The Dartford pensioner who was ringleader of the Hatton Garden gang has claimed in court that he gained nothing from the raid.

Brian Reader, 78, was rolled into the dock in Woolwich Crown Court in a wheelchair, having suffered from a stroke as well as battling prostate cancer.

Reader, who was jailed for six years and three months after pleading guilty to conspiracy to commit burglary, has been in the healthcare wing at HMP Belmarsh for the last year.

Reader claims that after he pulled out from the raid after the gang failed to gain entry to the vault on the first night, he received nothing of the gains from the burglary.

The estimated value of the goods stolen over the 2015 Easter weekend raid is up to £25 million.

A confiscation hearing, expected to last six weeks, will begin on January 15.

Reader's lawyer James Scobie asked for the court to deal with his client sooner, submitting that he had not received any of the loot.

Referring to the audio recordings played in evidence, Mr Scobie said it suggests "he isn't going to get a penny on the one hand, or he is going to get a parcel, and evidentially there is no other evidence whatsoever that he got anything".

Judge Christopher Kinch QC said: "The question of the extent to which, if at all, Mr Reader was to share in the proceeds is something known to those who were involved in the events, and not to anyone else.

"As the tribunal of fact, I am only going to be able to draw inferences from the valuable evidence."

He added that Reader's confiscation hearing would have to take place with his co-defendants in January.

Brian Reader was previously heard "boasting about about the Hatton Garden heist in a Crayford pub" before his arrest/.

Prosecutor Philip Evans QC, said: "The real hardship ... is being caused to those whose stock is essentially being held by the Crown, and which is affecting their businesses, in some cases dramatically."

The Hatton Garden gang ransacked 73 boxes at Hatton Garden Safe Deposit after using a drill to bore a hole into the vault wall.

They stole valuables including gold, diamonds and sapphires, with the majority remaining unrecovered.