The Hatton Garden robbery captured the imagination of the public in 2015, when a gang of elderly men who became known as the “Diamond Wheezers” made off with so much gold and jewellery they needed wheelie bins to carry it all. ITV’s four-part “Hatton Garden”, starring beloved veteran actor Timothy Spall, began yesterday and unravels the fascinating crime story. Spall plays career criminal Terry Perkins, one of the ringleaders of the sensational heist.
Perkins, who died in 2018, was captured along with six other gang members in 2016.
However the mastermind who disabled the security system to let the gang into the Hatton Garden Safe Deposit building evaded capture for three years.
The man, known only by his nickname ‘Basil’, was disguised in a ginger wig, facemask and hat and left no forensic trace at the scene.
Police even offered a £20,000 reward in 2016, after admitting they had no idea who the mystery man was.
Michael Seed was convicted in 2019 for the 2015 Hatton Garden heist (Image: Express)
After a global manhunt, police identified Michael Seed in November 2015 but waited until March 2018 to arrest him, when they could capture him red-handed with more than 100,000 stolen items from the heist.
The raid on his home in Islington found £143,000 worth of gold ingots, gems and jewellery in Seed’s bedroom.
He was believed to have been melting down gold and breaking up jewellery from the stash on his bedroom workbench.
Seed was brought to justice in March 2019 after he was found guilty of conspiracy to burgle the Hatton Garden Safe Deposit Company.
A diamond worker demonstrates the hole drilled by the gang at Hatton
