The Millennium Dome raid was an attempted

robbery Robbery is the crime of taking or attempting to take anything of value by force, threat of force, or by use of fear. According to common law, robbery is defined as taking the property of another, with the intent to permanently deprive the perso ...

of the

Millennium Dome The Millennium Dome was the original name of the large dome-shaped building on the Greenwich Peninsula in South East (London sub region), South East London, England, which housed a major exhibition celebrating the beginning of the third millenn ...

diamond Diamond is a Allotropes of carbon, solid form of the element carbon with its atoms arranged in a crystal structure called diamond cubic. Another solid form of carbon known as graphite is the Chemical stability, chemically stable form of car ...

exhibition in

Greenwich Greenwich ( , ,) is a town in south-east London, England, within the ceremonial county of Greater London. It is situated east-southeast of Charing Cross. Greenwich is notable for its maritime history and for giving its name to the Greenwich ...

, South East London occurring on 7 November 2000. A local gang planned to ram-raid the

De Beers De Beers Group is an international corporation that specializes in diamond mining, diamond exploitation, diamond retail, diamond trading and industrial diamond manufacturing sectors. The company is active in open-pit, large-scale alluvial and c ...

diamond exhibition which was being held in the riverside Dome at the time. The gang had then planned to escape via the

Thames The River Thames ( ), known alternatively in parts as the River Isis, is a river that flows through southern England including London. At , it is the longest river entirely in England and the second-longest in the United Kingdom, after the R ...

in a speedboat. The De Beers diamond exhibition had a number of jewels on display, including the

Millennium Star The Millennium Star is a diamond owned by De Beers. At 203.04 carats (40.608 g), it is the world's second largest known top-color (grade D, i.e. colourless), internally and externally flawless, pear-shaped diamond. The diamond was d ...

, a flawless gem with an estimated worth of £200 million (equivalent to £ million in ) and considered one of the most perfect gems in the world. Also on display were priceless

blue diamond Blue diamond is a type of diamond which exhibits all of the same inherent properties of the mineral except with the additional element of blue color in the stone. They are colored blue by trace amounts of boron that contaminate the crystalline l ...

s. The attempted robbery was foiled by the

Flying Squad The Flying Squad is a branch of the Serious and Organised Crime Command within London's Metropolitan Police Service. It is also known as the Robbery Squad, Specialist Crime Directorate 7, SC&O7 and SO7. It is nicknamed The Sweeney, an abbrevia ...

(lead by Jon Shatford) of the

Metropolitan Police Service The Metropolitan Police Service (MPS), formerly and still commonly known as the Metropolitan Police (and informally as the Met Police, the Met, Scotland Yard, or the Yard), is the territorial police force responsible for law enforcement and ...

, as a result of information from Kent Police Serious Crime who already had the gang members under surveillance for their suspected roles in a number of unsuccessful armoured vehicle robberies. The operation to foil the robbery was the biggest operation undertaken in the Flying Squad's history and at trial the judge in the case commended the way it was carried out. If the heist had succeeded, then with a haul of £350 million worth of diamonds (equivalent to £ million in ), it would have become one of the biggest robberies in history.

Operation Magician

In the summer of 2000, the Flying Squad became aware of a major armed robbery plot after a tip-off was received. The location of this robbery was unclear, but the identities of some of the robbers were known to the police. The police spent a number of months developing intelligence on the plot and set up an operation that they codenamed Operation Magician. During the intelligence gathering, the location of the robbery was found to be the Millennium Dome in Greenwich. In February 2000, armed men tried to pull off a £10 million raid on a security van in Nine Elms,

South London South London is the southern part of London, England, south of the River Thames. The region consists of the Districts of England, boroughs, in whole or in part, of London Borough of Bexley, Bexley, London Borough of Bromley, Bromley, London Borou ...

. The gunmen had stopped the security van by blocking off both ends of Nine Elms Lane. They had planned to use their own lorry, which was carrying Christmas trees, as a

battering ram A battering ram is a siege engine that originated in ancient history, ancient times and was designed to break open the masonry walls of fortifications or splinter their wooden gates. In its simplest form, a battering ram is just a large, hea ...

