"How the Clumsy Hatton Garden Heist Gang Got Caught: Leader Blames Dog While Security Expert Uncovers Shocking Mistakes"

TAKING his dog for their daily walk in the park in Shoreditch, John ‘Kenny’ Collins was wallowing in the triumph of having got away with one of the biggest and most audacious jewel thefts of all time.

Now, the heist ringleader claims it was his beloved Staffordshire Bull Terrier that did him in, as the detective who snared them and a top security expert break down the inside story of the astonishing £14million raid.

John ‘Kenny’ Collins, one of the Hatton Garden heist ringleaders, blames having a dog for not getting away with the crimeCredit: Windfall Films Ltd The raiders bored holes through the wall to gain accessCredit: PA:Press Association They then emptied 73 safety deposit boxesCredit: PA:Press Association The thieves stashed their takings inside wheelie bins and lugged them to a getaway carCredit: handout

One of , Collins had broken into the security vault in ’s jewel centre by drilling through a steel-reinforced concrete wall, emptying 73 safety deposit boxes before fleeing with the riches.

But what he didn’t know was that two weeks after the heist, were on his tail – and his dog was helping to lead them right to their prey.

“If I hadn’t had a f***ing dog, I’d have f***ed off abroad straight away,” says Kenny, ruing his chance to escape, in a new documentary that focuses on the hunt for the thieves and the search for the missing millions.

It also shows how the police capitalised on a series of foolish blunders, following the initial meticulous planning that led to the spectacular break-in.

Security expert Graeme Dow was called in by police to assess what had happened and how in the 2015 heist.

In an exclusive interview, he tells The Sun: “It was immediately apparent that this was a top drawer, very experienced group of individuals who had carried out this theft.

“But this over-confidence led to them chatting about their exploits in the pub and getting taped doing that.

“I would say the other area that was naive was the size of the drill they used. I used to be slimmer than I am now, but I could only manage to get my head and shoulders through the hole made.

“Being so small, it limited the number of people who could get through to, I think, just two people.”

Taking advantage of the four-day Easter weekend in 2015, when the shops in Hatton Garden would be closed, put his plan into action.

During the early hours of Thursday April 2, one of the gang broke into the vault, via the back door, went down the lift shaft, prised open a metal roller shutter, crawled underneath and deactivated the alarm.

The others then entered and, instead of tackling the daunting, heavy-duty steel door into the vault, they by-passed it by drilling through the wall.

Some 20-inches thick, it required a diamond-tipped power drill which they used to bore three holes, each overlapping so that it formed one large cavity.

But Brian hadn’t reckoned with the steel cabinet, containing the deposit boxes, being fixed to the floor and ceiling.

Apprehended heist crooks (top, L-R) John Collins, Daniel Jones, Terry Perkins, (bottom, L-R) Carl Wood, William Lincoln and Hugh DoyleCredit: PA:Press Association

“I told him it was bound to be fixed but he said it wasn’t,” says Collins. “It was the only time I had known him to be wrong.”

Faced with the back of the cabinet, it was not about to budge. The hydraulic ram they had with them broke under the stress.

This explained puzzling CCTV footage on the street and at the back of the premises, which showed the gang entering and leaving on consecutive nights – the second time, without Brian Reader.

Having failed to move the cabinet, Reader suddenly left and never returned. But the others did, the following night, with a new hydraulic ram and this time, it worked.

Once inside, the gang smashed open one safety deposit box after another before departing in the van outside, driven by Collins, who had been keeping lookout.

‘Diamond Wheezers’

On Tuesday morning, a security guard went into the basement and was startled by what he saw in the vault – smashed boxes were scattered on the floor, along with jewellery and money left behind.

For security expert Graeme, the measures employed across the vault were a serious cause for concern.

“I was very disappointed with the security they had, because it was very naive,” he tells us.

“It worked on the assumption, ‘We’re not going to get attacked,’ rather than, ‘We are going to get attacked, so this is what we need to do.’

“Essentially, there are four levels of intruder, from the basic opportunist who sees an open window – teenagers, kids, perhaps – to the really sophisticated foreign operatives who will attack a nuclear site or a strategic part of Britain’s infrastructure.

“In this country we don’t produce alarm systems at level one, because it’s too basic. We start at level two, which is for domestic and very small commercial properties. Level three is for bigger commercial premises and level four the likes of power stations and airfields.

“The system in place at the vault was level two, when it should have been level three. One of the features at this higher level is that alarm detectors are anti-mask. So, if somebody puts a cloth over a passive infrared or a dual technology detector it will not stop it working.

“In testing the system they had in place, I found it was not particularly difficult for an intruder to avoid detection.”

It was through studying the CCTV footage outside that police managed to work out a timeline of the gang’s movements as they trundled wheelie-bins in and out with which to transport their stash.

