Born in Cressingham Road, Lewisham, on 28 February 1939,[3] to Henry and Doris Reader, his father fought in World War II but had deserted his family by 1955.

[4] Reader would later tell how his first experience in crime was thieving-to-order from the South London docks,[5][note 1] an occupation he learned from Henry, who both worked and stole there.

[7] In late 1958, Reader made his first appearance at the Old Bailey, which the investigative journalists Tom Pettifor and Nick Sommerlad have said "mark[ed] a serious escalation in his offending".

[12] Around this time, Reader made the "conscious decision" to earn a criminal living—notwithstanding his recent purchase of a dump truck with which to enter the haulage industry—and was soon fined for possession of an offensive weapon.

[7] By the 1960s, Reader was working with what investigator Paul Lashmar has called "a flexible group of Britain's top robbers and burglars",[10] responsible for the theft of millions.

Firstly he claimed that he needed over eight hours sleep a night and later stated that, in any case, that would be impossible on the roof "cos it's freezing cold and everything up here now".

[31] The following year, Reader was tried for complicity in several robberies with John Godwin, which netted them £1.3 million, but the trial collapsed after allegations of jury tampering.

[10] This was to become a familiar technique of Reader's and one he employed whenever he felt the police closing in on him; by escaping abroad at short notice, he was able to keep his criminal record relatively clean.

On the day he was due to appear in court he escaped by telling the clerk "I'm off to park my car", and promptly disappeared back to Spain via Dover and France.

[45][note 6] They renewed their acquaintance playing squash at Brenda Noye's club in Dartford, and here they set the price of the gold and established sale terms.

[58] By the time Fordham was on the ground, and Noye ran back to the house, his wife had collected a shotgun from the cabinet and was loading it as she came downstairs.

[30] Aware that he was being kept under police surveillance, Reader regularly drew his tails on a wild-goose chase; he also went on dummy runs, swapped cars en route,[30] and performed u-turns to throw off potential followers.

[60] He and other conspirators met in a variety of locations, including Bexleyheath pub car parks, the Royal National Hotel in Bloomsbury,[61] Farringdon cafes,[61] and a fish and chip shop in Swindon.

[63][36][58][64] Following the confusion when the police turned up, Reader had had it away on his toes,[65] sneaking through private gardens and fields until he reached The Gamecock pub on the A20 where he was arrested at 7.40 PM trying to hitchhike to London.

[51][66][note 7] Clarkson comments that "for a man who had just witnessed a killing connected to a notorious gold bullion robbery, he chose an extraordinary way to make good his escape—to hitch a lift".

[70] Under questioning, he refused to cooperate without his solicitor being present, although he also stated that "I know a police officer has been murdered, and I was told I was responsible",[71] and although he reiterated that he knew nothing of the circumstances,[71] he appears to have expressed sorrow for the dead man.

[1] At his sentencing, where Reader received eight[39] years, his son Brian—known as Paul[76]—was arrested for contempt of court for shouting that his father had been "fucking stitched up",[1] with a scuffle ensuing.

[39] Among these were included Clerkenwell crime syndicate founder Tommy Adams, whom Reader had been spotted in Hatton Garden with, in 1985 discussing the fencing of the Brink's-Mat ingots.

[39][89] They managed to drill through the thick concrete foundations but had to stop work when they found their passage blocked by cabinets bolted to the other side of the wall.

[95] He was unable to attend the gang's sentencing hearing following a stroke;[39] his counsel suggested that Reader may have had a life expectancy of only a few months by this time.

[96] Sentenced by video link in March 2016,[97] Reader served it in Belmarsh Prison, where on one occasion he collapsed and was left without care for two days by authorities, The Independent newspaper reported.

Pettifor and Somerlad argue that while she was impressed by his smart suits and ready money, it ”[took] her a little while to discover that his earnings did not come from the car dealership he claimed to run".

[101] The author Jonathan Levi has described Reader as having "short white hair, full lips [and] still tough looking though also increasingly physically frail"[39] in his later years.

[85] Levi says that Reader, who was known as "The Master",[89] "Diamond geezer"[10] and "The Guv'nor", possesses natural leadership qualities "with a commanding presence and decisive attitude".

[103] Perkins also later expressed "particular ire" for Reader, arguing that while "he was a proper thief 40 years ago", by now he was an "old ponce" who spent his time "talking about all our yesterdays.

[7] In April 2024, a London radio station, LBC, reported that Reader had died in September the previous year, at the age of 84, the result of cancer.

[105] However, the station also claimed that his death certificate[105]—originally obtained by The Sun, and which described Reader as a retired gardener[104]—established the factuality of the September date.

[105] The Telegraph declared that Reader had made over £200 million in his career,[104][7] while it was reported by The Times that he had returned only 6% of his Hatton Garden profits at his death.

[7] Levi has argued that the main attraction to journalists and writers of Reader's gang is their generally elderly age and the "old school" nature of the job.

[39] 2019 saw Reader played by Kenneth Cranham in ITV's four part TV series, Hatton Garden ("a perfect foil to Timothy Spall's Perkins and the way they wind each other up is believable").