England's 'biggest' heist: Five men jailed for 34 years
The men have been compared to 'Ocean's Eleven'
Five men involved in a daring London heist that drew comparisons with the film Ocean's Eleven—albeit with pensioners filling the lead roles—were jailed for a combined total of 34 years today.
Prosecutors called the raid on Hatton Garden, London's jewellery district, the "biggest burglary in English legal history", netting £14 million ($20.1 million, €18.5 million) worth of booty including jewellery, gold and cash.
A jury at Woolwich Crown Court in southeast London last month convicted Carl Wood, 59, and William Lincoln, 60, of conspiracy to commit burglary, and also conspiracy to conceal, convert or transfer criminal property. Hugh Doyle, 48, was also found guilty of concealing, converting or transferring criminal property.
Another four men—John Collins, 75, Daniel Jones, 61, Terrence Perkins, 67 and Brian Reader, 77—earlier pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to burgle. Ringleaders Collins, Jones, Perkins and Lincoln were each jailed for seven years and Wood for six. Reader will be sentenced later after suffering a stroke in London's Belmarsh prison. Doyle was given a 21-month sentence, suspended for two years.
On sentencing, judge Christopher Kinch said the burglary "stands in a class of its own in the scale of the ambition, the detail of the planning, the level of preparation and the organisation of the team carrying it out, and in terms of the value of the property stolen."