The Gang Who Tried to Steal the World’s Largest Perfect Diamond | Real Crime

[Music] in November 2000 a criminal gang attempted the most audacious robbery in British history they look like terrorists we're watching it and CCTV the target the world's most perfect diamond the De Beers millennium star we didn't know exactly how they were gonna do it and we didn't know when they were going to do it the robbers daring plan would bring untold riches for decades behind bars a police operation against them would be the biggest in the flying squads history we were actually ready for a war quite frankly using never-before-seen police footage and testimony from the men who are there this is the inside story of the heist of the millennium and the secret operation to foiling [Music] London's Millennium Dome scene of the biggest diamond raid in British history it was a story that made headlines around the world but for the police it all began nine months earlier in February 2000 flying squad officers based at New Scotland Yard received reports of a dramatic incident three miles away in Battersea for John Shatford the squad's acting head it marked the start of the biggest case of his career I could hear down the corridor from my office a lot of activity on the radio and with that Lindsay came running down and said I think there's a terrorist explosion or something is happening at 9-ounce but it might be a robbery I've got to get there Shatford and his team raced to Nine Elms Lane a busy main road that hugs the south bank of the Thames [Music] when he arrived he was faced with total devastation it just look like the scene of a about the street in Iraq or somewhere and then picking around what had actually happened there you could say this was something quite exceptional it soon became clear that this was not a terrorist attack but a failed armed raid their attempt to steal the cash from the armored car the gang had built a fearsome weapon fixed to the back of a lorry one of the vehicles the robbers were going to use was like a self-made battering ram it was a flatbed lorry and on the back that welded this big spike and the intention was to ram it into the back of the security van open it up to take the cash the ten million pound robbery was only prevented when a driver blocked in by the gangs lorry took their keys in anger without realizing a raid was taking place when they went to get this battering ram get in the lorry course the keys are missing and they can't do it and they can't go through with it with their battering ram put out of action the frustrated gang set fire to their vehicles then escaped on foot to the nearby thames they had a boat waiting on the water for them an inflatable dinghy they jumped on that and they were away the other side of the water towards Chelsea and somehow got away the police had never witnessed such a sophisticated raid and unusual getaway before the robbers had left them with nothing to go on but it was meticulously planned both in their execution and also their attempts to prevent the police gathering forensic evidence ie by exploding the vehicles that were used in the job with no suspects and no forensics the flying squad decided to focus on the gangs distinctive means of escape for getaway across the river this was a unique in my experience I mean the fact that they were gonna use a boat to escape in this way so from there really we went back to Scotland Yard and started looking what other cash their purse around the country might be nearer a river where this plan could be used again for the police the well-planned operation meant only one thing the gang were going to strike again from then it was like a ticking clock this was only a matter of time when a gang commits an armed robbery the Flying Squad could normally expect to hear about it from their network of informants but as far as this raid was concerned the underworld had gone quiet no tip offs no inside information no clues faced with such total silence all the police could do was wait for the gang to strike again and they didn't have to wait long armed and masked robbers used a van equipped with a steel spike to ram the secure core van early today Hales furred in cake this time the masked gang got even nearer to the cache they were within seconds of grabbing the money when an unexpected vehicle appeared on the scene and a police car that happen to be passing interrupted them they shot at the police and they made good their escape by driving down to a very close river the River Medway in a way honest people the robbery and the getaway bore the same hallmarks as The Nine Elms raid and any lingering doubts that the gang were one and the same were soon dispelled on the Nine Elms raid one of the robbers rather humorously had written the word dirty on the spike dam in Cannes it could have been a carbon copy on the back of that spike was written dirty - and then just below it the science and persistent are we so there was no doubt in my mind whatsoever that this was the same team involved but the robbers overconfidence was badly misplaced within hours of the Kent raid the police would get a lucky break that would unmask the identity of one gang member and eventually uncover the plot to seize the world's most precious diamonds within minutes of the Aylesford holdup police knew they were dealing with the same gang who'd used a lorry mounted spike in the nine Elms ray and within hours they got the first clue to one of the robbers identities it came from a lowly constable in Kent CID he had been reviewing newspapers on the day of the Aylesford robbery and when he was looking at the photographs he actually thought he recognized