Hatton Garden: nine arrested and jewellery recovered

Police raided 12 addresses in north London and Kent on Tuesday morning, arresting the suspects, who are between 43 and 76 years-old.

Officers said that they found large bags containing “significant amounts of high-value property” at one of the addresses, and searches are ongoing at others.

Four of the men: named as A to D and aged, 67, 74, 58 and 48 respectively, were arrested in Enfield, in north London. E, 59, was arrested in the east end of the capital, and both F and G, aged 76 and 50 respectively, were caught in Dartford, in Kent on Tuesday morning.

Later the same day, two more – H, 58, and I, 43 – were arrested in north London.

All of the men – described as white British – are being held at a London police station on suspicion of conspiracy to burgle.

Metropolitan Police Detective Superintendent Craig Turner urged victims of the crime to “stay patient”, adding: “Police officers will be in contact with them in order that we can restore this property back to its rightful owners.”

Police also apologised for not responding properly to the alarm that was triggered at the safety deposit box business in central London where the raid took place. It was earlier reported that the call reporting it was not designated as sufficiently urgent to warrant an immediate response and that the gang was inside the building when police did arrive.

Metropolitan Police Commander Peter Spindler said the force has been “portrayed as if we have acted like Keystone Cops”, but defended its investigation.

Officers “worked tirelessly and relentlessly, they’ve put their lives on hold over the last six or seven weeks to make sure that justice is served. They’ve exemplified the finest attributes of Scotland Yard detectives”, he said.

The force confirmed that a security guard went to the address but “saw nothing more than our officers would have done had they been deployed”.

A police statement read: “We are now in a position to confirm that, on this occasion, our call handling system and procedures for working with the alarm monitoring companies were not followed.”

‘Lessons learned’

It added: “Our normal procedures would have resulted in police attending the scene, and we apologise that this did not happen.

“In this case, the owners had been notified by the alarm company and a security guard attended the building but saw nothing more than our officers would have done had they been deployed.”

The Met Police said that it was now working with the alarm industry to “improve the call handling and response processes at both ends to ensure nothing like this happens again”.

A more detailed investigation into the defeat of the alarm system is ongoing and the police said they would “share the lessons learned with the business community in due course”.

Det Supt Turner also issued an appeal to trace a van (pictured above and below) seen in the area over the weekend that the raid took place.

He said: “It was a white Transit van, registration DU53 VNG, which was caught on CCTV near Hatton Garden Safe Deposit Ltd.

“We have had the CCTV from an early stage of the investigation but we are now releasing the registration of the van. Did you see anyone loading or unloading a white van in the Hatton Garden area over the Easter bank holiday?

“So far, we haven’t managed to recover the van yet. Have you seen a van matching this description and registration since the burglary in Hatton Garden or do you know where it is now?”