They made a list of excuses that included "blonde birds", bags of beer and alcohol binges.
But after allegations of "jury nobbling" and the UK's first trial decided by a judge alone, the three career criminals and their getaway driver were convicted of a £1.75m robbery at Heathrow. But who were they?
John Twomey, 62, was the ringleader of the six-man gang that targeted the Menzies World Cargo warehouse in the 2004 armed robbery.
Born in Cork in 1948, he moved to Paddington, west London, as a child, where he embarked upon life as a career criminal.
His first serious conviction came in 1971, when he was jailed for five years after stealing £27,000 from a security guard in an armed robbery.
The money was never recovered - but the criminality was a trend that would continue.
Twomey was jailed twice more that decade, once for attacking a taxi driver and once for possessing offensive weapons.
The criminal also gave evidence against the Metropolitan Police's Flying Squad in the 1980s during a corruption investigation.
During that case, the twice-married father-of-five claimed that officers were dismissed as a result and he successfully sued the police for £25,000.
In the 1990s, he was jailed for another year after an investigation into counterfeit money.
But his swansong turned out to be the Heathrow robbery.
By then, Twomey was living in New Milton, Hampshire, where he ran a furniture shop.
After his arrest over the heist, three separate trials collapsed, leading to the decision for a final trial without jury.
During the case he provided a litany of excuses, saying he was an asthmatic with a "dodgy ticker" who would not have been up to the job.
He claimed to be an alcoholic who had spectacularly fallen off the wagon on the night of the raid, saying he could not remember what he had done.
And he insisted the bags stuffed with cash he was filmed carrying on the night of the robbery in fact contained beer.
Peter Blake, 57, who grew up in south-east London before moving to Notting Hill, admitted to being another career criminal.
But he claimed the Heathrow job was "way out of his league" and had not met any of the gang before he was arrested over the crime.
He was first convicted of a building society raid and the armed robbery of another shop in 1983.
Blake was jailed again in 1992 after being caught with a gun on Edgware Road, preparing to rob a security guard.
After his arrest over the Heathrow robbery, he claimed to have been on the way home from visiting his ailing mother.
Not only was he there, but he fired a gun at Menzies employee David Westwood who tried to raise the alarm.
Blake missed, but during a struggle with Mr Westwood tore off a black woollen hat and part of Blake's latex mask.
Blake's DNA was later found on the items.
The robber threw the Royal Courts of Justice trial into chaos after absconding during a recess.
He handed himself in a week later, saying: "I know I am going to Belmarsh.
"I needed some clothes".
Barry Hibberd, 43, a former pub doorman, was known to police in west London as a football hooligan who followed Queens Park Rangers.
He had several convictions for violence and had "knowledge of, or contact with, firearms".
Hibberd was recruited to provide the muscle for the gang.
He denied being present at the robbery, instead providing the court with an account of a woman called Caroline, who he claimed to have spent the evening drinking with in a pub.
Hibberd was unable to say who the woman was, claiming there must be thousands of "blonde birds", and added: "If you can remember a night out then it must have been rubbish".
He told the court he had later agreed to provide Twomey with an alibi for the evening, saying: "Knowing my luck, I'll probably get nicked for it".
"Look where I am now," he said in court.
Glenn Cameron, 50, a roofer from New Milton, who had no previous convictions, was Twomey's brother-in-law.
After the robbery it took police three years to track him down to a small cottage on a caravan park in Cornwall.
He claimed to work delivering legitimate goods for Twomey, but was in fact was involved in planning the raid and later became the getaway driver.
Two other suspected robbers have never been brought to justice.
BBC News
