One of the members of the £350million Millennium Dome diamond heist is a successful businessman living it up in a £1million home and is married to a glamorous US former fashion model, MailOnline can reveal.
Aldo Ciarrocchi, who now enjoys a very middle class lifestyle, was a key member of the mob which planned to steal the Millennium Star diamond in 2000 in the doomed raid that’s been turned into a Guy Richie Netflix blockbuster.
MailOnline can reveal how, 25 years on, IT expert Ciarrocchi is a wealthy father-of-two, having proposed to his stunning wife in the visitor’s room at Belmarsh Prison using a ring pull from a Coke can.
He has fared rather better than other gang members, one of whom died in prison from the robbery, another who died awaiting trial and a third who served 12 years and was jailed again, this time for a further 13 years for another bungled robbery shortly after his release.
Nicknamed ‘The Technician’, Ciarrocchi’s role in the heist was to wait outside and set off smoke bombs, while the rest of the gang attempted to smash the glass cabinet containing the 203-carat Millennium Star diamond, said to be worth £200million.
Ciarrocchi and his model wife Elisabeth Kirsch, 49, who has a degree in English Literature now run a lucrative reclamation site in south London – and own a sprawling warehouse property that was featured in the Sunday Times.
Speaking exclusively to MailOnline about the Netflix hit, Ciarrocchi, now 55, reflected that it was the biggest failure in criminal history – and called it a ‘suicide mission’.
He said: ‘I took a chance, I did something dumb. I was young and I was stupid.’
Aldo Ciarrocchi pictured with his glamorous model wife Elisabeth and their two children Isobella (far left) and Piera (far right)
The Ciarrocchis’ sprawling warehouse property is situated near the dome has featured in the Sunday Times
Their converted warehouse, a former dog biscuit factory, has been hired out for many movies, including crime dramas such as The Hitman’s Bodyguard
Like the New Labour-inspired Millennium Dome itself, the dramatic raid to snaffle the stunning De Beers diamond collection was an ignominious failure.
Months of planning and meticulous preparation went into the audacious heist which involved a JCB smashing into the dome itself and a speedboat standing ready as a getaway vehicle.
But the would-be Dome Raiders were thwarted by an informer who tipped off police – with some 100 armed officers lying in wait for the gang to strike.
The diamonds — which had already been swapped for worthless fakes — just in case — remained untouched, with the crooks receiving instead up to 18-year stretches in jail.
As Ritchie’s ‘The Diamond Heist’ has enthralled Netflix viewers, Ciarrocchi, admits ‘forcing himself’ to watch the show, which he declined all offers to take part in.
He and his wife run a reclamation business in Poplar, just a couple of miles from the Dome – now renamed the 02 Arena.
Their converted warehouse, a former dog biscuit factory, has been hired out for many movies, including crime dramas such as The Hitman’s Bodyguard, starring Samuel L Jackson and Ryan Reynolds.
‘I know how the business works,’ Aldo told MailOnline. ‘They want you to tell your story and they’re all over you for 20 minutes and you make out you were the mastermind of the operation, but I didn’t want to get involved.’
Aldo pictured here at the time of his arrest in 2000. He was standing outside throwing smoke grenades to create a diversion
A police boat cuts off the gang’s getaway speedboat waiting in the Thames
Pictured is one of the gang members as they tried to smash their way through the container holding the diamond
Months of planning and meticulous preparation went into the audacious heist which involved a JCB smashing into the dome’s metal gates (pictured)
Raiders used a JCB to smash their way into the Millennium Dome as part of the audacious raid
Police followed the gang on CCTV as they made their way towards the dome in a van
William Cockram and Raymond Betson testing the speedboat that would be used during the audacious heist
He said his family firm, Encore Reclamation, even helped fit out Guy Ritchie’s west end pub the Lore of the Land, but he had no ambitions to appear on screen talking about his ‘big mistake.’
He added: ‘Good luck to them, the police making out they were like the SAS and all that, but at the end of the day, we did a dumb thing, and when you do something as high profile as that, you’re never going to end up in Spain with your feet up.
‘The police are going to get you sooner or later – only in our case, it was sooner! The cops were so well informed, we were going into a suicide mission, we just didn’t know it.’
Ciarrocchi, who proposed to Elisabeth on his knees in the visitor’s room at Belmarsh Prison, with the ring-pull from a can of Coca Cola, said he had never been involved in crime before he fell in with the other members of the gang.
‘It’s been portrayed as a bit of a caper, and I think that’s fair enough,’ he said. ‘No-one got hurt, and we never intended anyone to get hurt. We delayed the raid for a whole month because we wanted to pick a time when the Dome would be empty of people.
‘If we’d been a gang of ruthless robbers, we wouldn’t have bothered to wait.’
Ciarrocchi said he and Elisabeth were forced to tell their two teenage daughters of his criminal past about five years ago when Ross Kemp presented a documentary about the heist.
‘It wasn’t easy,’ he said, ‘We’ve raised two middle-class girls whose lives are as far away from my upbringing as you can imagine, but I just sat them down and told them the truth.
