Where is Lee Wenham now? Update on Diamond Heist player

As the only member of the Millennium Dome robbers to share his story, Lee Wenham is a major player in The Diamond Heist. Even though we learned about where his life is now, he’s just shared another exciting update. 

The new Netflix docu-series delves into the stranger-than-fiction case involving a cat-and-mouse chase between the police and a group of career criminals, who set their sights on a massive payday: £350 million worth of diamonds, including the Millennium Star. 

If they had pulled it off, it would’ve been the biggest heist in history. Unfortunately for them, what seemed like an insignificant drink driving incident ended up alerting the police, who began devising a plot of their own. 

The plan came about thanks to ringleader Ray Betson, who brought in the help of Wenham, the loveable rogue you can’t help but root for. As well as appearing in Guy Ritchie’s The Diamond Heist, he’s got an exciting development to share: his new memoir. 

Where is Lee Wenham now?

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Lee Wenham has stayed out of trouble since getting out of prison in 2005, running a landscaping business and raising his two daughters, Beth and Ellie. If you want to learn more about his story, he’s releasing his memoir Diamond Gangster later this year. 

The book, subtitled The Inside Story Behind the GBP350 Million Millennium Dome Heist, is available for pre-order on Amazon Prime now, with its release date set for May 22, 2025. 

As per the description, “Lee Wenham was born to be an arch criminal. With his sticky fingers firmly placed in many illicit pies, Wenham, who comes from a notorious Gypsy family, was set for a life of crime.

“Now, in his ‘no holds barred’ memoir Lee details the hair-raising and often hilarious tales of his life of crime and how he became an integral part of the ill-fated Millennium Dome Diamond Heist as he and his gang attempted to steal jewellery worth a huge £350 million.”

Wenham also has his own author’s profile on the Andrew Lownie Literary Agency site, which states, “Now a humble family man and landscape gardener, Lee looks back at his outrageous career with a wry smile, content to wait in line with everybody else.”

How long was he in prison for?

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Altogether he served four and a half years in prison. This is pretty good going, given he was handed a 13-year sentence for two separate crimes. 

The reason for this is because of his good behavior in prison, the fact that he didn’t physically harm anyone, and that he pleaded guilty. 

These reasons, coupled with the fact that typically inmates serve half of their sentence, is why he was let out in 2005, after being arrested in 2000. 

As Wenham describes in the Netflix docu-series, Betson came to him at the turn of the Millennium with his plan to rob the De Beers collection of diamonds. 

Although Wenham thought it was audacious to say the least, he agreed, and together they rounded up a group of blokes, each with their own unique skillset. 

They included Bob Adams, The Builder, Bill Cockram, The Muscle, Aldo Ciarrocchi, The Technician, Terry Millman, The Experience, and Kevin Meredith, The Boatman.

On November 7, 2000, the heist took place, but they were stopped in their tracks by a team of officers who had been tracking their every move for weeks. 

Not only was Wenham arrested for the incident but he was also connected to another botched robbery attempt that took place in Aylesford, Kent. He got four years for the Dome heist and nine years for Aylesford. 

He may have bagged a lesser sentence, but he made a deal with the prosecutors. You see, Wenham’s father, who he idolizes, was also arrested because he owned Tong Farm, which Betson, Wenham, and co. used as their base. 

Wenham was shocked to see his dad, James ‘Jimmy’ Wenham, deteriorate behind bars. “He wasn’t doing too good,” he says. “In fact, he lost seven stone in seven months and he was suffering.”

He was told that if he pleaded guilty that day, they’d let his dad go – and so that’s exactly what he did. 

It’s clear Wenham is a family man, with a final scene in The Diamond Heist showing him walking through a field with his daughter Beth. 

“Do you think prison changed you as a person?” she asks, to which he replies, “It did change me. It makes you think a bit more before you do things, you know?”

“I was very young when all this happened,” he adds. “I was only 30, 32… You don’t think anything through. All you think about is the money you’re gonna get. The high life.”

“Obviously it’d be a lot different now because I’m a good boy now,” he quips, with Beth agreeing, “Yeah,” while laughing.  

What happened to Terry Millman? 

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Although this isn’t shared in The Diamond Heist, Terence ‘Terry’ Millman actually died on July 13, 2001, while out on bail – just four months before his trial was due to begin. According to reports at the time, he died from stomach cancer. 

As Wenham describes, Millman was a “proper East End gangster.” According to the police’s account of the events, the gang may have gotten away with the heist if it weren’t for Millman drink driving and crashing his van into the side of a pub. 

When they checked his name, they realized he was a career criminal, and they were able to run his fingerprints through the system and match them to a set found at the scene of a different robbery. 

Normally, they would’ve arrested him then and there, but instead they decided to let him go and watch him, which led them to Tong Farm, where Betson and co. were plotting the biggest heist in history. 

Wenham doesn’t react to this specific detail, but he does describe Terry as a “f**king nightmare” – however, it’s said with a smile, indicating a level of affection towards his late co-conspirator. 

The Diamond Heist is streaming on Netflix now. You can also check out the new documentaries coming to streaming this month, read about where Con Mum is now, and find out if Cynthia and Antwon Mans went to jail.