Hatton Garden: Police were alerted to burglar alarm but did NOT respond, Met Police admit

POLICE were alerted to a burglar alarm during the Hatton Garden heist - but did not respond to the call, Scotland Yard has admitted.

Hatton Garden Safe Deposit LtdPA

The Hatton Garden Safe Deposit Ltd in central London

It is thought that millions of pounds' worth of jewels, gold and cash may have been taken when up to 70 safety boxes were ransacked at the Hatton Garden Safe Deposit Ltd in central London during the Easter weekend.

The Metropolitan Police today confirmed they were alerted to the activation of an "intruder alarm" shortly after midnight on Good Friday - but said the call was graded in a way that "meant that no police response was deemed to be required".

The force added in a statement that they will investigate why this grade was applied to the call.

They also stressed that "it is too early" to determine whether the handling of a call would have made a difference to the overall outcome of the raid.

Details of the alarm emerged as police made inquiries into what calls were received relating to the burglary.

Hatton Garden company signPA

A general view of the Hatton Garden Safe Deposit Ltd company sign

Scotland Yard said in a statement: "At this stage we have established that on Friday, 3 April at 00:21hrs a call was received at the MPS Central Communications Command (MetCC) from Southern Monitoring Alarm Company.

"The call stated that a confirmed intruder alarm had been activated at the Hatton Garden Safe Deposit Ltd.

"The call was recorded and transferred to the police's CAD (computer aided despatch) system. A grade was applied to the call that meant that no police response was deemed to be required.

A grade was applied to the call that meant that no police response was deemed to be required

Scotland Yard

"We are now investigating why this grade was applied to the call. This investigation is being carried out locally.

"It is too early to say if the handling of the call would have had an impact on the outcome of the incident."

Michael Miller, from Knightsbridge, who may have lost 50,000 in uninsured jewellery, said he was "shocked and disappointed" to hear the police did not answer the alarm.

He added: "I mean before, we thought maybe the police didn't even know about that but now we know that they knew something was wrong.

"This completely changes things, the knowledge that something could have been done.The police pride themselves on being somewhere in a couple of minutes, but on this occasion they just weren't there."

Previously in their first statement on the incident, the Metropolitan Police said they were called at around 8:10am on Tuesday morning to a report of a burglary.

Local jeweller Michael MillerPA

Local jeweller Michael Miller spoke of his shock

Calls to the central communications command are initially dealt with by a "first contact" operator, who grades all incidents "in terms of their urgency", according to the Met's website.

It says: "Upon receiving a call, information is recorded and passed on to the relevant department, or to a dispatcher for a police deployment if required.

"First contact operators will question the caller and gain all the relevant information necessary to ensure the best police response.

"Having completed this, the operator will grade the call in accordance with standard operating procedures for the type of incident. The grading will depend upon the urgency of the call."

It is believed that the thieves responsible for the burglary disabled a communal lift shaft and climbed down to the basement.

They are then understood to have used power tools to break into the vault, which was used mainly by local jewellers and gold dealers.

No arrests have been made.

Comments Unavailable

Sorry, we are unable to accept comments about this article at the moment. However, you will find some great articles which you can comment on right now in our Comment section.

Would you like to receive news notifications from Daily Express?