More than 200 hours of CCTV footage, which could have been used as key evidence to try a Hatton Garden burglar for his part in another high-end raid, was destroyed by police in a “regrettable” move, a court has been told.

Only five stills of the 200+ hours of CCTV footage provided by nearby shops and Westminster city council are available to be used in the trial of Terry Perkins, Southwark crown court heard.

Perkins, 68, and Daniel Jones, 60, described as “Premier League criminals”, are alleged to have broken into Chatila jewellers in Old Bond Street on the August bank holiday weekend in 2010.

Judge Joanna Korner asked why the CCTV was no longer available. Det Matthew Hollands from the Metropolitan police’s flying squad told the court it was “regrettable” that the footage had since been destroyed due to rules on how long police property can be stored.

Hollands said: “We have a number of policies in place dealing with police property and how long it should be retained for.”

He went on to say that due to the “passage of time”, it was decided that the exhibits would be destroyed.

The key footage came from nearby shops including Gucci and Tiffany & Co, as well as Westminster council, the court heard.

It showed four men in high visibility jackets getting out of a white van at around 7am on 29 August and later leaving the premises with white containers and bags at between 9pm and 10pm.

But none of remaining stills – which show the white van – include the men.

Defending Perkins, Peter Rowlands pointed out that no descriptions of the men’s height, build or age had been recorded when the viewing logs of the footage were produced.

Perkins, from Enfield, denies one count of burglary at the Mayfair jewellers between 28 August and 31 August 2010.

Jones, also from Enfield and a “close associate” of Perkins, pleaded guilty to his role at an earlier hearing ahead of the trial, the jury was told.

They were unable to break the safe, where valuables were kept over holiday periods, but did gain access to a ground floor showroom, where they are alleged to have stolen £1m in jewellery and precious stones, prosecutor Philip Evans QC previously said.

The pair were two of those who carried out “one of the biggest burglaries in English history” when they stole at least £14m worth of goods from deposit boxes in the basement vault of Hatton Garden between 3 April and 5 April 2015, the court heard.

Both pleaded guilty to their part in that plot.

A third man, Charles Matthews, 54, of Virginia Water, Surrey, is also on trial accused of handling stolen goods but is not accused of being involved in the burglary or disposing of valuables from the premises.