One of many members of the £350million Millennium Dome diamond heist is a profitable businessman dwelling it up in a £1million house and is married to a glamorous US former trend mannequin, MailOnline can reveal.
Aldo Ciarrocchi, who now enjoys a really center class way of life, was a key member of the mob which deliberate to steal the Millennium Star diamond in 2000 within the doomed raid that is been changed into a Man Richie Netflix blockbuster.
MailOnline can reveal how, 25 years on, IT knowledgeable Ciarrocchi is a rich father-of-two, having proposed to his gorgeous spouse within the customer’s room at Belmarsh Jail utilizing a hoop pull from a Coke can.
He has fared moderately higher than different gang members, one in all whom died in jail from the theft, one other who died awaiting trial and a 3rd who served 12 years and was jailed once more, this time for an extra 13 years for an additional bungled theft shortly after his launch.
Nicknamed ‘The Technician’, Ciarrocchi’s position within the heist was to attend exterior and set off smoke bombs, whereas the remainder of the gang tried to smash the glass cupboard containing the 203-carat Millennium Star diamond, stated to be value £200million.
Ciarrocchi and his mannequin spouse Elisabeth Kirsch, 49, who has a level in English Literature now run a profitable reclamation web site in south London – and personal a sprawling warehouse property that was featured within the Sunday Instances.
Talking completely to MailOnline in regards to the Netflix hit, Ciarrocchi, now 55, mirrored that it was the largest failure in prison historical past – and known as it a ‘suicide mission’.
He stated: ‘I took an opportunity, I did one thing dumb. I used to be younger and I used to be silly.’
Aldo Ciarrocchi pictured along with his glamorous mannequin spouse Elisabeth and their two youngsters Isobella (far left) and Piera (far proper)
The Ciarrocchis’ sprawling warehouse property is located close to the dome has featured within the Sunday Instances
Their transformed warehouse, a former canine biscuit manufacturing unit, has been employed out for a lot of motion pictures, together with crime dramas equivalent to The Hitman’s Bodyguard
Just like the New Labour-inspired Millennium Dome itself, the dramatic raid to snaffle the gorgeous De Beers diamond assortment was an ignominious failure.
Months of planning and meticulous preparation went into the audacious heist which concerned a JCB smashing into the dome itself and a speedboat standing prepared as a getaway car.
However the would-be Dome Raiders have been thwarted by an informer who tipped off police – with some 100 armed officers mendacity in look ahead to the gang to strike.
The diamonds, which had already been swapped for nugatory fakes – simply in case, remained untouched, with the crooks receiving as an alternative as much as 18-year stretches in jail.
As Ritchie’s ‘The Diamond Heist’ has enthralled Netflix viewers, Ciarrocchi, admits ‘forcing himself’ to look at the present, which he declined all affords to participate in.
He and his spouse run a reclamation enterprise in Poplar, simply a few miles from the Dome – now renamed the 02 Enviornment.
Their transformed warehouse, a former canine biscuit manufacturing unit, has been employed out for a lot of motion pictures, together with crime dramas equivalent to The Hitman’s Bodyguard, starring Samuel L Jackson and Ryan Reynolds.
‘I understand how the enterprise works,’ Aldo instructed MailOnline. ‘They need you to inform your story and so they’re throughout you for 20 minutes and also you make out you have been the mastermind of the operation, however I did not need to get entangled.’
Aldo pictured right here on the time of his arrest in 2000. He was standing exterior throwing smoke grenades to create a diversion
A police boat cuts off the gang’s getaway speedboat ready within the Thames
Pictured is likely one of the gang members as they tried to smash their means by the container holding the diamond
Months of planning and meticulous preparation went into the audacious heist which concerned a JCB smashing into the dome’s metallic gates (pictured)
Raiders used a JCB to smash their means into the Millennium Dome as a part of the audacious raid
Police adopted the gang on CCTV as they made their means in direction of the dome in a van
William Cockram and Raymond Betson testing the speedboat that may be used in the course of the audacious heist
He stated his household agency, Encore Reclamation, even helped match out Man Ritchie’s west finish pub the Lore of the Land, however he had no ambitions to look on display speaking about his ‘massive mistake.’
He added: ‘Good luck to them, the police making out they have been just like the SAS and all that, however on the finish of the day, we did a dumb factor, and if you do one thing as excessive profile as that, you are by no means going to finish up in Spain along with your ft up.
‘The police are going to get you in the end – solely in our case, it was sooner! The cops have been so properly knowledgeable, we have been going right into a suicide mission, we simply did not realize it.’
Ciarrocchi stated he had by no means been concerned in crime earlier than he fell in with the opposite members of the gang.
‘It has been portrayed as a little bit of a caper, and I believe that is honest sufficient,’ he stated. ‘No-one bought harm, and we by no means supposed anybody to get harm. We delayed the raid for an entire month as a result of we wished to choose a time when the Dome could be empty of individuals.
‘If we might been a gang of ruthless robbers, we would not have bothered to attend.’
Ciarrocchi stated he and Elisabeth have been pressured to inform their two teenage daughters of his prison previous about 5 years in the past when Ross Kemp introduced a documentary in regards to the heist.
‘It wasn’t straightforward,’ he stated, ‘We have raised two middle-class ladies whose lives are as far-off from my upbringing as you possibly can think about, however I simply sat them down and instructed them the reality.
