3 men sentenced to over a century in prison after plot to kill a ringleader in UK's biggest heist


3 men sentenced to over a century in prison after plot to kill a ringleader in UK

By PAN PYLAS Updated 11:47 AM EDT, April 25, 2025 LONDON (AP) — Three men who plotted to kill a former cage fighter, who years before had been convicted of being one of the ringleaders in the U.K.'s biggest-ever heist, were sentenced Friday to a collective term of over a century in prison. Daniel Kelly, 46, and brothers Louis Ahearne, 36, and Stewart Ahearne, 46, were found guilty by a jury last month for conspiracy to murder Paul Allen, then 41, in 2019. Allen, who was left for dead, was paralyzed from the chest down after being shot at his large home in Woodford Green, northeast London. Judge Sarah Whitehouse said the three men — who all had criminal backgrounds and were involved in the burglary of a Geneva museum a month before Allen was shot — were “motivated by a promise of financial gain” in their agreement to murder Allen. During the trial, prosecutors alleged that the background to the shooting was the fact that Allen was a “sophisticated” career criminal. He was convicted in 2009 for his part three years earlier in Britain’s biggest armed robbery at a depot in Kent, southeast England, in which 54 million pounds ($72 million at current prices) in cash was stolen, much of which has never been recovered. During their investigation into the shooting, police discovered along with Swiss authorities that the three men were also involved in a burglary at the Museum of Far Eastern Art in Geneva on June 1, 2019. Three pieces of Ming-era porcelain were taken from the museum, which had a combined insurance value of around $3.6 million. Investigators also uncovered that the defendants flew to Hong Kong later that month, where they tried to sell one of the items they had stolen — a phoenix bowl — at an auction house. The two brothers were extradited to Switzerland and were convicted in January 2024. Both were subsequently returned to the U.K. to be tried for the shooting of Allen. Kelly is still the subject of an extradition request by Swiss authorities.