THE Hatton Garden jewellery raid, which saw valuables worth £14million stolen, was the "largest burglary in English legal history", a court has heard.

A gang of thieves carried out the "sophisticated" and meticulously planned break-in over the Easter weekend this year.

They used a drill to bore a hole 20 inches deep, ten inches high and 18 inches into the wall of a vault in London's jewellery quarter, before ransacking 73 safety deposit boxes.

Ringleaders John "Kenny" Collins, 75, Daniel Jones, 58, Terry Perkins, 67, and Brian Reader, 76, have all already pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit burglary at Hatton Garden Safe Deposit.

Four other men are on trial at Woolwich Crown Court in south east London, accused of being involved in the raid.

Jon Harbinson, 42, of Beresford Gardens, Benfleet, is accused of conspiracy to commit burglary between May 2014 and April 5 this year.

Carl Wood, 58, of Elderbeck Close, Cheshunt, Hertfordshire, and William Lincoln, 60, of Winkley Street, Bethnal Green, east London; face the same charge.

A fourth man, Hugh Doyle, 48, of Riverside Gardens, Enfield, north London, is jointly charged with them on one count of conspiracy to conceal, convert or transfer criminal property between 1 January and 19 May, this year.

He also faces an alternative charge of concealing, converting or transferring criminal property between April 1 and May 19, this year.

Prosecutor Philip Evans, told the jury: "This case involves well-publicised events which took place between the April 2 and the April 5 -Easter Weekend - earlier this year.

"Over that weekend a group of men carried out a plan to steal from the basement area of a building in Hatton Garden, the jewellery district of central London.

"You may already be aware that a very substantial quantity of gold, jewellery, precious stones, cash and other items were stolen from the vault in the basement of a building at 88-90 Hatton Garden."

Referring to the four men who have pleaded guilty to their involvement, Mr Evans 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."

Referring to the £14million estimate, Mr Evans said: "The process of identifying what has been recovered will be a long one and will take many months from now to complete.

"Consequently, any figures you are given now can only be estimates, but based upon such estimates of the losers themselves it is thought, at best, that approximately one third of the value of property taken may have been recovered.

"This leaves, somewhere in the world, a great deal of criminal property from Hatton Garden, which has been concealed, converted or transferred."

The defendants deny the charges and the trial continues.