The Dartford mastermind behind the Hatton Garden heist has again avoided paying back his share of the £13.7 million haul.

Brian Reader, 80, was due to appear at a confiscation hearing at Westminster Magistrates' Court today (THURS).

A previous hearing was told he could avoid being sent back to prison after being diagnosed with dementia.

Reader was freed from jail last year after serving half his six-year and three-month sentence.

But he faces another seven years behind bars if he does not pay back millions of pounds stolen in the £13.7 million raid.

Reader, along with fellow raid ringleaders John "Kenny" Collins, 78, Daniel Jones, 64, and Terry Perkins, who died in prison last year aged 69, were slapped with one of the biggest confiscation orders in Scotland Yard's history.

They owe a joint £5.75 million, which prosecutors say is available in hidden assets from unrecovered jewellery, gold, gems and cash, as well as individual additional amounts from realisable assets such as properties in the UK and abroad.

Reader, who has not paid back a single penny, could avoid going back to jail because of his poor health, Hendon Magistrates' Court heard in July.

But his confiscation hearing was today adjourned again after an application to vacate the fixture was made out of court.

Staff at the Hendon court said Reader was listed to appear at an unspecified 'pending' courtroom this morning.

But staff at Westminster Magistrates Court later said no parties were due to attend the hearing after an application to vacate was granted by administrative teams at Hendon.

A member of staff at Westminster said: "The case didn't appear on our list.

"It was on a 'pending' court which is a fictitious one until a date is fixed.

"An application to vacate was made which was agreed by the parties and the court. It was done at Hendon.

"There are no listings of this between the Hendon hearing and today."

A date for Reader's next court appearance has yet to be fixed.