Three men snatched Ming dynasty antiques worth more than 3.5 million US dollars (£2.78 million) from a Swiss museum shortly before they allegedly plotted to murder a career criminal convicted of Britain’s largest cash robbery, a court has heard.
Former cage fighter Paul Allen, then 41, was paralysed for life after he was shot in the neck in the kitchen of his large detached rented home in Woodford Green, east London, on July 11 2019.
He had moved to the area after serving a prison sentence for his part in the £54 million Securitas raid in Kent.
Louis Ahearne, 36, his brother Stewart Ahearne, 46, and Daniel Kelly, 46, are accused of plotting to murder him with others unknown.
On Monday, jurors heard agreed facts about the defendants’ “previous criminality” relating to a burglary at the Museum of Far Eastern Arts in Geneva on June 1 2019 – a month before Mr Allen was shot.
Three pieces of Ming-era porcelain were snatched from the museum with a combined insurance value of 3,580,000 US dollars.
The items were an early 15th century bottle with a secret pomegranate decoration; a small wine cup known as the “chicken cup”; and a 14th century An Huan phoenix design bowl.
The items, including this Chinese Ming Dynasty vase, were worth around £2.78 million (Handout/PA)
According to the facts read out by the prosecution, Kelly and Louis Ahearne had flown into Geneva from London the day before the raid.
That afternoon, Louis Ahearn had carried out reconnaissance at the museum and made a video of Room 3 on his mobile phone.
The next day, Stewart Ahearne joined the other two defendants and hired a Renault at the airport, jurors were told.
They went on to buy tools and clothes before carrying out the burglary at 11.21pm.
Jurors heard they arrived in the Renault equipped with masks, gloves, two forehead lamps, an angle-grinder, crowbar and sledgehammer.
They entered the building through a hole which they made by smashing two lower panels on the museum’s main door.
Police later identified DNA around the hole as belonging to Stewart Ahearne, the court was told.
The defendants headed to Room 3, which was referred to as the Ming Porcelain room, forced open display case 13 using the sledgehammer and crowbar and seized the three Ming dynasty antiques.
Afterwards, attempts were made to dispose of the stolen goods, jurors were told.
The defendants flew to Hong Kong on June 14 2019 where they attempted to sell the phoenix bowl at an auction house.
On October 16 2020, Stewart Ahearne was arrested with another man at a London hotel as they tried to sell the Ming vase to an undercover police officer.
A later search of a property revealed a passport in the name of Stewart Ahearne and a book on Ming Dynasty antiques, the court was told.
Previously, jurors have heard how two of the defendants were involved in another burglary in Kent the day before Mr Allen was shot.
Former cage fighter Paul Allen was convicted for his part in Britain’s largest ever cash robbery (Met Police/PA)
A Renault Captur was hired by Stewart Ahearne from a dealership in Dartford and used by the other two defendants in a burglary on a gated community in Kent, the court has heard.
The prosecution has alleged the background to the shooting was that Mr Allen was a “sophisticated” career criminal.
He was convicted at Woolwich Crown Court for his part in Britain’s biggest armed robbery, at Securitas in Kent, in which £54 million in cash was stolen, much of which has never been recovered, the court has heard.
By 2019, Mr Allen had been released from prison and moved from south London to a large detached property in Woodford, north-east London, where he lived with his partner and young children.
The defendants had allegedly travelled from their home turf in the Woolwich area of south-east London, through the Blackwall Tunnel to the victim’s new home in Malvern Drive as part of the planning and execution of the conspiracy to murder him.
Louis Ahearne, from Greenwich, south-east London, and Stewart Ahearne and Kelly, both of no fixed address, have denied conspiring to murder Mr Allen between June 26 and July 12 2019.
The Old Bailey trial continues.