Hatton Garden 'Basil' was ex-policeman, raider claims

The mysterious Hatton Garden raider known as Basil, is a former police officer who was working as security guard, one of the ringleaders of the £14 million heist has claimed.

Danny Jones, who is awaiting sentencing for his role in Britain's biggest burglary, claimed Basil was the brains behind the entire operation.

Jones, 60, claimed he had been recruited by Basil, who was a security guard with access to keys and codes for the Hatton Garden Safe Deposit Company.

Writing from his cell at Belmarsh Prison, Jones, who was regarded as something of an "eccentric", suggested Basil had spent years planning the raid.

In a letter to Sky News' crime correspondent, Martin Brunt, Jones said: "I can say that someone told me he was an ex-policeman who got into security by the guy who introduced him to me.

"He said Basil heard about me from a close friend on the police force, as I was arrested for a similar raid in Bond Street in 2010.

"Basil was the brains, as I was recruited by him. He let me in on the night of the burglary, he hid keys and codes throughout the building.

But Jones said he did not know the true identity of Basil and would not reveal it even if he did.

He wrote: "I saw Basil about four times throughout, he came and went. I don't know nothing about him, where he lives. I wasn't interested."

But the veracity of Jones' claims, may be treated with some caution by Scotland Yard, after his previous cell block confessions were exposed as cunning ruses.

Last year Jones wrote to Mr Brunt claiming he had decided to "go straight" and tell the police where he had hidden his share of the Hatton Garden spoils.

He complained that the police had refused to take him up on his offer and was desperate to make amends for his wrongdoing.

However when officers did allow him to show them where he had buried his loot in a north London cemetery, it turned out they were one step ahead of him having already discovered a larger stash in different plot in the same burial ground.

Jones and six other men are due to be sentenced next month for their role in the Hatton Garden burglary.