Aldo and his spouse – pictured with their two youngsters – run a reclamation enterprise in Poplar, simply a few miles from the Dome – now renamed the 02 Enviornment
Aldo Ciarrochi (circled) poses for a college picture. He was born and introduced up by an Italian father and British mom on a Bermondsey, south London council property left college with few {qualifications}
Aldo stated his household agency, Encore Reclamation, even helped match out Man Ritchie’s west finish pub the Lore of the Land
Among the many gem stones was the Millennium Star, value thousands and thousands of kilos. It had been changed by a faux after police caught wind of the raid
Crooks believed they have been simply inches away from a mega pay day, smashing by a closely armoured show containing diamonds utilizing a nail gun after which a hammer
Pictured is the Millennium Dome the place the audacious raid was staged in November 2000
Lee Wenham, 57, from Kent, was sentenced to 4 years in jail after pleading responsible to conspiracy to steal
Wenham now runs a landscaping enterprise and performed a key position within the Netflix documentary
A bloodied William Cockram pictured right here after being captured. The 72-year-old, from Catford, was sentenced to 18 years for conspiring to rob, although the sentence was decreased to fifteen years on enchantment
In 2012, Cockram sued police for giving him a black eye and fracturing his cheekbone throughout his arrest
The Netflix documentary options first-hand accounts from former gang member Wenham (proper) and the Met’s ex-Flying Squad job for catching them
Raymond Betson served 12 years for the Dome theft. After his launch he tried to rob a money depot, additionally utilizing a JCB in 2012. He was jailed for an extra 13 years
‘It was ahead of I might have wished to inform them, however that was unavoidable. I used to be an fool and made an enormous mistake. We did not glamourise it and did not try to make out it was intelligent.
‘I additionally burdened how dumb I used to be, taking that probability with my life, and the way I might since realized that the one strategy to make it’s to work laborious at college and preserve working laborious in a while.’
Little question the largest transformation in his life has been wrought by Elisabeth, who was a shocking mannequin in her early 20s learning for a level in English Literature when the pair met when he helped her transfer flat.
Their worlds could not have been extra totally different. Aldo, who was born and introduced up by an Italian father and British mom on a Bermondsey, south London council property left college with few {qualifications}.
Elisabeth, an solely youngster, was born in a middle-class suburb of New York. Her father, Peter, was a programs department supervisor for a number one pc firm. Her mom, Marianne, died of lymphatic most cancers when her daughter was 18.
Ciarrocchi was the ‘teen’ of the gang, a person who was, within the decide’s phrases, tempted into the plot by others – however knew the danger he was taking.
In 2002, after Ciarrocchi was despatched down for 15 years (later decreased on enchantment to 12), Elisabeth instructed the Mail: ‘You are questioning, what an higher middle-class lady like me sees in a little bit of tough?
‘The truth that Aldo tried to steal the diamond does not outweigh all the great in him,’ she stated.
Mugshot of Dome gang members: (prime left) Lee Wenham, (prime proper) Terence Millman, (backside left) Ray Betson, (backside proper) William Cockram
‘Getaway skipper’ Kevin Meredith, 58,(proper) a constitution boat skipper from Brighton, confronted a lesser cost of conspiracy to steal. Robert Adams (left), sentenced to fifteen years, died whereas serving his jail sentence
Objects, together with a fuel masks and a nail gun, recovered by police within the aftermath of the abortive raid on the Millennium Dome in November 2000
Betson (pictured) was the mastermind behind the tried jewel heist and drove the JCB by the dome’s gate
Aldo now enjoys a really center class way of life, however he was a key member of the mob which deliberate to steal the Millennium Star diamond
This was the gorgeous diamond that was amongst these crooks wished to steal
Pictured is the scene after police caught the gang following months of surveillance
‘Black Ray’ Betson was regarded by police as a ‘profession robber’. He was caught on movie two months earlier than the raid with Cockram visiting the Dome posing as vacationers
Gangsters Invoice Cockram (left) and Ray Betson at a celebration for Millennium evening 1999 in New York forward of the heist on the dome
After stealing a diamond value £350m, thieves hoped to whizz off down the Thames in a ship
‘After all, he has finished unsuitable and must be incarcerated for his crime. He, too, thinks he must be in jail and feels extremely sorry and remorseful.
‘He was ready the place he believed he may get some huge cash for a reasonably easy bit of labor.
‘However he isn’t a profession prison. I do know that that is the final time he will likely be concerned in crime.’
Because it turned out, she was proper.
The identical wasn’t true for all of the Dome Raiders although.
Ray Betson, 63, served 12 years for the Dome theft. After his launch he tried to rob a money depot, additionally utilizing a JCB in 2012. He was jailed for an extra 13 years.
In 2018, The Solar reported that Betson’s son, Louis, was arrested for allegedly beating and robbing a cab driver in Kent. He was sentenced to 2 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, although the sentence was decreased to fifteen years on enchantment.
In 2012, Cockram sued police for giving him a black eye and fracturing his cheekbone throughout his arrest.
Lee Wenham, 57, from Kent, was sentenced to 4 years in jail after pleading responsible to conspiracy to steal. On the similar time, he was sentenced to 9 years after pleading responsible to a different tried theft, in July 2000.
Since leaving jail, Wenham runs a landscaping enterprise and performed a key position within the Netflix documentary.
‘Getaway skipper’ Kevin Meredith, 58, a constitution boat skipper from Brighton, confronted a lesser cost of conspiracy to steal moderately than to rob and was sentenced to 5 years in jail. After his launch he was reportedly working as a decorator and had expressed a want to start out a fishing journey enterprise.
Robert Adams, sentenced to fifteen years, died whereas serving his jail sentence. Terry Millman died in 2001 from abdomen most cancers whereas out on bail simply 4 months earlier than his trial was on account of start.