the flatbed lorry on which the spike was the officer had recently investigated reports of stolen vehicles being stored at an isolated smallholding called Tom farm so he went back through his intelligence and he found that that vehicle he'd seen going into Tom farm a month or so previously tonk farm was owned and run by a family called the when um's 33 year old lee Wenham a scrap metal dealer was well known to the police he was notorious to having Ken not particularly high caliber but a certain nuisance ban there so when we did get on to this he's just hopeful now that we might have a base for where the criminals are operating from with the gang possibly linked to tong farm the Flying Squad and Kent Police launched a joint surveillance operation for weeks the comings and goings were closely monitored this police video taken at the time shows Lee when um's truck leaving and arriving stolen vehicles including this yellow JCB digger were also recorded but more important were these images Wenham had company we didn't exactly know who they were but they appeared to be these heavy criminals that we thought had probably come from London the visitors were later identified as rabe etson and bill Cochran career criminals well-known to London detective that was a real Eureka moment because when we realized we had someone of the pedigree of Betts someone that we consider to be extremely dangerous and someone with the capability and wherewithal to plan the job of this caliber and that really started to put this on a totally new level [Music] despite his reputation bets n' had relatively few criminal convictions Raymond Bexon is a very charismatic character he has a fairly limited and criminal conviction which only goes to show that he he was very very good at what he did Cockrum was Betts and right-hand man his left tenant he was a same in the street he's just a middle-aged man but once again you know I'm also a criminal community Cochrane himself had a presence as well police may have spotted Betts inand Cockrum at the farm but they had no evidence linking them to the armed robberies it wasn't until they identified the driver of this van that another piece of the jigsaw fell into place his name was Terrence Millman knellman himself as an armed robber with a formidable record you name it he's done it if it involved the gun he had done it and this was clearly someone else in the gang that gave it the caliber that we were expecting Milman was not only known to the police he enjoyed respect in London's underworld I know that a firm aims a young fellow a young kid and he first arrived in in Roma scraps when I was there and I got close to him then he's a nice guy good guy detectives were now confident they had the key members of the gang Betts and the career criminal Cockrum the number two the experienced Millman and providing them all with a base Lee Wenham if the police needed more proof it came on the 25th of August when their cameras filmed the arrival of a familiar getaway vehicle one of the most significant moments was when we actually saw a boat being taken into town farm because it told us that we were looking at the right place and that these were people who were preparing for the next job but the police had no idea where that next job would be and for the moment could only rely on guesswork we've actually had officers depute lead to actually gather as much intelligence as they could around potential targets that might be at risk and we draw up plans around possible locations at the time it really was that wide at that moment and it was only by soar networking resources we could actually drive this forward the Flying Squad and Kent Police met regularly to pool intelligence at one of these meetings it emerged that Lee Wenham rather than planning an armed robbery appeared to be organizing a family day out Lee won and was looking to purchase a family ticket and the the price of the family took it I believe was around about 50 80 pounds yeah and we researched that and the intelligence picked up that the cost of a family ticket to go to the dome was 58 pounds the Millennium Dome in Greenwich was the site of the largest exhibition in Britain but throughout the year 2000 it made headlines for all the wrong reasons massive overspends poor attendances and critical reviews had dogged it since day one so I said at least someone's visiting the dough and he started to sound a bit awkward why would he go to the dome no that's some of the news every night that not enough people are going and someone just threw out it was a DI who was at Greenwich just threw out across there unless they're gonna steal the millenium diamond the diamond known as the millennium star was the centerpiece of a 350 million pound De Beers exhibition this dazzling collection would make a tempting target for any determined robber remember it did suddenly hit me I thought my god and I can visualize that River the Thames bending around the dome and it's something that you really really want to be true because it's actually so extraordinary do you think this would be absolutely sensational if the gang were planning to rob the Diamonds the flying squad would need to follow when um's every move during his upcoming visit to the dome to do so they used a cover story to infiltrate an officer into its CCTV control room we managed to get Shawn Allen to go into the control room look at the cameras purporting to be looking for drug dealers that cover story enabled us to turn cameras focus cameras zero in in people and we kept with the pretense for quite a while that we were actually looking for street dealers who were plying their trade on the day of the