London

The diamond trade on Hatton Garden

Another wake-up call came in 2003, when a thief using two aliases, Philip Goldberg and Luis Ruben, pulled off a daring heist. Goldberg/Ruben hired four strongboxes at the Hatton Garden Safety Deposit Ltd and over a period of time gained the trust of other dealers simply by becoming a regular face on the scene, bringing diamonds to be examined. He dressed to blend in – dark suit, tie and homburg. On June 28 2003, he entered the vault at the Safety Deposit for the final time and left with diamonds, jewellery and cash to the value of £1.5 million. The loss was not discovered until the Monday, when a customer found that his strongbox was glued shut. The man has never been tracked down – he had the weekend to get away – and nor has anyone found out how he did it. Feature continues

One victim, known to Jonny Deal, lost £375,000. ‘You’re always under-insured,’ says Deal. ‘You never think it’s going to happen to you.’
When pushed, some in Hatton Garden will admit to grudging acknowledgement of the audacity of the robbery.

‘I admire his guts,’ remarks Charlie Gabay.

The private security firms that install men the size of bears outside doorways up and down Hatton Garden had already been on the scene a year or two before the Safety Deposit job. They might not have prevented the heist, but thanks to their obvious presence, smash-and-grabs are now rare.

As to the state of the trade, people seem to be in two minds. ‘Hatton Garden is getting harder,’ comments Jonny Deal. ‘People have different priorities. They’re taking more holidays, buying more clothes.’

‘It’s still going on,’ Gabay asserts. ‘It’s not as it used to be, but business is still going.’

Harvey Zeto is optimistic one minute, pessimistic the next. ‘The thing about this area,’ he says, ‘is we all hear these stories about how this one’s going to go bankrupt, how this one’s closing, and then you hear that someone else has opened another shop. It’s a trade in which when you’re busy you’re never busy enough, and when you’re quiet all you do is moan.’