FIVE men were last night convicted of plotting to carry out the biggest robbery of all-time by snatching £200 million of diamonds from the Millennium Dome.
In a plot reminiscent of a James Bond film, gangsters Raymond Betson and William Cockram masterminded a plan to steal a collection of gems, including the 203-carat diamond Millennium Star, insured for £200 million by the owner, De Beers.
However,
undercover police knew of the plot in advance and the "precious stones" had been replaced by worthless paste.
The gang attempted to snatch the stones, the main attraction in the Money Zone, by smashing their way into the Dome with a JCB and escaping across the River Thames in a speedboat. They were armed with sledgehammers, a nail gun, ammonia and smoke grenades
The raid, on 7 November, 2000, had been meticulously planned for four months but was foiled by the biggest-ever Flying Squad operation.
More than 100 armed officers waited in the Dome disguised as cleaners and tourists as the gang ram-raided their way in.
Betson and Cockram were jailed for 18 years and fellow gang members Robert Adams and Aldo Ciarrocchi for 15 years at the Old Bailey yesterday. Kevin Meredith, the speedboat driver, was cleared of conspiracy to rob but convicted of conspiracy to steal and jailed for five years.
Sentencing the gang, Judge Michael Coombe said they had played "for very high stakes". He added: "This was a wicked plan. It was a professional plan and one which was carried out with the most minute attention to detail. This was a very well-planned and pre-meditated attempt to rob the diamonds’ owners, De Beers, of what would have been the biggest sum in English or any other legal history."
The gang believed their plan was foolproof and even had a buyer for the stones. A syndicate of Russian gangsters, based in Spain, had put up a bounty ordering the theft through contacts among British villains living on the Costa del Sol.
But the plot came to light after an undercover Flying Squad officer received a tip from a "known face" that a major robbery was due to be carried out near the Thames and that the perpetrators would make their escape across water. On the strength of the tip, Scotland Yard set up surveillance on dozens of possible targets.
These included the Dome at Greenwich, where the Millennium Star had just gone on display, although no-one seriously believed anyone would attempt a raid on an apparently secure site.
In September 2000, as police continued surveillance on the Dome, officers saw two familiar faces paying particular interest to the Money Zone where the diamonds were held.
Betson, 40, of Chatham, Kent, and Cockram, 49, of Catford, London, known gangsters and armed robbers, were captured on camera effectively casing the joint. Scotland Yard placed heavy surveillance on the pair and filmed them recruiting 58-year-old gangster Bob "The Builder" Adams, of no fixed address, and communications expert Aldo Ciarrocchi, 32, of Bermondsey, south-east London. As the plot unfolded, the plan to snare them was code-named Operation Magician.
On 7 November, after two false alarms in the previous fortnight, Flying Squad commanders watched from a control room as Betson and his team finally made their move.
The getaway speedboat was launched on the Thames and security cameras filmed a JCB, accompanied by a white van heading for the Dome.
As the robbers approached their target, the police realised the white transit van driving behind the digger was being used as a "troop carrier" to take Cockram, Adams and Ciarrocchi to a point near the Dome when they boarded the JCB, driven by Betson.
The JCB then smashed through the main perimeter gate at high speed before penetrating the Dome itself and coming to a halt outside the diamond vault.
As Flying Squad officers prepared to swoop, Adams headed for the high-impact glass cases housing the diamonds. Betson fired a nail gun into the glass and Adams swung a sledgehammer into the cabinets. But as he prepared for the final strike that would bring him within inches of the diamonds, undercover officers moved in.
Detective Chief Superintendent Jon Shatford, in charge of the investigation said: "It was a difficult operation. We knew they were planning the biggest robbery in the world given the value of those diamonds. After we got the tip-off, all we knew was at some stage, at some time in their lives, these individuals would be there for those jewels. We knew they would use a JCB and a speedboat, we just didn’t know when. This is a fantastic outcome for everyone involved, these men are serious career criminals an deserve to be behind bars."
After his arrest, Adams, who had come closer to the diamonds than anyone else, told the police: "I was 12 inches from pay day. It would have been a blinding Christmas. I cannot believe how easily the glass went. I only hit it twice. Then that f***ing mob of 100 policemen came in and jumped on us."
Officers on the scene also claimed that, after his initial shock, Betson turned to an officer and winked, saying: "It was worth a try."