visit when I'm left the farm accompanied by a woman and a child as he arrived at the dome he had no idea he was being watched I was controlling the cameras inside and outside we identified Wenham walking around the dome when and was filmed checking possible access points to the site once inside the dome surveillance officers dressed as tourists got within 10 yards of their target totally unaware of their presence Wenham was filmed visiting the diamond vault no fewer than three times alarm bells started to ring because we then had a boat in a farm we had the dome which was near water-borne escape routine and we saw that when and did in fact appear to have more than passive interest in the vault like a tourist we knew therefore what the target was and we could start planning a response around that the plan to foil the raid became known as operation magician the biggest undertaking in the flying squads history but circumstantial evidence would not be enough to ensure convictions John Shatford would have to catch the gang in the very act of robbing the jewels now I've had armed robbers that have been dressed up in masks been carrying guns and actually still got off at the trial because they've been able to convince the jury that they were there for another purpose so you actually let the robbers go so far and then arrest them so that what you know their intentions are actually irrefutable to catch the gang red-handed the flying squad needed to find out when the diamonds would be at their most vulnerable and to do this they would have to inform the diamonds owners about the robbery plot [Music] I was sitting in my office when the phone rang and it was a policeman on the end there who didn't really introduce himself very clearly but he'd like to speak to me and I was met and he said to me we have reasons to believe that there are a bunch of villains for coming together we were going to try to steal the millennium star Thorne was initially skeptical the Millenium collection was housed in an impregnable vault we had built their fort literally of solid concrete solid doors but nobody could break into but having said that the doors had to be open for the general public and that is why the display cabinets themselves that glass was supposed to be unbreakable that it would stand up to least a half an hour of any demented person who was prepared to smash away with any known device Shatford agreed that a raid on the vault was unlikely he expected the robbery to occur when the diamond was in transit looking at what happened at nine hours looking what happened at Alfred were pretty certain that they must be going to rob the diamond when it's on route somewhere and talking at m7 actually is it's going to be moved to a Tokyo on display in early September the diamonds were due to be driven from the dome to De Beers London headquarters before being taken to an Exhibition in Japan suddenly that was it well if this is the only time it's being moved the gang must have inside information from somewhere and they must be going to hit this on the 1st of September the flying squad now scrambled to put together the biggest ambush in their history Don Shatford decided on overwhelming force in his quest to catch the diamond Raiders in the act [Music] we have the entire river covered with a river launches and I must have had close to 300 people at the end of the day either dug in around the dough or watching but putting people up and cranes around the dome so we had absolutely everywhere covered we were actually ready for a walk quite frankly we could take on anything dawn on the first security staff removed the priceless diamonds from the domes vault replicas were then displayed in their place at 6:00 a.m. the armored convoy set off we got word that the security vehicles are now going to move away and they're on their way so I have a helicopter in the air standing off a distance and we were waiting where is it going to happen John Shatford have identified the Blackwall tunnel which connects the dome to the city of London on the north side of the Thames as the most likely place for the gang to strike as the security van entered the tunnel the police held their breath we waited and we waited [Music] we followed that all the way back to the beers headquarters in the city of London nothing happened and when it arrived in those guys and I got the message back to where I was at the dome that that said it's back safe no one toward incident I just went away in a calling the police operation had cost hundreds of thousands of pounds the gang have simply not shown up and I went back to Scotland Yard and I went in shut myself in my office and I just sunk my head in their hands and I thought what now you know how else can how else can they possibly do it they absolutely could not do it inside the dome they just just couldn't possibly do that it's perhaps it's never going to happen and that was probably the lowest death but just as operation magician teetered on the brink of disaster Shatford received some stunning news it came from the undercover officer who was manning the domes security cameras I've got a call from Shaun Allen they said something like boss you're not gonna believe this but I just spotted Betts and Cochrane at the DOE and they're having a good eyeball at the diamond [Music] we could see Ray Betts and William Cochran walking around the dome and I was euphoric because we had actually seen them still there so for us the job was still on the gang appeared unaware that the real diamonds had left the country and that the stones in the vault were mere replicas we were more confident that they did not have an inside agent because