. This lorry had a huge metal spike welded into the chassis and covered by the foliage. The gang planned to split the security van's rear doors with the ram. The gang's plan failed when a motorist who was late for work removed the keys from the ignition of the unattended Christmas tree lorry. The robbers, left with no choice, made their escape in an inflatable speedboat towards

Chelsea Chelsea or Chelsey may refer to: Places Australia * Chelsea, Victoria Canada * Chelsea, Nova Scotia * Chelsea, Quebec United Kingdom * Chelsea, London, an area of London, bounded to the south by the River Thames ** Chelsea (UK Parliament consti ...

. It was attempted again on 7 July in

Aylesford, Kent Aylesford is a village and civil parish on the River Medway in Kent, England, northwest of Maidstone. Originally a small riverside settlement, the old village comprises around 60 houses, many of which were formerly shops. Two pubs, a village s ...

. This time, the gang got even closer to the cash, with the metal spike being rammed into the van. They were seconds from taking the money when an unexpected police car appeared; the gang shot at the approaching car and again made their escape in an inflatable speedboat. Detective Superintendent Jon Shatford stated that this attempted robbery brought to his attention a gang which was capable of carrying out a robbery with this level of planning. This unsuccessful attack provided the police with important clues and led them to track some of the vehicles that were used in the raid to two isolated farms in rural Kent; these properties were then put under 24-hour surveillance. After this unsuccessful robbery, the police received a tip-off about the Dome raid from an informer. At a meeting between detectives to discuss the Nine Elms Lane attempted robbery and the information that the informer had provided about the Dome raid, one detective who had recently visited the dome quipped, "Maybe they are after the Millennium jewels?" It was this comment that led to beginning an investigation into the raid.

Surveillance

On 1 September 2000, the team identified three of the suspected robbers – Lee Wenham, Raymond Betson and William Cockram – at the Dome. It was then found that every time they had visited the attraction, the Thames was at high tide. They were observed visiting the exhibition and recording video footage, leading the police to suspect that the exhibition could be a target. The

surveillance Surveillance is the monitoring of behavior, many activities, or information for the purpose of information gathering, influencing, managing or directing. This can include observation from a distance by means of electronic equipment, such as c ...

on the men was significantly increased and the Dome was placed under close watch. The precautions taken by the Flying Squad included replacing the priceless gems with

replica A 1:1 replica is an exact copy of an object, made out of the same raw materials, whether a molecule, a work of art, or a commercial product. The term is also used for copies that closely resemble the original, without claiming to be identical. Al ...

s of the same size, allowing the originals to be stored elsewhere, as well as installing a false wall inside the exhibit room, behind which 20 police were waiting in full tactical gear. Due to an increase in surveillance, the police discovered other members of the gang. These included Terry Millman, who was tasked with obtaining the getaway speedboat which was to be used for the escape. Cockram and Betson were also observed filming the surrounding river and jetty. The surveillance on the gang continued and their visits to the Dome became more frequent. In late September, a few members of the gang were spotted testing a speedboat in a harbour in Kent.

Aborted robbery attempts

The Metropolitan Police were able to identify the possible days upon which the raid could take place and communicated this information to De Beers and the Dome's management. Two of the days that the police had identified resulted in aborted attempts. The first aborted attempt occurred in early October and was called off due to the malfunctioning of the speedboat which was to be used for the getaway. The second aborted attempt occurred one day before the date of the actual raid, but was cancelled upon the gang discovering the tide was too low to ensure a safe getaway. After this attempt, the police suspected the raid was imminent and were convinced the raid would take place the following day. The police then replaced all Dome staff with armed undercover officers. On a number of days in October, the gang under surveillance looked as if they were about to commence the raid. Some members were spotted towing a speedboat to

and then placing the boat in the river opposite the Dome. This activity indicated to the Squad that the robbery was close; however, this was not the case. The delay was then investigated by police. The detectives analysed the times and days of the aborted attempts and found that they had something in common – the high tide. Upon closer investigation the detectives found that, on each of the days when the robbery was aborted, the tide was at its highest possible level. The police began to investigate the patterns of the tide and were able to predict the possible times that the raid was to take place. One of the predicted days happened to be the date of the actual raid.

