Cheshunt man Carl Wood ‘walked away from Hatton Garden heist’

The gang stashed the jewellery, gold and cash behind skirting boards, at various houses and even buried several bags of jewellery under memorial stones at a cemetery.

Brian Reader, 76, withdrew from the conspiracy when the group struggled to get into the vault on the night of 2 April.

Thieves who used a diamond-tipped drill to break into London’s Hatton Garden Safe Deposit and steal £14 million ($21.1 million) worth of jewels, gold and cash, spent three years planning the heist according to a report in The Guardian.

Carl Wood, 58, of Cheshunt, Hertfordshire; William Lincoln, 60, of Bethnal Green, east London; and Jon Harbinson, 42, of Benfleet, Essex, are charged with conspiracy to commit burglary between 17 May 2014 and 7.30am on 5 April this year.

They and Hugh Doyle, 48, of Enfield, north London, are also charged with conspiracy to hide, convert or transfer criminal property. He also faces an alternative charge of concealing, converting or transferring criminal property between April 1 and May 19.

A red-headed man known as Basil remains at large.

Jurors at Woolwich Crown Court heard how the gang initially broke into the vault on April 2, but needed to return with different equipment on April 4.

They had a Clarke pump and hose, which included a 10 ton hydraulic ram, but “it did not do its job and stopped them from moving the metal cabinet, bolted to the floor”, Mr Evans continued.

The court heard a large amount of the loot was kept by Harbinson under the direction and supervision of Lincoln.

Although present on the first night of the burglary, Reader did not return for the second, jurors heard. Wood was allegedly at the raid but lost his nerve and walked away on the second night.

The court was told the men made a decision to wait until publicity subsided to launder the goods.

Prosecutor Philip Evans said: “Brian Reader, on this occasion was nowhere to be seen and it appears that he had decided he no longer wanted any part in the activities at Hatton Garden”. “Ultimately, however, their plan was to convert their criminal property into money”.

A jury has been shown the moment the Hatton Garden heist – the largest burglary in English legal history – began as passers-by watched on oblivious. A recording device placed in Perkins’s vehicle, had recorded Jones boasting about the raid.

Before reading from the transcripts, Mr Evans apologised to the jury, saying: ‘You will forgive me if I don’t get the intonation quite right’. Jones’s real address is on Park Avenue in Enfield.

The trial was told that on May 19 taxi driver Jon Harbinson took some of the loot to a pub vehicle park neat to in Enfield, north London.

But the gang had begun arguing about how to divide up the gold and jewels as some members got more than others.

Police also dug up two bags of jewellery stashed under the memorial stone of the grandfather of Jones’s children, in Edmonton Cemetery.

Mr Evans said: “Through their investigations the police have been able to establish that this offence was a considerable time in its planning”. Jones told police he was the only person who knew of the stash, and declared, “There’s no other outstanding property”.

Collins, Jones and Perkins arrived and were about to divide up the spoils when the cops swooped.

The trial will continue on Wednesday with phone evidence from the police.