otherwise they would have known that these diamonds would have moved at that time he's talking me throat is telling me what's happened and I could feel myself left him and thinking my god it's still on and not only that it's still on but Christ this means this can only mean they're gonna do it inside the dome why the autumn of 2002 the gang they were tailing were planning to snatch the priceless De Beers diamond collection from inside the Millennium Dome in order to catch the robbers in the act the flying squad needed to set up what was clearly a risky armed ambush in a very public place but such an audacious plan was not what the man in charge of the dome wanted to hear and was not a happy bunny at all and I was not ready cooperate and I very openly said you know I'm gonna stop you I'm gonna do everything in my power to stop you do this you know because I don't care this is my world just my tenses are my people you know it could have been the biggest bloodbath ever then of course we have to put another perspective on that and say well look this gang is very very dangerous we now have an opportunity to arrest them in a properly controlled environment with irrefutable evidence now if we fail on this occasion and can you explain well we actually did have an opportunity to arrest this team and put the night away but it was too dangerous so so we didn't do it we're the police there is no one else and and and this guy really cannot you know let me blow smoke and just calm me down and just go turn me around and convince me this is this is gonna be good this is gonna be all right as senior officers gain clearance for their armed ambushed undercover colleagues kept their targets under surveillance and that would soon unmask a fifth member of the gang this police footage shows bets and Cockrum in a Bermondsey carpark meeting a man later identified as 29 year old Aldo Karachi kurachi a failed property developer with a taste for the finer things in life seemed an unlikely armed robber I don't know if he came over as a playboy he certainly was not of the same Robert ilk as the rest of them more educated and he would have been the odd one out in the pack but he had a role to play as well with five of the gang identified the police now concentrated their surveillance on the getaway vehicle because we knew the robbery would involve a boat for that reason if we stayed with the boat we would get the ultimate target we could never be a hundred percent sure that they weren't planning a secondary target maybe to move onto so for that reason to minimize the risk of compromising the operation we played it safe and we stayed on the boat as the robbers tested the speedboat the watching police noticed it was not performing as it should on the 3rd of October officers followed Terrence Millman to a boat yard in Whitstable Kent there he paid 2,000 pounds cash for a replacement boat reversing towards the gates the boat yard when police recovered the receipt they found that it's signed for the purchase using the name Terry diamond [Music] but while detectives were sure the boat would be used for the getaway they were baffled by the other unusual vehicle that seen the gang testing the yellow JCB we identified that the robbery gang would use a JCB in some part of this robbery we did not have any idea what they would use it for but officers were confident that the date of the raid was drawing near the gangs activity was increasing and on October the 6th the JCB was tailed from tonk farm to a derelict coal yard in plumsted South London this secluded place just a few miles from the dome was to become the forward operations post for the gang and with the real diamonds back at the Dome after the Japanese tour the stakes could not be higher there's this general air that we must be getting close to the robbery taking place the gang carried out some form of work on it there was a lot of banging I think some welding we didn't know what was taking place and indeed we did not know what this was being used for it was a mystery throughout what an earth they going to do not knowing how or when the gang would strike presented the police with huge logistical problems they had to keep an expensive 24-hour presence in and around the dome while all the time keeping it secret from the gang we use cover stories that we were doing a training exercise in their local area our main concern was that the robbers for want of a better word would start putting the dome into the to hard box and would start looking for a softer target that they could control better as the secret stakeout at the Millennium Dome continued surveillance officers began to notice new patterns in the gangs visits as autumn progressed they only seemed to turn up at certain times on certain days the gang had been to the dome on a number of occasions and we were starting to look at this and the deaths that were involved and then it turned out that every time they were there coincided with when the thames was at a high tide [Music] we have a survey done of the river by Thames branch who actually indicated to us there was only so many spots along the Thames where a boat could be put in or taken out off and there was only about a thirty million window of opportunity on every tide we could then look on the calendar and follow the same day so whenever it was a high tide I could deploy and in in strength the next high tide was due at 9:30 a.m. on Monday November the 6th at this time of day the dome and it's diamond vault would be open to the public as Shatford prepared his men he knew that any mistakes would have far-reaching consequences if we got this wrong we're talking here the reputation