Diamond robbers 'planned to use stink bombs'
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Your support makes all the difference.The armed gang accused of attempting the world's biggest diamond robbery at the Millennium Dome planned to use stink bombs to drive away visitors and staff, the Old Bailey was told.
The raiders set off smoke grenades as they entered the vault containing the de Beers stones, worth £200m, after crashing into the Dome using a JCB digger. Their plan had been to create an "atmosphere of panic and confusion" to allow the six-man team to smash their way into the armour-plated glass cabinet holding the gems, it was claimed.
Martin Heslop QC, for the prosecution, said Raymond Betson, 39, who was driving the JCB and wearing body armour, was carrying a stink bomb and a container of ammonia.
Police, disguised as Dome staff, foiled the raid on 7 November last year by moving in as the gang set about trying to break into the jewel case.
One of the defendants, William Cockran, 48, fired a nail gun twice into the glass cabinet while an accomplice, Robert Adams, 57, attacked it with a sledgehammer, cracking the glass, Mr Heslop said. Both men were wearing gas masks and carrying bottles of ammonia to squirt at anyone who attempted to intervene. One of the bottles had burst and caused the men to have breathing difficulties.
When Mr Adams was disarmed and arrested by Flying Squad officers, he allegedly said: "I was 12 inches from pay day. It would have been a good Christmas."
Jurors were told the gang, who were aiming for the Millennium Star and 11 other diamonds, had arrived at the Dome with equipment including bolt cutters and a sophisticated scanning device to listen to police radio frequencies.
Two accomplices, one waiting near the Dome at the Millennium Pier on a speedboat and another with a getaway van on the opposite side of the river, were also arrested. There had been nearly 40 firearms officers inside the Dome and a total of 80 more positioned in boats on the Thames and on each bank of the river to arrest the accomplices.
Mr Adams and Mr Betson, both of no fixed address; and Mr Cockran, of Catford, south-east London, deny conspiracy to rob, as do Kevin Meredith, 34, of Brighton; Wayne Taylor, 35, of Tonbridge, Kent; and Aldo Ciarrocchi, 31, of Bermondsey, south-east London.
The trial continues.
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