Hatton Garden heist was 'world's best advertising campaign' for London's jewellery district, shop owner says

Hole in the wall: The gap the raiders crawled through to access the vault in the Hatton Garden raid
Metropolitan Police

The £200million Hatton Garden heist was the best thing that even happened to London’s jewellery district, a shop owner has claimed.

Brett Afshar, 43, said the notorious robbery put the Farringdon street on the map, and claimed Bond Street jewellers moan Hatton Garden rivals “get all the luck”.

Mr Afshar, from Islington, who owns jewellers Hearts of London and Queensmith, told the Sun the publicity of the heist was the “world’s best advertising campaign”.

He told the newspaper: “We got the world’s best advertising campaign – especially with the film coming out.

“The raid put us on the map for the wrong reason, but it made people think of us ahead of Bond Street.

“Hatton Garden is now the coming place. We’re getting lots of foreign visitors and they are now seeing it as a tourist attraction in its own right after the raid.”

The vault strewn with empty boxes after the gang cleared it out
Metropolitan Police

The jeweller said he thinks shops in the street have experienced a 20 per cent increase in business since the raid two years ago.

The career criminals are thought to have got away with as much as £200m worth of diamonds after raiding the Hatton Garden Safe Deposit.

Brian Reader: The heist ringleader

The gang entered through a lift shaft before drilling through 50cm of concrete and reinforced metal over Easter Bank Holiday weekend in 2015.

Most of the gems have still not been recovered.

A film on the heist featuring Italian Job star Michael Caine is now in production.

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