recognition) cameras.
They also made a series of errors.
It was not enough to remove the CCTV from within the building. To completely cover their tracks they would have had to collect all the CCTV footage from all the streets around the Hatton Garden Safe Deposit, and they needed to use vehicles with changeable number plates.
The gang got away with their first mistake.
They failed to disable the alarm completely and the damaged unit managed to get a signal out.
Kelvin Stockwell, one of the Hatton Garden Safe Deposit security guards was scrambled from home. He checked the external doors to the building but had been told not to enter unless police turned up, which they did not. So he went home, unaware of the drilling beneath his feet.
"You don't know what you're going to walk into," he said. "You can't take that chance. Because I could have walked in, I don't know what would have happened to me.
"I could have been clumped across the head or got tied up, whatever. That's why the policy was you don't go in on your own. You wait and hopefully if the police turn up you can go in with them."
The gang also got away with their second mistake. On that first night - Maundy Thursday into Good Friday - they did not manage to get into the vault.
They drilled through the wall but encountered the back of the safe deposit box cabinets, which they could not push over. They returned on the Saturday with a new ram and this time managed to force their way into the vault and make off with around £14m of gold and jewellery hidden in holdalls and wheelie bins.
It was their third error that proved to be their downfall.
One of the gang had used his own car - a distinctive white Mercedes - to visit the Hatton Garden area. Detectives spotted it on CCTV footage and traced it to Kenny Collins, a thief with a criminal record dating back to 1961.
Two weeks after the burglary, the Flying Squad started a massive surveillance operation. Following Collins led them to Brian Reader and Terry Perkins, a pair of thieves who had been involved in two of Britain biggest robberies in 1983.
The Flying Squad was subsequently given permission to put listening devices into two of the gang members' cars, which enabled detectives to hear the men planning to move some of their loot.
On the day of the handover, detectives watched as £4m worth of stolen goods was delivered to Kenny Collins' Mercedes. Minutes later they caught most of the gang red-handed and then proceeded to round the rest of them up. Except for "Basil", who is still missing, along with £10m worth of Hatton Garden loot.
To show that the thieves were communicating with each other, and meeting up in London pubs to plan "one last job", police scoured through their mobile phone records, proving that they had been in contact with each other and producing a map of their movements.
If the gang had not used their own phones, and had instead used throwaway "burner" phones, they would have been much harder to trace.
The gaps in their movements were filled in using records from the network of ANPR cameras around London. It was relatively easy to show where the men had been travelling in the weeks before and after the burglary.
The burglars were too out-of-date to implement their plan without being caught - it was doomed to fail.
This was not a victimless crime. The burglars smashed their way into 73 safe deposit boxes. Of the 40 owners to be identified, many were jewellery traders like Sammy Akiva, who was uninsured and lost hundreds of thousands of pounds.
He said: "The police told me 'Your box has been broken' and honestly I didn't know where I was, I was screaming. I took it terrible."
Mr Akiva said he continued to suffer ill health from the shock of the burglary, felt "dizzy all the time", and was still taking medication.
Baljit Ubhey, the chief crown prosecutor for London, said that although £4 million had been recovered, every effort would be made to find the missing £10 million.
"There absolutely will be ongoing investigations to uncover more of the property and so I don't think the defendants should think they've got away with the other two thirds."
If prosecutors can show the burglars tried to convert their property, the CPS can go after their assets, she said.
"We can apply for restraint, we can apply for confiscation and that doesn't matter if that happens years later," she added.

Hatton Garden Heist Jury Considers Verdict

Four men went on trial in November charged with conspiracy to commit burglary after four other suspects pleaded guilty.
15:09, UK, Wednesday 13 January 2016

Hatton Garden heist
Met Police photo showing the aftermath of the raid
The jury in the trial of four men accused of involvement in the Hatton Garden raid, in which an estimated £14m worth of jewellery and valuables were stolen, have retired to consider their verdicts.
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 used a drill to bore a hole through the metre-wide wall of a vault in London's jewellery quarter, before ransacking 73 safety deposit boxes.
Jewel heist
The scene of the raid
Four men - said to be the ringleaders - have already pleaded guilty to their part in the raid at Hatton Garden Safe Deposit and will sentenced later.
Another four defendants went on trial in November at Woolwich Crown Court.
They include Carl Wood, 58, of Elderbeck Close, Cheshunt, Hertfordshire; William Lincoln, 60, of Winkley Street, Bethnal Green, east London; and Jon Harbinson, 42, of Beresford Gardens, Benfleet, Essex.
All are charged with conspiracy to commit burglary between 17 May 2014 and 7.30am on 5 April 2015.
A fourth man, Hugh Doyle, 48, of Riverside Gardens, Enfield, north London, is jointly charged with them of conspiracy to conceal, convert or transfer criminal property between 1 January and 19 May 2015.
Doyle also faces an alternative charge of concealing, converting or transferring criminal property between 1 April and 19 May 2015.
During the trial the jury heard that the oldest man involved in the raid was convicted over the Brink's Mat gold bullion armed robbery in 1983.
Brian Reader, 76, was jailed for eight years for conspiracy to handle stolen goods after the £26m raid on a warehouse at Heathrow Airport.
Reader, of Dartford Road, Dartford, Kent is one of the four accused who earlier pleaded guilty.
The others are John "Kenny" Collins, 75, of Bletsoe Walk, Islington, north London, Terry Perkins, 67, of Heene Road, Enfield, and Danny Jones, 58, of Park Avenue, Enfield.
In October, Jones took police to Edmonton cemetery in North London to show them where he had buried his share of the proceeds beneath a bank of plaques marking buried ashes.
A large part of the haul has been recovered but the prosecution said "many millions" were still missing.