of the Metropolitan Police may be its ability ever to carry on in in tackle crime in this way again I always knew that this is going to be the end of certainly my career if this goes wrong at 2:00 a.m. on the 6th of November Shatford deployed his units at the dome what we had to do was was smuggle people in firearms offices fry and squat offices surveillance offices in the back of furniture removal lorries or whatever we chose to use and you know we were talking about probably a hundred people at a time some of our officers went in pretending to be employees of the dome some donned cleaning uniforms some donned tour guides style uniform I had firearms officers dressed as clean as they had their weapons in in bin liners moving around Shatford and his assistants took their place in the dome CCTV control room and waited at ten to seven the first reports came in that the JCB was leaving its hideout as it was getting lighter for getting reports yet the JCB there's movement down at the coal yard so I thought this is it it's all coming now let's just just prepare for this and let's just get ready but as the police waited they suffered a stroke of bad luck that threatened to wreck the whole operation and then just as we're getting reports Yellin must be closed as an accident outside the front of the dome oh no no police are called and we have a traffic car there blue lights flashing and a worst nightmare I can rap I was just pacing around the road thinking no no I just can't believe this spooked by the police car the JCB turned back and the boat withdrew at the last minute the raid was off that must be the end of story and and we're finished all those Shatford thought he'd blown his final opportunity he decided to have one last look at the tidal charts and I thought well you know we've only got the high tide for we're looking at the maps again and you know you try to find virtue in anything when you're up against and we thought well I suppose you could argue that the tide is slightly higher tomorrow so it might be that they will go again the next morning's high tide would be Shatford last chance not only was the spiraling cost of the huge operation raising eyebrows at the Home Office but the police had also received news that the operation may have been leaked to the media keeping the plan secret for much longer would be impossible so I thought we will deploy tonight we've got now briefed the officers that night knowing that this is out there of course that there are people in the media that know about this and this truly is the last shot we've got at this I say look we've been so close so close but this is the one let's be on our job here you're gonna need to come through on the morning of the 7th officers were again positioned along the route from the coal yard and dug in on the north side of the river armed officers in speedboats and police helicopters were also ready and waiting a hidden ring of Steel was now in place around the dome the vault and the diamonds then the early morning comes and we got a report through that there was activity at the coal yard and then we got reports that the boat was on the note police cameras picked up Milman at the wheel the boat came down the a13 to be positioned on the far side of the Thames the north side of it [Applause] JCPS getting close at the top of the roundabout and as they're getting very much closer and then another report oh the boat is on the waters just gonna drive line at 9:29 a.m. as the first tourists were arriving the JCB driven by Benson with three other robbers hidden in the modified cab was spotted on the final approach road to the dome it negotiated its way very slowly through the sand and gravel pits that ran adjacent to the dome took up a holding position without breaching the the perimeter of the domes outside fence I asked this security at the dome to call certain members of staff for a meeting so we could put us out in place police officers are gradually taking over from dome staff and then what happens but a coach load of children turn up right where we think the robbers are caring it was worse nightmare scenario the robbers are just minutes away and as quick as anything I mean we got people down there and we just whisked them away just moments later at 9:33 a.m. the robbers struck we've actually got it when we're watching it and CCTV I can see it now it starts to rock backwards and forward to Venice and I was getting up its strength then bets in accelerates hard with the JCB and takes out a reinforced concrete pillar that enables him to then crash through the fence [Applause] it was an incredible sight to see even at that point we had no idea that they were going to go this far with the JCB and then I smash straight through the ten 15-foot gate named to our absolute horror they turned and went straight through the sidewall of the diamond as the JCB careered onwards the boat began its run towards the domes landing stage the jcbeep came into the dome itself and and parked directly outside the fold and then they jumped out of the JCB they look like terrorists quite frankly but they're these breathing apparatus on karate started throwing smoke grenades out [Applause] amid the confusion two of the robbers ran into the vault Tim thorne watching via videolink from De Beers headquarters was horrified by what happened next it looked to me that they were carrying state hammers and also something looked like a gun and fired this gun shaped thing into the side of the of the actual display case of soul thorns confidence in the strength of the reinforced glass was about to be shattered the other person picked up the state hammer and started to hammer