A Dartford man was the brains behind the “largest burglary in British legal history”, a court heard.

Brian Reader, 76, of Dartford Road, was labelled the “guv’nor” of the Hatton Garden safe deposit heist during the trial of four other men accused of being involved.

A haul worth £14 million of jewels, gold and cash was stolen during the burglary over the Easter weekend when a gang bore a hole through a thick concrete wall and broke into a vault.

Only around a third of the haul has been recovered after the gang ransacked 73 safety deposit boxes, of which 29 were empty.

This week, the jury at Woolwich Crown Court was told that when Reader’s house was raided, police found diamond magazines, a book on the gem underworld, a diamond tester and diamond gauge.

Prosecutor Philip Evans said: “He [Reader] was involved in the planning, present at the meetings before and after the burglary.

"He was present in the building at Hatton Garden on the first night of the burglary but not the second.”

The court also heard that he had arrived at the scene of the burglary by bus to meet other members of the gang.

Reader’s son Paul, 50, also of Dartford Road, had a charge of conspiracy to commit burglary, in relation to the heist, dropped against him earlier this month.

To break into the vault, the gang allegedly posed as gas repairmen and entered through its fire escape.

It took them three years to plan the heist and the ringleaders watched YouTube videos of how to use powerful concrete piercing drills, the court heard.

Alongside Reader, the prosecution suggested that the other ringleaders were John Collins, 74, of Islington, Daniel Jones, 58, of Enfield, and Terry Perkins, 67, also of Enfield.

They all pleaded guilty to conspiracy to burgle with intent to steal jewellery in September. Mr Evans said the gang were men with extensive criminal pasts and vast experience.

He said: “These four ringleaders and organisers of this conspiracy, although senior in years, brought with them a great deal of experience in planning and executing sophisticated and serious acquisitive crime not dissimilar to this.

“This offence was to be the largest burglary in English legal history. Two of these men had also been involved in some of the biggest acquisitive crime of the last century, and the other two had for many years in their earlier lives been involved in serious theft.”

In relation to the heist, three other men are on trial charged with conspiracy to burgle - William Lincoln, 60, of Winkley Street, Bethnal Green, Carl Wood, 58, of Cheshunt, Hertfordshire, and John Harbinson, 42, of Beresford Gardens, Benfleet, Essex. They all deny the charges.

The group, along with Hugh Doyle, 48, of Riverside Gardens, Enfield, also deny conspiracy to conceal, convert or transfer criminal property.

The trial continues.