Day of raid

On 7 November at 9:30am, Operation Magician was under way, commanded by Detective Superintendent Jon Shatford of the Metropolitan Police. A total of two hundred officers were involved in the operation, of which forty were from the

Specialist Firearms Command The Specialist Firearms Command (SCO19) is the firearms unit of the Metropolitan Police Service (Greater London, England). The Command is responsible for providing a firearms-response capability, assisting the rest of the service which is not ro ...

(SCO19). A further sixty armed

officers were stationed around the Thames, and twenty on the river itself to hamper any escape attempts. Surveillance officers were disguised as Dome employees. The Millennium Dome's CCTV room was used by the police as a control room. All the officers were briefed at 3 a.m., the day of the raid, on the contingency plans in place. Before the raid, some officers were positioned behind a dummy wall and others were dressed as cleaners and Dome employees, with their firearms concealed. Before the raid, four members of the gang had been identified in a JCB earth digger and all were wearing body armour and gas masks. The men were armed with

smoke bomb A smoke bomb is a firework designed to produce a large amount of smoke upon ignition. History Early Japanese history saw the use of a rudimentary form of the smoke bomb. Explosives were common in Japan during the Mongol invasions of the 13th ...

sledgehammer A sledgehammer is a tool with a large, flat, often metal head, attached to a long handle. The long handle combined with a heavy head allows the sledgehammer to gather momentum during a swing and apply a large force compared to hammers designed t ...

s and

nail gun A nail gun, nailgun or nailer is a form of hammer used to drive nails into wood or other materials. It is usually driven by compressed air (pneumatic), electromagnetism, highly flammable gases such as butane or propane, or, for powder-actuated ...

s, to be used to penetrate the security glass that was protecting the exhibit. The digger was used by the gang to break through the perimeter fence and to crash through the side wall of the Dome to reach the Money Zone, where the De Beers diamonds were kept. The digger came into the Dome itself and parked outside the Money Zone. Once inside, Ciarrocchi started throwing smoke bombs and Cockram attempted to break the glass, where the diamonds were stored. Cockram knew that the bombproof glass could resist the force of a 60-ton ram raid, but his plan was to weaken the glass with three shots from a powerful

Hilti Hilti Corporation (Hilti Aktiengesellschaft or Hilti AG, also known as Hilti Group) is a Liechtensteiner multinational company that develops, manufactures, and markets products for the construction, building maintenance, energy and manufactur ...

nail gun, and then another gang member, Robert Adams, would use a sledgehammer to break the weakened glass. The plan was working and the gang were inches away from the (decoy) diamonds. The police pounced on four members of the gang, as they attempted to smash their way into the display case. As the four men were being arrested, other officers stationed around the Dome arrested another man who was in a high-powered boat on the Thames. The police also arrested a man whom they suspected of monitoring police radio frequencies: he was detained on the north shore of the Thames, opposite the Dome. All the suspects were apprehended; Millman was apprehended in a van. Once all the suspects had been detained, they were taken to police stations in South London. By 1200 GMT, some areas of the Dome had reopened, but other areas, including the Money Zone, were cordoned off.

Detective Superintendent Superintendent (Supt) is a rank in the British police and in most English-speaking Commonwealth nations. In many Commonwealth countries, the full version is superintendent of police (SP). The rank is also used in most British Overseas Territories ...

