Brian Reader, known as “The Guvnor” and the oldest member of the “Diamond Wheezers,” played a pivotal role in the infamous Hatton Garden heist of 2015. The audacious burglary resulted in the theft of over £14 million worth of gems and bullion from a bank deposit in London’s Hatton Garden area.
Following the heist, police recovered £4,467,566.74 of the loot, leaving approximately £9.5 million unaccounted for nearly a decade later. However, Reader’s passing in September 2022, after a battle with colon and prostate cancer, has raised concerns that the missing valuables may never be recovered.
A judge had previously issued a confiscation order against Reader, but he was only ordered to pay back six percent of his share. This has fueled speculation that Reader may have concealed the remaining loot before his demise, leaving its whereabouts a mystery.
In 2018, Reader was released from prison due to deteriorating health. Two years earlier, he had been moved from Belmarsh Prison to an intensive care unit at Queen Elizabeth Hospital in south east London. In 2019, he appeared in court in a wheelchair after suffering a stroke while battling cancer. Four years later, a judge ruled that he was too unwell to return to prison for failing to pay back £6.6 million of his £13.7 million share from the heist.
Along with fellow raiders John ‘Kenny’ Collins, Daniel Jones, and Terry Perkins (who died in prison at age 69), Reader faced one of the largest confiscation orders in the UK justice system’s history. The group allegedly spent a four-day holiday weekend spanning Easter and Passover meticulously planning and executing the heist. Taking advantage of closed businesses due to the Bank Holidays, they gained access to the safe deposit via a lift shaft and drilled through a thick vault wall using a Hilti power drill.
The significance of the Hatton Garden heist led to its investigation by the Flying Squad, part of the Metropolitan Police’s Specialist, Organised and Economic Crime Command. Before his involvement in the Hatton Garden heist, Reader had amassed a fortune exceeding £200 million from a string of earlier criminal activities, including the 1983 Brink’s-Matt robbery, where he and armed accomplices stole £26 million of gold bullion from a warehouse near Heathrow Airport. He also faced trial alongside Kenneth Noye for the 1985 murder of undercover police officer Detective Constable John Fordham, but both were acquitted.
Collins, Jones, and Perkins were sentenced to seven years in prison for conspiracy to commit burglary, while Carl Wood and William Lincoln received similar sentences for the same offense and conspiracy to conceal criminal property. Hugh Doyle was convicted of concealing, converting, or transferring criminal property and received a 21-month suspended sentence. Another individual was acquitted after a trial.
The mystery surrounding the missing Hatton Garden loot remains unsolved, and the possibility of its recovery now seems remote following Reader’s demise.
