Hatton Garden mastermind Terry Perkins, 69, dies in prison taking secrets of heist’s missing £6.5 million to the grave just a week after being ordered to repay cash
The crook was among four men caged for the £14 million raid in central London
HATTON Garden heist ringleader Terry Perkins has died in prison aged 69, just one week after being ordered to repay around £6.5 million in missing cash.
The crook was among four men dubbed the Diamond Wheezers caged for the £14 million raid in central London in 2010.
The OAP raiders - all with a combined aged of 442 -were last week collectively ordered to pay back £8.2 million following the safe deposit centre break-in.
John “Kenny” Collins, 77, Daniel Jones, 63, and Perkins, who are all serving seven years, and Brian Reader, 78, who is serving six years and three months were each told they would have to spend another seven years behind bars if they didn't cough up.
Perkins' repayment order came to a whopping £6.5 million.
Last week his barrister Peter Rowlands said his client had been diagnosed with "severe heart failure".
He told Woolwich Crown Court Perkins would have to sell his £72,000 apartment in Portugal, but would have to serve the extra years as there was "no prospect" of any further funds being recovered.
A Prison Service spokesperson confirmed Perkins died in custody at HMP Belmarsh on Monday, February 5, adding: "As with all deaths in custody, there will be an independent investigation by the Prisons and Probation Ombudsman.”
Perkins suffered a heart attack in Belmarsh Prison last year and was fitted with a defibrillator — a pacemaker which monitors heart beats — at London's St Thomas’ Hospital.
He was serving seven years for his part in 2015’s Hatton Garden heist when a gang of ageing crooks stole at least £20million of gems, gold and cash.
Carried out over the Easter Bank Holiday weekend, the motley crew entered through a lift shaft and made their way to the basement where they used heavy cutting equipment to gain access to the outside of the 1940s vault.
A diamond-tipped drill was then used to bore through the 20in-thick reinforced concrete wall.
Once inside the gang ransacked 73 safe deposit boxes, containing jewellery, gems and gold with an estimated value of just under £14 million before escaping in a waiting transit van.
Most of the gems have still not been recovered and are feared to have been leaked onto the black market and sold abroad.
Mystery raider Basil, who carefully concealed his face from CCTV cameras, was the only member of the gang to get away with the raid.
Basil ended up with three suitcases of jewellery and gold bars and is believed to have grabbed treasures in hiding after the Flying Squad pounced.
The elusive blagger, thought to be a South London villain in his 70’s, is thought to be keeping a low profile in Spain.
But he is now being urged to come to the rescue of his criminal accomplices.
The robbery is being made into a film starring Sir Michael Caine.
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Perkins passed his 67th birthday during the raid over the 2015 Easter weekend.
Exactly 32 years earlier, he celebrated his 35th birthday by carrying out an armed robbery on the headquarters of Security Express, on Curtain Road, in Shoreditch.
He was part of a gang of masked robbers who made off with £6 million in what was, at the time, Britain's biggest cash robbery.
Perkins was jailed for 22 years at the Old Bailey in 1985, along with East End legend John Knight, former brother-in-law of actress Barbara Windsor.
The pair were described as "two evil, ruthless men".
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