Aldo and his wife – pictured with their two children – run a reclamation business in Poplar, just a couple of miles from the Dome – now renamed the 02 Arena
Aldo Ciarrochi (circled) poses for a school photo. He was born and brought up by an Italian father and British mother on a Bermondsey, south London council estate left school with few qualifications
Aldo said his family firm, Encore Reclamation, even helped fit out Guy Ritchie’s west end pub the Lore of the Land
Among the gemstones was the Millennium Star, worth millions of pounds. It had been replaced by a fake after police caught wind of the raid
Crooks believed they were just inches away from a mega pay day, smashing through a heavily armoured display containing diamonds using a nail gun and then a hammer
Pictured is the Millennium Dome where the audacious raid was staged in November 2000
Lee Wenham, 57, from Kent, was sentenced to four years in jail after pleading guilty to conspiracy to steal
Wenham now runs a landscaping business and played a key role in the Netflix documentary.
A bloodied William Cockram pictured here after being captured. The 72-year-old, from Catford, was sentenced to 18 years for conspiring to rob, though the sentence was reduced to 15 years on appeal
In 2012, Cockram sued police for giving him a black eye and fracturing his cheekbone during his arrest
The Netflix documentary features first-hand accounts from former gang member Wenham (right) and the Met’s ex-Flying Squad task for catching them
Raymond Betson served 12 years for the Dome robbery. After his release he attempted to rob a cash depot, also using a JCB in 2012. He was jailed for a further 13 years
‘It was sooner than I would have wanted to tell them, but that was unavoidable. I was an idiot and made a huge mistake. We didn’t glamourise it and didn’t try and make out it was clever.
‘I also stressed how dumb I was, taking that chance with my life, and how I’d since learned that the only way to make it is to work hard at school and keep working hard later on.’
No doubt the biggest transformation in his life has been wrought by Elisabeth, who was a stunning model in her early 20s studying for a degree in English Literature when the pair met when he helped her move flat.
Their worlds couldn’t have been more different. Aldo, who was born and brought up by an Italian father and British mother on a Bermondsey, south London council estate left school with few qualifications.
Elisabeth, an only child, was born in a middle-class suburb of New York. Her father, Peter, was a systems branch manager for a leading computer company. Her mother, Marianne, died of lymphatic cancer when her daughter was 18.
Ciarrocchi was the youngest member of the gang, a man who was, in the judge’s words, tempted into the plot by others – but knew the risk he was taking.
In 2002, after Ciarrocchi was sent down for 15 years (later reduced on appeal to 12), Elisabeth told the Mail: ‘You’re wondering, what an upper middle-class girl like me sees in a bit of rough?
‘The fact that Aldo tried to steal the diamond doesn’t outweigh all the good in him,’ she said.
Mugshot of Dome gang members: (top left) Lee Wenham, (top right) Terence Millman, (bottom left) Ray Betson, (bottom right) William Cockram
‘Getaway skipper’ Kevin Meredith, 58,(right) a charter boat skipper from Brighton, faced a lesser charge of conspiracy to steal. Robert Adams (left), sentenced to 15 years, died while serving his prison sentence
Items, including a gas mask and a nail gun, recovered by police in the aftermath of the abortive raid on the Millennium Dome in November 2000
Betson (pictured) was the mastermind behind the attempted jewel heist and drove the JCB through the dome’s gate
Aldo now enjoys a very middle class lifestyle, but he was a key member of the mob which planned to steal the Millennium Star diamond
This was the stunning diamond that was among those crooks wanted to steal
Pictured is the scene after police caught the gang following months of surveillance
‘Black Ray’ Betson was regarded by police as a ‘career robber’. He was caught on film two months before the raid with Cockram visiting the Dome posing as tourists
Gangsters Bill Cockram (left) and Ray Betson at a celebration for Millennium night 1999 in New York ahead of the heist at the dome
After stealing a diamond worth £350m, thieves hoped to whizz off down the Thames in a boat
‘Of course, he has done wrong and should be incarcerated for his crime. He, too, thinks he should be in prison and feels incredibly sorry and remorseful.
‘He was in a position where he believed he could get a lot of money for a fairly simple bit of work.
‘But he is not a career criminal. I know that this is the last time he will be involved in crime.’
As it turned out, she was right.
The same wasn’t true for all the Dome Raiders though.
Ray Betson, 63, served 12 years for the Dome robbery. After his release he attempted to rob a cash depot, also using a JCB in 2012. He was jailed for a further 13 years.
In 2018, The Sun reported that Betson’s son, Louis, was arrested for allegedly beating and robbing a cab driver in Kent. He was sentenced to two years and three months at a juvenile detention centre.
Betson’s fellow ring-leader, William Cockram, 72, from Catford, was sentenced to 18 years for conspiring to rob, though the sentence was reduced to 15 years on appeal.
In 2012, Cockram sued police for giving him a black eye and fracturing his cheekbone during his arrest.
Lee Wenham, 57, from Kent, was sentenced to four years in jail after pleading guilty to conspiracy to steal. At the same time, he was sentenced to nine years after pleading guilty to another attempted robbery, in July 2000.
Since leaving prison, Wenham runs a landscaping business and played a key role in the Netflix documentary.
‘Getaway skipper’ Kevin Meredith, 58, a charter boat skipper from Brighton, faced a lesser charge of conspiracy to steal rather than to rob and was sentenced to five years in prison. After his release he was reportedly working as a decorator and had expressed a desire to start a fishing trip business.
Robert Adams, sentenced to 15 years, died while serving his prison sentence. Terry Millman died in 2001 from stomach cancer while out on bail just four months before his trial was due to begin.
