Collins (pictured outside Westminster Magistrates’ Court) has been sent back to prison after failing to pay back money gained in the Hatton Garden heist of 2015
One of the ‘diamond wheezers’ behind the infamous Hatton Garden jewellery heist was sent back to prison today after refusing to hand back his share of the haul.
John Collins was jailed for more than three years at a confiscation hearing relating to the tens of millions of pounds of jewellery and cash stolen from an underground vault in central London over Easter in 2015.
The 78-year-old – known as ‘Kenny’ – and two other elderly ringleaders were jailed for seven years after admitting conspiracy to burgle the north London vault the following March.
He, along with heist mastermind Brian Reader, 80, and fellow ringleaders John ‘Kenny’ Collins, 78, Daniel Jones, 64, and Terry Perkins, who died in prison last year aged 69, were hit with one of the biggest confiscation orders in Scotland Yard’s history.
Collins, who appeared in the dock wearing a blue shirt and blue jeans, nodded to family members who shouted ‘Stay strong, Kenny! and ‘We love you, Kenny’ as he was sent down for not handing back £7.5 million.
The OAP answered ‘I can’t hear you’ when asked to confirm his name, address and date of birth to the court.
Jailing him for failing to raise a default sum of £7,502,519.60, District Judge Richard Blake said: ‘I recognise Mr Collins is in his 70s.’
But he added: ‘It was entirely his decision to commit this crime at a time of life when most people enjoy a quiet retirement.
Pictured: John ‘Kenny’ Collins arrives at Westminster Magistrates’ Court this afternoon with his family shortly before being sent back to prison
‘The consequences of this crime is very significant loss amounting in many millions in property of the victims. It’s important that perpetrators of crime do not profit from their conduct.
‘I’m satisfied that Mr Collins has wilfully refused and culpably neglected in the realisation in these assets.’
He said a joint confiscation order of £13.69 million was made against the gang which was deemed available in ‘cash, jewellery, precious metals and other items’.
Pictured: The interior view of the vault at the Hatton Garden Safe Deposit company which was robbed
This included more than £7 million of ‘unrecovered proceeds’ of the burglary. Collins has been ordered to pay back a total of £7.6 million, including the proceeds of his share of a house in Islington, north London, and property in Spain, or face another seven years in jail.
His lawyer David Wood told a previous court hearing that he had handed over £732,000 and had been made a recent offer of £742,000 for his London home.
But today the District Judge said Collins ‘despite ample opportunity, has failed to raise two significant assets – the London and Spanish properties.’
Collins, pictured near his north London home, was released from a seven-year prison sentence earlier this year after serving half
The goods were stolen from the Hatton Garden safe deposit in April 2015 and Collins could be heading back to jail four years later
He added: ‘I’m satisfied that his failure to realise the sale of these properties was willful refusal and culpable negligence.
‘I’m further satisfied that there’s been willful refusal and culpable negligence with regard to the hidden assets.’
He was jailed for 2,309 days, but was entitled to a statutory half reduction – making the jail term three years and four weeks.
Hendon Magistrates Court last month heard police had auctioned off some of the recovered stolen jewellery, which could not be returned to its owners, raising £110,000.
Collins, who is said to suffer from high blood pressure, has a £175,000 flat on the Costa del Sol in Spain that was taken over by police, who also seized nearly £700,000 in his bank accounts.
The ageing criminal mastermind recruited gangland figures to help him transport a fraction of the £14million haul from the Hatton Garden operation in April 2015, its claimed
HATTON GARDEN RAID
Danny Jones and Terry Perkins both admitted conspiracy to burgle over the Hatton Garden raid and were each jailed for seven years in 2016.
John ‘Kenny’ Collins, 77, was jailed for seven years, while Brian Reader, 78, – dubbed the ‘guv’nor’ – was handed a jail term of six years and three months after they both admitted the offence.
Carl Wood, 60, and William ‘Billy the Fish’ Lincoln, 61, were found guilty of conspiracy to burgle and conspiracy to launder money last year after a seven-week trial at Woolwich Crown Court and are serving sentences of six and seven years respectively.
Gas fitter Hugh Doyle, 50, was found guilty of money laundering and handed a suspended prison sentence
The raiders were ordered to pay back £27.5m or face a total of 28 years extra in jail at Woolwich Crown Court in January this year.
The confiscation hearing closed the book on the audacious gem heist carried out by the gang dubbed the Dad’s Army gang and the ‘Diamond Wheezers’.
Perkins died in Belmarsh Prison in February this year after suffering a heart attack.
Alarm specialist Michael Seed, 58, who was known as ‘Basil’, was jailed for 10 years in March – becoming the tenth person convicted in connection with the holiday weekend heist, and is likely to face a similar order.
The other gang members have all been released apart from Danny Jones, 63, who was jailed last year for an extra three years for another burglary, and Terry Perkins, who died in Belmarsh Prison last year aged 69 due to natural causes.
Collins is said to have been the wealthiest of all the Hatton Gardens thieves, with more than £1million in cash and assets so far seized by police.
In May he became the gang to speak about the raid, told a new ITV documentary presented by Ross Kemp in May that if Reader had stayed ‘maybe none of us would have got nicked’.
He added: ‘Brian said the thing would be freestanding. And when we get it, it’s bolted to the wall.
‘That’s when they stopped, they couldn’t move, couldn’t shift it so they come out that day.
‘That’s when Brian decided not to go back. You don’t just pull out because it suits you. What about us?
‘They spent maybe three years on it. Common sense said we got to go back and give it another half-hour.’
It is understood Collins decided to give the interview because he has been ‘annoyed’ at portrayals of him on television and film.
Hatton Garden raider John ‘Kenny’ Collins, left, spoke out about the heist for the first time in May and claimed if mastermind Brian Reader, 80, right, had not quit halfway through they ‘may not have got caught’
What happened to the rest of the ‘Diamond Wheezers’ Hatton Garden gang?
Danny Jones and Terry Perkins both admitted conspiracy to burgle over the Hatton Garden raid and were each jailed for seven years in 2016.
John ‘Kenny’ Collins, 77, was jailed for seven years, while Brian Reader, 78, – dubbed the ‘guv’nor’ – was handed a jail term of six years and three months after they both admitted the offence.
Carl Wood, 60, and William ‘Billy the Fish’ Lincoln, 61, were found guilty of conspiracy to burgle and conspiracy to launder money last year after a seven-week trial at Woolwich Crown Court and are serving sentences of six and seven years respectively.
The Hatton Garden gang: Top row: John Collins (top left), 78, Daniel Jones (top centre), 63, Terry Perkins (top right), 69, Bottom row, left to right: Carl Wood (59), William Lincoln, 60, and Hugh Doyle. Not pictured is Brian Reader, 80, who pulled out of the heist halfway through
Gas fitter Hugh Doyle, 50, was found guilty of money laundering and handed a suspended prison sentence
The raiders were ordered to pay back £27.5m or face a total of 28 years extra in jail at Woolwich Crown Court in January this year.
The confiscation hearing closed the book on the audacious gem heist carried out by the gang dubbed the Dad’s Army gang and the ‘Diamond Wheezers’.
Perkins died in Belmarsh Prison in February last year after suffering a heart attack.