Shatford defended the decision that was taken to wait until the gang had reached the diamonds before arresting them. He said, "Our chief concern throughout was public safety. We decided it was better to let the robbers get to the vault where they were effectively imprisoned". The serious crime unit of the

Kent Police Kent Police is the territorial police force responsible for policing the and approximately 1.8 million inhabitants of Kent, a county in the south east of England. History On 14 January 1857, a 222-strong 'Kent County Constabulary' was formed u ...

worked in conjunction with the Metropolitan Police Service and arrested six more people in connection with the raid on Tuesday morning in the villages of

Collier Street Collier Street is a small village and civil parish in the Borough of Maidstone in Kent, England. The village of Collier Street includes St Margaret's Church, a primary school, a small business estate and several farms. St. Margaret's church and ...

and

Horsmonden Horsmonden ( ) is a village in the borough of Tunbridge Wells in Kent, England. The village is located in the Weald of Kent. It is situated on a road leading from Maidstone to Lamberhurst, three miles north of the latter place. The nearest railwa ...

. Police said the ages of the men ranged between 38 and 62.

Trial

The case came to trial a year later, on 8 November 2001. It was heard at the

Old Bailey The Central Criminal Court of England and Wales, commonly referred to as the Old Bailey after the street on which it stands, is a criminal court building in central London, one of several that house the Crown Court of England and Wales. The s ...

, and only six members of the gang were present, as Terry Millman had died of

cancer Cancer is a group of diseases involving abnormal cell growth with the potential to invade or spread to other parts of the body. These contrast with benign tumors, which do not spread. Possible signs and symptoms include a lump, abnormal b ...

. The court heard that Betson, Cockram, Ciarrocchi and Adams were caught by undercover officers in the Dome when they burst inside by using a JCB digger. On the first day of the defence case, Cockram discussed the lack of security inside the Dome: "I couldn't believe how simple it was. ... I was thinking, this cannot be true, it was a gift. At first I had thought it was pie in the sky, but after going down there I couldn't believe security was so bad. ... There was nobody in the vault, no security workers walking around". He stated that had the plan succeeded, "It would have taken a very short time from hitting the main gate to getting back across the Thames – five minutes maximum". He also added, "No one was going to get hurt – there was no one to hurt. ... The Dome was always empty". Cockram explained that the nail gun that was bought by the gang was to be used to break the glass in the vault, not as a weapon. The

ammonia Ammonia is an inorganic compound of nitrogen and hydrogen with the formula . A stable binary hydride, and the simplest pnictogen hydride, ammonia is a colourless gas with a distinct pungent smell. Biologically, it is a common nitrogenous was ...

was to be used to contaminate any traces of blood left by him, he said. He explained that the body armour was to be used after the raid for protection when he was scheduled to attend a meeting with associates to discuss the sale of the gems. Betson told the jury that his brother-in-law, Michael Waring, who was working at the Dome as part of the perimeter security, had told him about a school friend, Tony, who was also working there. Betson claimed that Waring had told him about a plan that Tony had put together: "Tony had got this plan together. He had a backer – someone to buy the jewellery. He said the security was crap." Betson then went on to say, "I had every confidence in him – there was no way I thought he would betray me – not for two seconds. ... If this had come to me from someone else – in a pub – I would not have gone along with it, but it was the background to where it had come from. It was solid." Betson explained how he developed a trusting relationship with Waring: "I did not think he would try and do me any harm. I trusted." Cockram also said that Betson had told him that Waring was in on the plan. Called as a prosecution witness, Waring "totally denied" that he was part of the plan or had offered to act in a criminal way by providing information on security. The gang had invested tens of thousands planning the raid and stored the equipment needed at a disused commercial yard in

Plumstead Plumstead is an area in southeast London, within the Royal Borough of Greenwich, England. It is located east of Woolwich. History Until 1965, Plumstead was in the historic counties of England, historic county of Kent and the detail of mu ...

, southeast London, as well as two remote

Kent Kent is a county in South East England and one of the home counties. It borders Greater London to the north-west, Surrey to the west and East Sussex to the south-west, and Essex to the north across the estuary of the River Thames; it faces ...

farms, near

Maidstone Maidstone is the largest Town status in the United Kingdom, town in Kent, England, of which it is the county town. Maidstone is historically important and lies 32 miles (51 km) east-south-east of London. The River Medway runs through the c ...