away at where the gun had been fired and it became quite clear where they were now making quite a considerable hole into the site of our display Kennett after months of frustration the moment Shatford had been waiting for that arrived myself and jeonse Winfield looked at each other and I could Amanda we just nodded you know we were agreeing the time is right send him boys [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Music] the gang had been under surveillance for five months the ambush was over in less than a minute now it was time for the interrogations and the trial although the police had deployed massive force to foil the robbery the operation passed without a single casualty and waiting to hear that we've shot someone I got the message no one injured Betts inand kurachi were arrested outside the vault they gave up without any resistance at all they were overwhelmed by the police response and the fact that action beats reaction inside the vault police armed with stun grenades overpowered Cockrum and an accomplice when you inside a concrete bunker basically this is what it was then you can imagine the explosion and the force of the pressure wave from the explosion and you will see them just topple down is that have been poleaxed the mystery accomplice who wielded the sledgehammer was later identified as Robert Adams a man with a conviction for attempted murder mr. Adams found time to make a joke of the situation that he was here immediately after arrest he said that he was 12 inches from payday out on the river the getaway driver Kevin Meredith was swamped by armed officers the master thought his life was over quite frankly and he was he was arrested very quickly Terence Millman was arrested on the north side of the river disguised as a workman waiting for the getaway boat that never arrived when police later arrested Lee Wenham at Tom farm the team could finally relax jeonse Winfield and I women and congratulated each other we've won you know for all the setbacks we've pulled this off the flying squads biggest operation had ended in stunning success with the spectacular ambush taking place in public front-page headlines were guaranteed the police have described the raid as audacious potentially the biggest robbery in history almost exactly a year later came the trial the court heard how sophisticated the robbers plan had been the judge did ask me what did I think of their attempt and I told him I thought it was exceptional and it was brilliantly executed and as I said that well the crooks have a thumbs up as if well done that's exactly what we thought as well but of course they'd been trapped it emerged that Cockrum had used an industrial nail gun to weaken the supposedly unbreakable glass around the diamond I don't know quite know how they knew that those nail guns would able were able to penetrate that glass but it did it worked perfectly ten seconds they cut a hole into the glass it was revealed that robert adams had only joined the gang the night before the raid that sounds very strange to me someone must have pulled out who had knowledge of it and that the replaced placed a man in an attempt to reduce the charge of armed robbery to one of simple theft defense lawyers argued that the gang had not used firearms on the raid the main crux of the robbers defensive call was that they didn't have any weapons they were trying to portray that there were no more than accomplished shoplifters doing a smash and grab the reality was the level of planning their appearance the fact that they look like paramilitaries the fact that they were going to use his JCB to tank effectively all didn't cut in the eyes of the jury and they quite clearly brought in the right verdict dome Raiders ray Benson and Billy Cochran were today jailed for 18 years for their part in the attempted robbery of the millenium star fellow gang members Aldo kurachi and Robert Adams got 15 years the boat driver Kevin Meredith got five years for conspiracy to steal Lee Wenham received four years for his role in the dome robbery and a further nine for the Aylesford heist no other gang member has ever stood trial for either the Aylesford or The Nine Elms raid the last member of the gang Terence Millman died of cancer in prison while awaiting trial in the years that have followed the trial one rumor about the robbery has refused to go away had the gang been working for someone else I was just managing to pick up whispers that possibly there's a Russian connection and that this is where the diamond was going to go that I couldn't actually you know grip that that there was someone Baker you know my own belief is that that there were other people involved speculation but well-informed speculation I think there is one final twist to the tale of the great dome diamond robbery it since emerged that before the gang struck the millennium Stars owners De Beers swapped their priceless stone for this valueless replica so after all the months of planning even if the robbers had succeeded their Hall would have been worth precisely nothing [Music]

Channel: Real Crime

Views: 40,916

Rating: 4.7306733 out of 5

Keywords: real crime, crime documentary, true crime, amazing stories, geezers, bbc documentary, criminal, vault, diamond heist, full length documentaries, oceans eleven, amazing documentaries, timeline, robbery, full documentary, oceans 8, millenium heist, documentary movies - topic, documentaries, diamond, tlc, extraordinary people, only human, 2017 documentary, heist, heist documentary, crime, documentary, real stories, tv shows - topic, channel 4 documentary

Id: k9GXHEiIw_E

Length: 46min 7sec (2767 seconds)

Published: Sat Nov 23 2019