A robbery gang who plotted to kill a career criminal convicted of Britain’s largest ever cash heist, have been jailed. Former cagefighter Paul Allen, then 41, was left paralysed for life after being shot at his rented detached home in Woodford Green, north-east London, in 2019. A jury at the Old Bailey convicted brothers Louis Ahearne, 36, and Stewart Ahearne, 46, and accomplice Daniel Kelly, 46, of attempted murder after hearing how they “very nearly succeeded” in their execution plot.

Allen had moved to the area after serving a prison sentence for his part in the infamous £54 million Securitas raid in Kent. Kelly, who was absent from the dock complaining of back pain, was jailed for 36 years, which may extend to 41 years. Stewart Ahearne was sentenced to 30 years behind bars while his brother was sentenced to 33. They must each serve at least two thirds of their sentences before being eligible for parole.

During the trial - which concluded in late March - the jury heard how Kelly and the Ahearnes were hardened criminals who acted together in an orchestrated manner to shoot their victim, leaving him for dead in Woodford Green on Thursday, 11 July 2019.

On the night of the shooting, the three travelled from their homes in southeast London to Woodford Green using a car that had been hired two days earlier by Stewart Ahearne.

While he waited in the car which was parked in Worcester Avenue, Kelly and Louis Ahearne snuck into a garden of a house on the street which overlooked the back garden of their target’s house in Malvern Drive. At around 23:09hrs, six shots were fired through the back doors and windows of the house in Malvern Drive, at least one of which struck their target – a man who was aged 45 at the time - who was standing in the kitchen.

Kelly and Ahearne fled back to the waiting car which drove away, leaving their victim fighting for his life.

Police and the London Ambulance Service attended. The victim was taken to hospital for emergency surgery that while saving his life would leave him permanently paralysed. Detectives secured the scene and began to piece together what had happened.

Over the course of the coming weeks, several vital evidential breakthroughs took place.

Following a forensic analysis of the victim’s house and garden area, DNA profiles were recovered from a fence area of the adjoining property in Worcester Avenue where the two suspects had fired the shots from. These profiles provided matches for both Kelly and Louis Ahearne.

Bullet casings found in the garden, and bullets found inside the address that had missed their target enabled detectives to establish the firearm used was a Glock SLP handgun. A search of Kelly’s address carried out in late August 2019 recovered a laser sight that was compatible with this weapon.

CCTV analysis of the area surrounding Malvern Drive picked up the car driven by Stewart Ahearne – this provided a vehicle registration number which detectives were able to use to confirm this was a hire car. After tracking down the venue it was hired from, the company were able to confirm Stewart Ahearne’s details as the vehicle’s hirer.

Using various techniques including ANPR and CCTV cameras, detectives pieced together the movements of the car after it was hired on 9 July 2019 in Dartford. Detectives subsequently established that the car had been used to commit a burglary at an address in Sevenoaks, Kent that same evening.

It was confirmed the car had travelled from southeast London where the three suspects were based, up to the Woodford Green area on both the 10 and 11 July prior to the trip to carry out the shooting.

On the 10 July, the defendants undertook a journey tracking a car known to be used by the victim. The court heard how the defendants had fitted a tracking device to the victim’s vehicle. Using an iPad, which was subsequently thrown into the River Thames but later recovered by officers, to track the car’s movements, the suspects now knew when and where their target would be.

Detectives also used phone data from devices attributed to Kelly and the Ahearnes to help track their movement both before and after the shooting. Marrying this up with camera footage from ANPR and CCTV, they could map the hire car following the victim’s car prior to the shooting.

Following the shooting, Stewart Ahearne returned the car to the hire company on 12 July. Even though it was subsequently re-hired, by 17 July officers had established it had been used by the suspects and traced it to Birmingham Airport. The car was forensically analysed and Kelly’s fingerprints were found on two places in the vehicle.

By October 2019, detectives were in a position to start making arrests. Between 30 October 2019 and 23 January 2020, all three suspects were arrested. All denied their involvement but the evidence that detectives had diligently compiled meant the three were charged.

Detectives continued to pursue all lines of enquiry and by piecing together the movements of Kelly and the Ahearnes an iPad used by Kelly to track the movements of the victim was recovered from the River Thames in 2024.

Passing sentence, Sarah Whitehouse told the court she considered Kelly a "dangerous offender" who "went to some lengths to conceal his true involvement" in the shooting.

She added: "I have no doubt 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."

She added Stuart Ahearne hired a car used in his own name which showed a "lack of sophistication" on his part.

Six shots were fired by a Glock self-loading handgun as Allen stood in his kitchen at 11.09pm on July 11, 2019 and two hit him, including one which lodged in his spine after entering his throat. Ahead of the attack "sophisticated surveillance" was carried out with the trio using burner phones and rented cars to conduct the surveillance.

The judge said it was not clear whether the attempted murder of Allen was linked to his Securitas warehouse robbery. She also noted how Stewart Ahearne was not present at Allen's home at the time of the shooting, whereas Louis Ahearne and Kelly were. It was said that the time the Ahearne brothers spent in prison in Switzerland was considered as a mitigating factor in the sentencing.

The judge said she was confident it had been Kelly who fired the shots, as he was seen on CCTV putting on gloves. She also noted how Kelly "recruited" the brothers for the plot. Louis Ahearne was described as the "getaway driver", whereas Stewart Ahearne's main job was to hire the car used to get to the shooting .

Michael Shaw, prosecuting previously told the Old Bailey: "Gunshots were fired at a man called Paul Allen as he stood in the kitchen at the back of his large detached house. Paul Allen is a career criminal and a very sophisticated criminal at that.

“He was convicted a number of years ago for his part in what was then, and probably still is, Britain's biggest armed robbery in which £54 million in cash was stolen, much of which is still outstanding."

“The intention of the men who planned and carried out this shooting was to kill him. You will have no doubt about that when you hear the evidence. They very nearly succeeded.

“At least six bullets were fired at him from that Glock handgun, two of which struck him. One hit him in the centre of the throat and left him paralysed for life.

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

Prior to their attack on Allen the gang had snatched Ming dynasty antiques worth more than £2.78 million) from a Swiss museum before they plotted the attempted murder.

The burglary occurred at the Museum of Far Eastern Arts in Geneva on June 1 2019 – a month before 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.

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.

Two of the defendants had also been involved in another burglary in Kent the day before Allen was shot.

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.

Allen 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.

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 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, of Greenwich, and Stewart Ahearne and Kelly, both of no fixed address, had denied conspiring to murder Allen.

Detective Superintendent Matt Webb who led the investigation said: “The court heard how the defendants, hardened organised criminals, acted together in a well-planned and orchestrated manner to shoot their victim. It is only for the intervention of police first responder and medical professionals that the victim wasn’t killed. This attack may look like the plot to a Hollywood blockbuster but the reality is something quite different. This was horrific criminality. The court heard how this was a clear and defined attempt to take a man’s life with those responsible making significant efforts to ensure this was successful.

“This conviction follows a number of years of investigation, I would like to thank our criminal justice partners and the investigation team for their diligence and tenacity in the attempt to bring those responsible to justice. The message here to those engaging in serious and organised crime is one I want to make very clear – the Metropolitan Police will not tolerate serious violence and the use of firearms in our communities; we will leave no stone unturned in bringing you to justice.

“Daniel Kelly, Louis and Stewart Ahearne will now face significant custodial sentences and I hope this time at His Majesty’s pleasure provides them the opportunity to reflect on their criminality and the impact it has on society.”