The Great Diamond Heist--The Incredible True Story of the Hatton Garden Diamond Geezers by Nigel Cawthorne

Author:Nigel Cawthorne [Gordon Bowers]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781786060785
Publisher: John Blake Publishing
Published: 2016-06-14T16:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER THRITEEN

THE SCENE OF THE CRIME

The jurors were shown where Hatton Garden Safety Deposit was on the map and Mr Evans described the premises. In the basement, there was a large vault door with a big Chubb lock, dating back to the 1940s, which opened with a dual combination and a key.

‘As you walk in through that door, you enter a room or vault which contains 996 safety deposit boxes in four sizes, of which 562 were occupied in April 2015,’ the prosecutor said. ‘Within that vault there are also two walk-in safes. There is also a further walk-in safe outside the vault, accessed from the same corridor.’

The vault has seen little refurbishment since it was built. However, CCTV and intruder alarms had recently been installed. The vault was now owned by the Bavishi family, Mr Evans explained. The patriarch, Mahendra Bavishi, had been a director since 2001, although he had no day-to-day involvement as he lived in the Sudan. His son, Manish Bavishi, was solely responsible for the day-to-day running of the company. Another of Mahendra’s sons, Alok Bavishi, looked after the company on his brother’s instructions when he was out of the country. All three men were 25-per-cent shareholders. The fourth shareholder, with an equal share, was Mahendra Bavishi’s wife.

The majority of the clientele were Hatton Garden jewellers. They rented a safety deposit box from the company and entered into a contract as a tenant. Mr Evans explained that the company had no right to access to the boxes except in certain exceptional circumstances. What was inside them was private and known only to the tenants.

Daily business in the vault was carried out by two full-time security guards: Kelvin Stockwell, who had been there over twenty years, and Keefa Kamara, who had worked there for over twelve years. Both had access to the building, the alarm and the vault. Manish Bavishi only visited the property rarely as business commitments kept him elsewhere.

Large wooden street doors gave access to the premises. Inside was a set of magnetic doors and a lift to the basement, which had not been used for many years. Another door led to the stairs to the basement. Few people had keys to that door.

At the bottom of the stairs, the wooden door of the Hatton Garden Safe Deposit was immediately to the left. It was secured with a mortise deadlock that could not be slipped. There were only three people with keys to that door – the two security guards and Manish Bavishi.

The outer door was unlocked during opening hours. Anybody could reach it, unchallenged. But beyond it, anyone entering would have to get past the security guards. Once inside the wooden door, the person entering had 60 seconds to deactivate the intruder alarm. This was done by entering a five-digit code on the keypad of the alarm box.

If the intruder alarm was activated, the monitoring company contacted Manish Bavishi; if he could not be reached, they would get in touch with the security guards. They would then come and check out the building.

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