Three jailed for plotting to kill cage fighter involved in Britain's largest ever cash robbery
25 April 2025, 12:34 | Updated: 25 April 2025, 13:10
Three men have been jailed at the Old Bailey for plotting to kill a former cage fighter who was convicted of Britain's largest ever cash robbery.
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Paul Allen was left paralysed from the chest down after he was shot twice as he stood in the kitchen of his home in Woodford, east London.
The former cage fighter was living there with his partner and three young children after being released from an 18-year prison sentence over the 2006 raid of a cash depot in Tonbridge, Kent.
He was convicted at Woolwich Crown Court in 2009 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 heard.
Another 154 million was left behind because the thieves didn't have sufficient transport.
The three men who plotted to kill Allen, brothers Louis Ahearne, 36 and Stewart Ahearne, 46, as well as Daniel Kelly, 46, have been jailed for a combined total of 99 years.
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They initially denied plotting the murder, but were found guilty following a trial at the Old Bailey last month.
CCTV shows moment gunshots ring out in Woodford
They were sentenced to 33, 30 and 36 years respectively.
The jury was told the trio's intention was to kill Allen, and that the attackers "very nearly succeeded".
Judge Sarah Whitehouse KC said on Friday: "I have no doubt that this agreement to murder Paul Allen involved other people apart from the three of you and that you three were motivated by a promise of financial gain.
"The culpability of each one of you is very high.
"The harm caused to the victim was very serious - indeed short of killing him it could hardly be more serious. He is currently paralysed and relies on others for every single need."
Detectives described the shooting as resembling "the plot [of] a Hollywood blockbuster", but added that it was "horrific criminality" from "hardened organised criminals".
Prosecutors did not give a motive for the attempt on Allen's life, though they described him as a 'sophisticated' career criminal.
By 2019, 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 court heard how the defendants had planned the shooting carefully, carried out surveillance and fitted a tracker device to the victim’s car to track his movements.
At around 11.09pm on July 11 2019, six shots were fired through the back doors and windows, striking Mr Allen in the neck as he stood in the kitchen.
During the police investigation, DNA was recovered from the garden fence and matched Kelly and Louis Ahearne.
Bullet casings in the garden were matched to a Glock handgun that was compatible with a laser sight recovered from Kelly’s address.
The court also heard that the three men snatched Ming dynasty antiques worth more than 3.5 million US dollars (£2.78 million) from a Swiss museum shortly before the murder plot.
Jurors heard agreed facts about the defendants’ “previous criminality” relating to a burglary at the Museum of Far Eastern Art in Geneva on June 1 2019, a month before Allen was shot.
Three pieces of Ming-era porcelain were taken from the museum, which had a combined insurance value of 3,580,000 US dollars (£2,760,000).
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 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.
The brothers were extradited from Switzerland to face trial over the shooting.
Louis Ahearne, from Greenwich, south-east London, and Stewart Ahearne and Kelly, both of no fixed address, had denied the charge against them.