. Terry Millman, who had died of cancer before the trial, used the name T. Diamond when he paid £3,700 in cash to purchase a getaway speedboat at a yard in the seaside town of

Whitstable Whitstable () is a town on the north coast of Kent adjoining the convergence of the Swale Estuary and the Greater Thames Estuary in southeastern England, north of Canterbury and west of Herne Bay. The 2011 Census reported a population of 32 ...

, Kent. At the trial, Crown Prosecutor Martin Heslop, QC, said that "the raid was planned professionally, carefully and down to the last detail. ... So well organised was it that it would probably have succeeded, had it not been for an equally professional, careful and detailed police operation." Heslop stated that to minimize the risk to the public, "Arrangements were made to keep children away from the danger area, but for obvious reasons it was not practicable to alert all staff to the possibility of an attack." After three months for the trial, the jury of seven women and five men reached a 10–2 majority verdict against the defendants after they had deliberated for nearly seven court days. After a week of deliberations the judge Michael Coombe accepted the majority verdict and so the men were found guilty. The judge told the defendants, "You played for very high stakes and you must have known perfectly well what the penalty would be if your enterprise did not succeed." The judge added, "This was a wicked, professional plan and one which was carried out with the minutest attention to detail. Mercifully the police were on to it." Betson and Cockram, considered the two leaders of the gang, were both given 18-year sentences. Aldo Ciarrocchi and Robert Adams were sentenced to 15 years. Kevin Meredith was cleared of conspiracy to rob, but found guilty of conspiring to steal and was sentenced to five years.

Members of the gang

Aftermath

Cockram, who was sentenced to 18 years for his part in the raid, was awarded

legal aid Legal aid is the provision of assistance to people who are unable to afford legal representation and access to the court system. Legal aid is regarded as central in providing access to justice by ensuring equality before the law, the right to co ...

to sue the Metropolitan Police Service in March 2003. The decision to award Cockram the money was condemned by the then-shadow home secretary David Davis. Cockram claimed that he was assaulted by a police officer at about 9:39 a.m. on the day of the raid, as he was lying handcuffed on the floor. One of the diamonds on display during the raid was a pear-shaped rare blue diamond. In March 2010, the ''

London Evening Standard The ''Evening Standard'', formerly ''The Standard'' (1827–1904), also known as the ''London Evening Standard'', is a local free daily newspaper in London, England, published Monday to Friday in tabloid format. In October 2009, after be ...

'' reported that the gem would be sold in a collection at

Sotheby's Sotheby's () is a British-founded American multinational corporation with headquarters in New York City. It is one of the world's largest brokers of fine and decorative art, jewellery, and collectibles. It has 80 locations in 40 countries, and ...

Hong Kong Hong Kong ( (US) or (UK); , ), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China ( abbr. Hong Kong SAR or HKSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China on the eastern Pearl River Delt ...

, the following month. The blue diamond, which had an estimated worth of £3 to £3.8 million, was sold for £4.2 million in April 2010 in Sotheby's Hong Kong. The Flying Squad arrested a man that it was believed was the mastermind behind the plot, but he was not present on the day of the raid. The man, James Hurley, from

Bermondsey Bermondsey () is a district in southeast London, part of the London Borough of Southwark, England, southeast of Charing Cross. To the west of Bermondsey lies Southwark, to the east Rotherhithe and Deptford, to the south Walworth and Peckham, a ...

, south London, was arrested following an undercover operation. The undercover operation tracked Hurley to Puerto Banus, on the

Costa del Sol The Costa del Sol (literally "Coast of the Sun" or "Sun Coast") is a region in the south of Spain in the autonomous community of Andalusia, comprising the coastal towns and communities along the coastline of the Province of Málaga and the easte ...

