Antiques thieves face jail for shooting criminal mastermind

Three international antiques thieves who shot the crime boss behind the £54m Securitas robbery at his luxury home are facing years in jail.

Paul Allen, 46, was hit by two bullets fired through the window of his kitchen at his detached home in Woodford, east London, on 11 July 2019, leaving him paralysed for life.

The cage fighter, known as ‘The Enforcer’, was behind Britain’s biggest armed robbery at the Securitas depot in Tonbridge, Kent in 2006.

He headed a gang posing as police officers who kidnapped the manager of the Securitas depot and his family at gunpoint.

Allen admitted conspiracy to rob in 2009 and he was jailed for 18 years.

Only £21m of the money was ever recovered and Allen was let out of prison just months before the hit.

Six bullets were fired at Allen and one struck him in the throat but he survived.

Daniel Kelly, 46, and brothers Stewart Ahearne, 46, and Louis Ahearne, 36, were convicted of gunning down Allen just weeks carrying out a £2.8m heist at a museum in Geneva.

The career criminals stole Ming dynasty antiquities from The Museum of Far Eastern Art in Geneva, Switzerland just weeks on 1 June 2019.

Using a sledgehammer and a crowbar they broke into the museum and stole a vase with a secret pomegranate decoration, a small wine cup and a Huan phoenix design bowl worth £2.8m ($3,580,000).

Stewart Ahearne was arrested trying to sell the 14th Century Ming Vase to an undercover police officer in a London hotel on 16 October 2020.

They were extradited to Switzerland and jailed for 42 months each by a court in Geneva last year.

Kelly and the brothers were then returned to the UK to stand trial for plotting to murder Allen at the Old Bailey.

Only Louis Ahearne chose to give evidence with Kelly branding him a ‘snitch’ after implicating Kelly as the shooter.

He said while boarding a Serco van to take him from HMP Belmarsh to the Old Bailey during the trial Kelly shouted at him: ‘Lou how is the snitch life treating you?’

Kelly and Louis Ahearne had left their DNA on Allen’s garden fence after the shooting.

Kelly, Stewart and Louis Ahearne denied but were convicted by the jury of conspiring together and with others unknown to murder Mr Allen between 5 June 2019 and 12 July 2019.

Judge Sarah Whitehouse is expected to fix a sentencing date later today (mon).

Prosecutor Michael Shaw ealier told the court how Allen was shot repeatedly by a gunman armed with a self loading Glock 9mm pistol.

‘The intention of the men who planned and carried out that shooting was to kill him.

‘They very nearly succeeded. At least six bullets were fired at him, two of which struck him.

‘One hitting him in the centre of the throat which left him paralysed for life.

‘It was only the rapid intervention of neighbours, police officers, paramedics and then the skill of the surgeons who were able to remove the bullet lodged in his spine that saved his life.’

Kelly and the Ahearne brothers had carried out ‘planning and reconnaissance’ for the hit using burner phones and hired vehicles.

’The background to this attack is that Paul Allen is a career criminal, and a very sophisticated criminal.

‘He was convicted at Woolwich Crown Court for his part in what was and probably still is Britain’s biggest armed robbery at a Securitas depot in Kent when £54m in cash was stolen.

‘He had by 2019 been released from prison and lived with his partner and young children.’

Allen gasped: ‘I’m going to die’ after he was shot in the throat and was found by a neighbour sprawled over his stairs ‘like a sack of potatoes’.

Neighbour Theresa Thompson and her husband Bob initially thought the sound of the 9mm Glock was a firework display.

Ms Thompson said: ‘We were in the back room, we used it as a lounge.

‘Locally, a lot of children are privately educated, private schools had broken up and there were a lot of parties and things as they had finished exams.

‘We thought it was fireworks at first but it was louder, we realised it was not fireworks, it was bigger and it was close.

‘We looked at each other and realised it was not a firework. Bob said lets check, we both ran upstairs, I ran to the front of the house, the road was completely empty.

‘I went to the bedroom, Bob, my husband was at the back window.

‘As I walked into the back room, I could hear shouting.

‘I did not see anything, I just heard a car move away and I heard the lady next door screaming at the top of her voice.

‘I could see movement from the top, Bob went to the front door and knocked on the front door, I was shouting to the house.’

Ms Thompson said she did not know Mr Allen and his wife Jade very well other than exchanging pleasantries as neighbours.

He and her husband then went into Mr Allen’s house and found him lying in a heap at the bottom of the stairs.

His children were present at the time of the shooting and were at the top of the stairs when they walked in, a court heard.

‘Paul was injured and lying on the floor and clearly he had been shot,’ Ms Thompson added.

‘He was lying on the floor at the bottom of the stairs, he had fallen in the most awkward way, he was like a sack of potatoes, his head was really turned around on the bottom step.

