00:00michael seed also known as basil was one of ten men convicted in connection with the hassengarden heist which involved
00:08the theft of approximately thirteen point seven million pounds of gold and jewellery from the hassengarden safety deposit in london
00:18in
00:182015. the alarm specialist now aged 66 was jailed for 10 years in march 2019. in 2020 he was ordered
00:27to pay back almost six million pounds from the raid or serve an extra seven years in jail under a
00:33law to confiscate criminals ill-gotten gains. he defaulted from this order but paid a sum of 55,222 pounds
00:43and his conditional release date was set for the 21st of july
00:472026. however following an error by prison officials seed was released from jail on license in august 2025 and was
00:58unlawfully at large from that date. the mistake was discovered and seed was returned to hmp high down in surrey
01:07in february having spent 175 days at large. his sentence was adjusted to account for this period and a new
01:16conditional release date
01:17if the 27th of january 2027 was set. lawyers for seed asked the high court to review this new release
01:25date to take into account more of the time he spent at large.
