Hatton Garden heist ringleader Brian Reader 'may only have months to live'

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The oldest ringleader of the Hatton Garden jewellery heist may only have a few months to live after suffering a stroke in prison and undergoes tests for cancer, a court heard on Monday.

Brian Reader, 77, known as the “guv’nor” by his fellow burglars, fell over inside Belmarsh top security jail and was left for two days without care, Woolwich Crown Court was told.

He was returned to the prison’s hospital on Friday after being treated in a critical care unit at Woolwich Hospital where he was guarded by nine officers, six of them armed. His legal team said he had a history of prostate cancer and a mass in his face was being tested for possible cancer.

“It may well be that some of the concerns we have been told about… are such that it may well be that he does not have many more months to live,” said his barrister James Scobie QC. He added: “He is a very sick and old man.”

Details of Reader’s medical condition emerged at the start of an anticipated three-day hearing before seven men are sentenced for their roles in the £14 million raid. Reader was the only man among the seven who did not appear in court.

The ringleaders John "Kenny" Collins, 75, Daniel Jones, 61, Terry Perkins, 67, and Reader, 77, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit burglary last September.

Carl Wood, 59, of Elderbeck Close, Cheshunt, Hertfordshire, and William Lincoln, 60, of Winkley Street, Bethnal Green, east London, were convicted of conspiracy to commit burglary and conspiracy to conceal, convert or transfer criminal property, after a trial at Woolwich Crown Court.

Plumber Hugh Doyle, 49, of Riverside Gardens, Enfield, north London, was found guilty of concealing, converting or transferring criminal property between January 1 and May 19 last year.

The gang carried out the "sophisticated" and meticulously planned break-in over the Easter weekend last year. They ransacked 73 boxes at Hatton Garden Safety Deposit after using a drill to bore a hole into the vault wall. Valuables worth up to £14 million, including gold, diamonds and sapphires, were taken.

Two-thirds of them remain unrecovered. Another burglar, known only as Basil, remains at large. He was instrumental in helping the gang get into the vault in the heart of London's diamond district.

Collins, of Bletsoe Walk, Islington; Jones, of Park Avenue, Enfield; Perkins, of Heene Road, Enfield; and Reader, of Dartford Road, Dartford, have been in custody since their arrests. The judge ruled that Reader was not fit to attend the court today and that position would be reviewed on Wednesday.