‘On his chest was a tea towel.

‘As Bob went up the stairs, I went over to Paul because there was no pressure applied and I knew you had to do that.

‘I also realised Paul’s left had also incurred some shots because his little finger was just hanging on by the skin.’

The court saw body warn footage of the armed police walking through the house in the moments after the shooting and Allen can clearly be seen lying on the floor.

In the clip, Ms Thompson is blurred out but can be seen applying pressure with a towel.

Police then arrived and took over, sealing the wound, before he was taken away in an ambulance.

Luke Gilbey, a private security guard working in the area, said: ‘I could hear screaming and screaming towards me that her husband had been shot.

‘I took out my medical kit and ran straight into the house, I could see the male lying half way on the stairs and half way on the floor, I could see blood all over the floor and all over the male.’

Mr Gilbey told him: ‘Don’t worry I have seen much worse, you are not going to die, you are going to make it.’

Detectives gathered CCTV and spoke to neighbours who had seen the gunmen getting into a Renault Captur.

They used ANPR cameras to identify the rented car hired in Dartford by Stewart Ahearne on 9 July.

‘He hired the car several days before the shooting and returned it after the shooting.’

CCTV showed Stewart being dropped off at the hire company by a Mercedes on 9 July, the court heard.

‘This was the second significant breakthrough in the investigation,’ Mr Shaw said.

The Mercedes was registered to Mbaki Nkwha, a close associate of Kelly and his son, former West Ham Utd youth player Kaine Wright.

‘Kelly is somebody who lives his life in the shadows.

‘All of the cars that Daniel Kelly drives are not in his name, all the phones he uses are in the names of Nkwha or his partner or nobody’s name.

‘The addresses at which he lives are ostensibly other people’s addresses.

‘Mr Kelly is someone who goes to some lengths to hide his identity and his presence.

‘You have to scratch the surface to find out what Mr Kelly’s up to – and the officers in this case have done quite a lot of scratching.’

He said the Mercedes was ‘to all intents and purposes’ Kelly’s vehicle.

‘It was sold two days after the shooting ostensibly by Mr Nkwha to a garage in Peterborough – he part exchanged it for an Audi.’

Kelly was present during the transaction and the Audi had its number plate changed.

‘When the Audi was stopped on 15 August, six weeks after it was part exchanged, Daniel Kelly was driving it and Louis Ahearne was in the passenger seat.’

In a pre-prepared statement to police on 25 January, Kelly denied having ‘any involvement’ in the shooting.

He wrote: ‘I Daniel Kelly wish to state to the police at my earliest opportunity that I have no involvement in any conspiracy to murder my friend Paul Allen.’

Kelly said the Mercedes linked to him by the police was a ‘pool car’ that ‘five different people’ have access to.

He continued: ‘I was not present in any shooting until three days after I’d heard he’d been shot.

‘Upon release, I would even like to see how he is – I have got no issues with him.

‘I’ve known him for 25 years and we have been friends the whole time.’

Mr Shaw added: ‘He then broke his silence to express fear for his own life should he give police any information about the shooting.’

Kelly and Louis Ahearne had used the Renault ‘mission car’ equipped with a police-style blue flashing light to break into a gated mansion near Westerham the day before the hit.

‘Louis Ahearne and Mr Kelly were dressed as police officers, there were two men in the back of the vehicle,’ Mr Shaw said.

‘There were blue flashing lights stuck to the roof of the mission car.

‘They pulled up to the gates, pressed the intercom and said they were police.

The residents were told:  ‘We’ve got to come in, there’s an emergency.’

‘They deceived their way into the property, drove in up the long drive, parked themselves outside dressed as police officers, went up to one of the flats, kicked the door in, ransacked it, stole what they wanted and left.’

They stole money, luxury handbags and designer trainers. The pair were jailed for five years each in May 2020.

Kelly is awaiting possible extradition to Japan for his alleged involvement in a £679,000 raid from a jewellery store in Tokyo in 2015.

He allegedly stole 46 items from the Harry Winston Omotesando Hills Salon of Jewellery, along with Kaine Wright, 27, and Joe Chappell, 37.

Wright was convicted of trying to sell the Ming vase stolen by his father in the Geneva raid
in 2023 and jailed for three years. Nkhwa was jailed for two-and-a-half years for his part in the plot.

A decision was made to refuse the extradition of Chappell and Wright in 2022 due to potential human rights issues dating back to when they were detained in Japan.

The Japanese authorities are appealing against that decision.

Kelly’s extradition hearing has been adjourned until 22 April.

Louis Ahearne, from Greenwich, southeast London, and Stewart Ahearne and Kelly, both of no fixed address, denied conspiring to murder Allen between June 26 and July 12 2019.