What kind of professional gang would be capable of such a job? One thing became clear. The build of the gang, and their stops to catch their wheezing breaths, meant that they were not in the first flush of youth.

“We went from initially being called SAS soldiers to Dad’s Army!” laughs Collins.

Another nickname they had was Diamond Wheezers. Collins was 74 at the time and the four ringleaders had a combined age of 277.

Raiders struck the Hatton Garden Safe Deposit over Easter weekend in 2015Credit: PA:Press Association Undercover surveillance and bugging devices led to the raiders being brought to justiceCredit: PA:Press Association

Collins had made an early mistake in using his own Mercedes to recce the place. It was distinctive – white with a black roof – and was quickly traced to him.

Speaking for the first time, David Matthews, a former surveillance officer, tells the programme: “Mr Collins was a creature of habit, who took his dog to the park every day.

“He would drive there in his car and the dog would be his only passenger, clearly sitting in the front seat.”

He adds: “Once he had been identified, we started deploying surveillance on him on a daily basis.

“We had 12 officers, so when Kenny was moving, we were all moving as a team with him.

“It’s like a game of cat and mouse. If we stay on him, at some point, as sure as eggs is eggs, he’s going to take us to people that are also involved and then it’s going to snowball.

“For the first few weeks, he walked his dog and visited a café in Clerkenwell and that was about it.”

£4.2m haul

Then the surveillance team saw him seated at a table outside the café talking to another man, who was identified as 76-year-old Brian Reader – a well-known who was jailed for his part in the laundering of money from the £26million Brinks Mat armed robbery in 1983.

“When I first met Reader, I was in Maidstone , serving a sentence in the 80s, and we stayed mates ever since,” says Collins.

Three weeks after the heist, Collins was watched meeting 67-year-old Terry Perkins, part of the gang on the 1983 Security Express robbery where they stole £6million.

Also there was Danny Jones, who at 60, was a comparative youngster. A career criminal, he ran ultra marathons and was a fitness fanatic.

All four were now being watched.

“We knew we were in for the long haul because at some point, this team were going to meet up to sort out the goods that had been stolen,” says David.

Police bugged Collins and Perkins’s cars, where they eventually heard the incriminating information they were waiting for.

All the stories about it being £200m, £300m, is all b****cks

Kenny Collins

Terry Perkins is heard talking with Jones about what to do with their share of the profits and that Brian Reader wouldn’t be getting any money.

“They were saying that Brian shouldn’t get anything – ‘No show, no go’,” recalls Collins.

“But I said, ‘Well, I’m giving him something.’ I only went on the job for Brian. I wouldn’t have done it with anyone else.”

The team were arrested divvying up the proceeds at the home of Perkins’s daughter, who was away on holiday. Stolen goods found in the house were valued at around £4.2million, but around two thirds of it was still missing.

Before their trial got underway, Danny Jones announced that he would plead guilty to conspiracy to commit burglary.

“He didn’t ask us,” says Collins. “We hadn’t decided anything. But after that, we had no choice but to plead guilty as well.”

On 9 March, 2016, Collins, Jones and Perkins were given a seven-year sentence.

Brian Reader was to receive six years and three months a few weeks later. Other accomplices were also imprisoned but one key figure remained free.

Capturing ‘Basil’

He was the man, nicknamed Basil, who played the vital role of breaking in and dismantling the alarm system.

Police surveillance had noticed a jogger in the park who had stopped to talk with Collins when he was there walking his dog, in November 2015.

Missing accomplice ‘Basil’ was identified due as Michael Seed due to him walking with a limp on CCTVCredit: PA:Press Association Seed, pictured left talking to Collins, was found with a haul worth £140k at his London flatCredit: PA:Press Association

Suspecting he was ‘Basil’, when he then jogged away, they tried to follow but lost sight of him.

It wasn’t until 2018 that they finally tracked ‘Basil’ down to his flat in Islington. Inside they found over a thousand items of jewellery, gold and bundles of precious stones valued at around £140,000.

His real name was . An outsider, he was not from the criminal fraternity, and was the middle class son of a Cambridge academic. He had gone to university to study electronics.

As the case against him was being built, the prosecution was worried that they did not have much to link him to the actual Hatton Garden job. In the end, the crucial evidence was his walk.

On CCTV ‘Basil’ was seen carrying a bin bag on his shoulder and he had slight limp. This was how Michael Seed walked. It was the result of a road accident injury.

In March 2019, he was sentenced to 10 years. He is the only member of the gang still in prison. Terry Perkins died in Belmarsh in 2018 and Brian Reader died at his home in Kent in 2023.

Just how much the gang got away with remains a mystery.

“All the stories about it being £200million, £300million, is all b****cks,” says Collins.

“There’s nothing missing. They got it all back… as far as I know. But who are you going to believe, anyway? And why are you going to believe me?”

Hatton Garden: The Great Diamond Heist airs on Channel 4 on Wednesday at 10pm