. The officer in charge of Operation Magician, Detective Chief Superintendent Jon Shatford, arrived in

Spain , image_flag = Bandera de España.svg , image_coat = Escudo de España (mazonado).svg , national_motto = ''Plus ultra'' (Latin)(English: "Further Beyond") , national_anthem = (English: "Royal March") , i ...

with a team of three others and an emergency warrant for Hurley's arrest. Hurley had been under surveillance by the police when he was spotted refining and testing the robbery plan for weeks in advance. He was dubbed the "boatman" by the police as he was seen taking photographs of the Dome from vessels on the Thames and was organising the speedboat to be used for the getaway. Hurley disappeared at the last minute before the raid took place. After his disappearance, the

National Criminal Intelligence Service The National Criminal Intelligence Service (NCIS) was a United Kingdom policing agency. Following the Police and Criminal Justice Act 2001, NCIS returned to direct funding by the Home Office in 2002 and was a non-departmental public body. On 1 Ap ...

and the

Spanish police Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: **Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many Latin American countries **Spanish cuisine Other places * Spanish, Ontario, Cana ...

were unable to locate him. Hurley was living in a luxury villa on a private enclave, close to Puerto Banus. Once Hurley had been photographed and his identity confirmed, a High Court judge in London issued a red extradition warrant for his arrest. Hurley was arrested by Spanish Police following a chase in Puerto Banus on the Costa del Sol, however on 26 February 2002 the extradition warrant was withdrawn by the Crown Prosecution Service who decided there was not a realistic prospect of securing a conviction against Hurley. The JCB digger that was used in the raid was put up for auction, but it still displayed damage from the raid. The digger was sold at JCB's biannual auction of surplus parts and machines. JCB had taken possession of the machine from insurers after a court hearing.

In popular culture

* ''Dome Raiders: How Scotland Yard Foiled the Greatest Robbery of All Time'', a book by Detective Superintendent Jon Shatford and William Doyle, details the raid. * The

Crime & Investigation Network Crime & Investigation (stylized as Crime + Investigation) is an American pay television channel owned by A&E Networks, a joint venture between the Hearst Communications and the Disney Media Networks division of The Walt Disney Company. The cha ...

, as part of their series on Britain's Biggest Heists, ran an episode which featured the Millennium Dome raid. This episode includes

CCTV Closed-circuit television (CCTV), also known as video surveillance, is the use of video cameras to transmit a signal to a specific place, on a limited set of monitors. It differs from broadcast television in that the signal is not openly t ...

footage of the raid taking place, as well as footage recorded by undercover police at the time. * Kris Hollington, a ''

Sunday Times ''The Sunday Times'' is a British newspaper whose circulation makes it the largest in Britain's quality press market category. It was founded in 1821 as ''The New Observer''. It is published by Times Newspapers Ltd, a subsidiary of News UK, whi ...

'' bestselling author and freelance journalist, wrote a book entitled ''Diamond Geezers: The Inside Story of the Crime of the Millennium''. The book tells the story of the raid and contains interviews with the police and

. * ''The Millennium Dome Heist with Ross Kemp'' (also distributed internationally as ''The Great Diamond Heist'') is a 2020 British documentary about the raid hosted by

Ross Kemp Ross James Kemp (born 21 July 1964) is an English actor, author, and television presenter. He rose to prominence in the role of Grant Mitchell in the BBC soap opera ''EastEnders''. He is also known for his other roles as Graham Lodsworth in ' ...

. * The

Discovery+ Discovery may refer to: * Discovery (observation), observing or finding something unknown * Discovery (fiction), a character's learning something unknown * Discovery (law), a process in courts of law relating to evidence Discovery, The Discover ...

series ''Inside The Heist'' focused on the raid as part of the first episode.

References

{{Reflist, 30em

External links

BBC Crimewatch Millennium Dome heist

The Caper Trail

BBC news Dome Diamond raiders jailed

CCTV images of the raid
2000 crimes in the United Kingdom 2000 in London 2000s crimes in London Robberies in England History of the Royal Borough of Greenwich November 2000 events in the United Kingdom November 2000 crimes Organised crime in London