the Millennium Dome has had a spectacular year, particularly in terms of its security scares, writes Marie Saverimuttu.
In just one year London’s infamous landmark has experienced security failures and successes. This time last year, it would have taken an astrologer to have predicted what the year 2000 held in store for it.
First Night 2000 kicked off the worst party of the millennium, sparked by a security screening fiasco in which invited VIPs had to queue for hours in the freezing cold. Indeed, it would have been worthy of the Bond-like title ‘Security is not Enough’.
While 10 screening arches had been provided by the Metropolitan Police to the New Millennium Experience Company (NMEC), only five had been erected on the site on New Year’s Eve – ostensibly due to a lack of adequate floor standing. This allowed just 625 of the 10,500 invited guests to be processed every hour, leading to long queues and frustrated partygoers. While neither party would claim responsibility for the security mess up, and no-one was hurt or injured, the Dome’s image – and that of its security provision – suffered badly.
Who, then, could have predicted that 11 months later, the same venue would give the Dome a final curtain, and one of the biggest security face-lifts that no James Bond movie could have staged?
In an operation which had been co-ordinated for months involving security personnel at the Dome and De Beers, the Metropolitan Police Flying Squad and Kent Police foiled what would have been the world’s biggest jewel heist. A gang of four bulldozed their way through the security gates into the Dome’s Money Zone, armed with smoke bombs and gas masks, with the aim of stealing the 203-carat De Beers Millennium Star and 11 rare blue diamonds worth around GB pound 300 million.
However, the diamonds had all been replaced with fakes. And little did the would-be thieves know that, on police advice, security staff had also sealed off the area around the vault in anticipation of the raid. Not only that, armed Flying Squad officers disguised as cleaners had been stationed outside as sentinels.
In any case, the gang’s getaway was ill-planned. The power boat would have been easily identifiable, as would the diamonds (if the thieves had attempted to profit from it). Indeed, the police had been on the lookout for a gang using a power boat as a getaway as there had been two earlier attempts to rob Securicor CIT vans using the same means.
While police have not confirmed that it was the work of the same criminals, they attracted the interest of the Metropolitan Police Flying Squad and Kent police who had been on the case for months and widened their inquiries for possible targets.
Security staff at the Dome would not comment on the incident, but a spokesperson for De Beers said very few people were in the loop on the switching of the diamonds. Police had given them notice of 24 so-called ‘risk days’ of when the attack might take place. Detective Superintendent Jon Shatford led a team of 100 officers backed up by Scotland Yard specialist firearms officers, and successfully arrested six men at the scene of the heist. A further six were arrested in two Kent villages.
Dome security staff would not comment on security arrangements for the diamond collection, but Tim Thorn, head of security at De Beers, said: “We were heavily involved in the design of the vault, and with designing the display cases to meet high security standards. The Metropolitan Police had been in touch with me about a possible raid on the collection at the Dome. When I receive any warnings of possible raids, I take great note of them and enhance security arrangements accordingly.”
Thorn added: “The co-operation between the Met and ourselves was exceptional. There is a great deal of faith required to keep confidentiality of information, and I think we worked well together.”
Thorn heads up security for De Beers’ Diamond Trading Company in 21 countries including Guinea, Congo, Angola, South Africa, Botswana, Namibia, Hong Kong, India, Belgium and Portugal. He said the diamond collection had not been returned to the Dome after the failed heist, leaving the GB pound 758 million landmark to close with one less Star.
