Wednesday 8 April 2015

Hatton Garden raid: Jewellery could be worth '£200m'


Hatton Garden

Jewellery worth up to £200m may have been stolen from London's Hatton Garden during a raid, a former Scotland Yard commander has estimated.
Ex-Flying Squad chief Roy Ramm said he "would not be surprised" if it was that much, although he said the figure would probably never be declared in full.
Scotland Yard was alerted to the Hatton Garden Safe Deposit company raid in London's jewellery quarter on Tuesday.
Deposit box owners will be told later if their property has been stolen.

'Down the lift shaft'

The Met said the burglars used heavy equipment to break into a vault used mainly by jewellers and gold dealers.
Mr Ramm told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: "There's a sort of old-fashioned audacity about it.
"The amount of money and the goods that are taken is never fully revealed... and there's a good chance that not everybody would declare.
"I would not be surprised, given where this one is in Hatton Garden, if £200m is around about the amount stolen."
Hatton Garden
Officers said heavy cutting equipment was used to break into the boxes in Hatton Garden
Norman Bean, who has a diamond ring and bracelets stored in the vault said he was told the burglars accessed the vault via a lift shaft.
He said: "They went down the lift shaft, made a big hole in the wall, got into the safe deposit and I think they drilled into the boxes.
"They could have been there all weekend, who knows? It's disgrace, it's like something out of a film."
The Hatton Garden area is well known for its diamond and gold trade with some of the safety boxes likely to contain diamonds that have not been set into jewellery.
Diamond jewellery expert Lewis Malka, who works in Hatton Garden, said: "With the robbers having probably four days over the Easter weekend, there's a good chance that they went through everything."
Hatton Garden
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London jewellery robberies

  • In July 1987 the Knightsbridge Safe Deposit Centre suffered what is thought to be one of the largest robberies in history. Two armed robbers asked to rent a safe deposit box and, after being shown into the vault, produced guns and made off with an estimated hoard of £60m. Valerio Viccei was sentenced to 22 years
  • In 2003 jewellery, cash and valuables worth an estimated £1.5m were stolen when a criminal, posing as a customer, emptied a number of boxes at the Hatton Garden Safe Deposit company