Three more members of ‘grandpa gang’ guilty of biggest burglary in English history

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A combination of custody images released by the UK Metropolitan Police Service shows (top, left to right) Terry Perkins, John Collins, Daniel Jones and Brian Reader and (bottom) Hugh Doyle, William Lincoln and Carl Wood. All seven have been convicted of involvement in the Hatton Garden robbery last year. Photo: Reuters

Published: 1:39pm, 15 Jan 2016Updated: 1:39pm, 15 Jan 2016

Three more men have been found guilty over the largest burglary in English legal history, a daring multi-million pound raid on a safe-deposit business in London’s jewellery district led by pensioners who had spent a life in crime.

In a meticulously planned plot, the ageing gang broke into the vault of the Hatton Garden Safety Deposit building during the long Easter holiday weekend last year.

They entered an elevator shaft and climbed down to the vault where they used heavy cutting equipment to drill through a thick concrete wall. Initially thwarted, they returned the following day and ransacked 73 deposit boxes, stealing jewels, gold and cash worth 14 million pounds (US$20 million).

The hole that robbers drilled through the concrete vault during the Hatton Garden heist in London. Photo: Reuters

Only about a third of that has been recovered, including some which was hidden under headstones in a north London graveyard.

William Lincoln, 60, and Carl Wood, 58, were convicted of conspiracy to burgle on Thursday while Hugh Doyle, 48, was found guilty of concealing stolen property.

The main figures in the heist, Brian Reader, 76, John Collins, 75, Terry Perkins, 67, and Daniel Jones, 58, had pleaded guilty to conspiracy to burgle last September.