Basil- London Urban Legend

I remember it vividly as I was quite surprised to see a film crew check in the hotel based in North London where I was working at reception. I almost felt I was living under a rock when they told me they were shooting a movie on the Hutton Garden‘s heist. Apparently the fast living style makes us oblivious of many events and occurrences but either way they were more than willing to tell me all about it.

It turns out six burglars managed to steal gold, jewelry, diamonds and similar valuable possessions worth around £14 million out of the Hutton Gardens safe deposit facility. They managed to complete the heist over the 4 day weekend of the Easter Bank Holiday when most of the nearby businesses were closed. There were no signs of forced entry as the group entered the premises through a lift shaft and then drilled through the 50 cm thick vault walls with an industrial power drill. It is still unknown to this day if the fire under the pavement in Kingsway that led to serious disruptions in central London was part of the plan for diversion or a mere coincidence. Whatever the case may be the fire lasted for 2 days before being extinguished. That is two days of perfect diversion during the heist as several thousand people were evacuated from nearby offices, local residents left without food and electricity and few West End theatres cancelled performances. There was also substantial disruption to telecoms infrastructure.

The theft was so significant that the investigation was assigned to the Flying Squad, a branch of the Specialist, Organised and Economic Crime Command within London`s Metropolitan Police Service. With something over a month later they managed to arrest nine suspects and 5 out of the 6 burglars among them. Apparently it was a huge success for the police as the burglars were caught with undisputed evidence and later on pleaded guilty to get reduced sentences. What caught the eye of the public was the last member of the burglars committing the heist who was still at large. The Daily Mirror released CCTV footage 3 days after the heist and everyone could see the oblivious people passing by the burgling crew and one more thing. Apparently one of the burglars was experienced in ante surveillance techniques as he was covering his head visibility off any CCTV cam by holding a bag on his shoulder pointed to the cameras. The police had no clear knowledge of who he was apparently at that time and the urban legend was born.

Who was this man nicknamed Basil after the famous character from the TV sitcom Fawlty Towers who managed to pull out such an incredible heist remain at large with a few million pounds worth of stolen jewelry.

The film director explained his film story revolved around Basil`s character and of course urged me to watch the movie. I guess he was fascinated by the man as many others were back then who were familiar with it.

Everyone who heard the story was like ‘Who is this guy among the nearly 10 million Londoners who managed to pull out something like this and managed to get away. What a legend!’ I guess at this day and age we live in, people assume the security systems of such high secured facilities to be impenetrable until someone proves them wrong.

The story about Basil does not have a happy ending though. I mean as I watched the movie the following year most would assume he will be among the rare that got away. However, the reality turned out to be different. The Flying Squad did not throw in the towel apparently.

By consistent surveillance of CCTV and observation of all previous contacts the 5 already arrested burglars had in the past years they managed to come up with few possible Basil suspects. The only person they could not eliminate was the 57 year old Michael Seed. He was living alone in his home in Islington, had no job and the police squad was using his specific way of walking as a possible indicator that he might be Basil. Michael was being followed for some time before a warrant to search his home was issued. Police officials later on admitted that was all or nothing strategy. Should they come out without solid evidence after the search they would have to move away from the suspect. Fortunately for them they found plenty of undisputed evidence when they barged into his home. Michel was at home when it happened. He was stunned when the police entered his home to find gold bars and other valuables clearly among the stolen list of jewelries from the Hutton Gardens heist. He did not say anything during the interrogations and never pleaded guilty. The court sentenced him to 18 years of prison and ordered him to repay £6 million in damages or face an additional seven years in prison.

For more than 3 years Michael Seed was living a very unique life as we can imagine. The rest of the crew was caught within a month after the heist and probably the first year he was very careful. As the years started to pass by maybe he let his guard down. Maybe he thought he was in the clear. I mean after all this time he could have placed the valuables somewhere else and even the police search would not have helped them as they would have nothing on him and would never know for sure if he was Basil or not. It seems that no matter how much brilliance courage and luck one needs to actually do the heist it would be only the first half of the game. The second and more brilliant half of the game is how to dispose of the valuables and cover any trace leading to oneself. Seems that Basil was only half brilliant and that cost him dearly.