The Islington alarms specialist whose expertise was key to realising the Hatton Garden burglary heist has been ordered to pay back nearly £6million.

Michael Seed, who was sentenced to ten years in jail for his part in the burglary of 73 safe deposit boxes at Hatton Garden, must hand over £5,997,684.93 within the next three months or face another seven years inside.

The 60-year-old, also known as Basil after his bright ginger wig, was found guilty of conspiracy to burgle and conspiracy to conceal the proceeds in March 2019.

READ MORE: Hatton Garden heist: Islington man and ‘alarms expert’ jailed over notorious £14m burglaryHis portion of the Hatton Garden spoils cashed in at about £13.9million.

Seed evaded capture for three years after the crime – which took place over the 2015 Easter weekend – until police raided his Liverpool Road council flat on March 27 in 2018.

Detectives from the Met’s flying squad caught Seed red-handed with more than 1,000 items stolen in the Hatton Garden heist - he was reportedly melting down gold and breaking up jewellery on his bedroom workbench.

He is an electronics and alarms expert who paid no taxes, claimed no benefits, rarely used a bank account and had previously lived in his Islington flat since the early 1980s.

Seed has served time before - he was imprisoned for 21 months for a drug dealing conviction.

The Hatton Garden raid is thought to have been planned in the Castle Pub in Pentonville Road.

Det Ch Insp Mark Bedford of the Met’s flying squad said Seed was responsible for “accessing” the premises and “disabling its security systems” at the building in London’s diamond district.

“To date we have recovered just over a third of the property stolen from Hatton Garden, and much of it has already been returned to the victims,” said Det Ch Insp Bedford, highlighting the “tenacity and hard work” of the CPS and specialist financial investigators in locating and identifying the victims’ stolen property and assets.

He added: “Crime must not pay, and this should demonstrate the lengths we will go to ensure criminals are prevented from enjoying any financial benefit from criminality.”

Seed was the tenth person to be convicted over the Hatton Garden burglary.