The oldest member of the group aged 77 at the time of his sentencing, Brian Reader has become the face of the Hatton Garden heist, played by Sir Michael Caine and Larry Lamb in films based on the crime. As one copper put it: 'They were analogue criminals operating in a digital age.'īut who were the men who broke into the central London treasure trove, and what became of them? Brian Reader The police pinpointed one of their vehicles using CCTV, then planted listening devices to observe the burglars and gather evidence before eventually arresting them.

The perps were actually a bunch of pensioners, who obtained several nicknames such as the ‘Bad Dad’s Army’, ‘Diamond Wheezers’, and ‘Grandads Gang’.Īrmed robbers in the Brink's-Mat Heist stole gold bullion, jewels and cash valued at over £26m Others wondered if a group of elite thieves who were strangers to each other had been gathered together by a criminal mastermind.īut then came the gob-smacking truth. Some believed it was the infamous ‘Pink Panthers’ criminal network from the Balkans. When news broke, there was a frenzy of speculation over who could have been behind such an audacious break-in. They then used crowbars and angle grinders to bust open the deposit boxes, making off with at least £14 million worth of jewels and cash. Over the course of the Easter Bank Holiday weekend, a gang of professional criminals disguised as tradesmen accessed a safety deposit facility, climbed down a lift shaft to the basement, and burrowed into the vault using a heavy-duty diamond drill.

In April 2015, one of the most lucrative heists in British history took place in the Hatton Garden jewellery quarter of London.

Audacious in a sentence