Following the robbery of the Hatton Garden Safe Deposit in April 2015, with the trial of the accused currently in court, the Hatton Garden Safe Deposit Ltd have now gone into liquidation. In retrospect, having been a customer of the deposit for many years it did not come as a great surprise when you look back at the antiquated security systems and previous robberies and burglaries that have taken place at the deposit in years gone by. In the 1980s there was a similarly audacious raid, and as little as 10 years ago an un-vetted customer managed to copy the master keys used by the employees of the deposit to open a number of safes and escape with their contents, never to be seen or heard from again. While it is common knowledge amongst the trade in Hatton Garden that a number of big players lost large amounts of diamonds and jewellery, it is the smaller independent dealers and goldsmiths who arguably lost the most. While the monetary values were lower, many were uninsured and the contents represented life savings and pensions for the unlucky victims. Having gained access to the deposit in the days after the raid, you can see from the photos included that the level of security is well below the expected standards of today.
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