Dennis P.

Dennis P. (or "Denis") is the name police used to identify the 25-year-old man and former employee Dennis Phrommer of diamond trade company Gassan Diamonds in Amsterdam who committed a spectacular theft of 8137 diamonds, together 3,422.9 carats (684.58 g), and other jewelry, with a value of €10 million, from his employer on 4 August 2001. At the time it was the largest diamond theft in the history of the Netherlands. (In 2005 there was one on Amsterdam Schiphol Airport for an even larger value, 150 million euro, see also February 25, 2005.)

Gijsbert Termaat & Tjerk de Vries wrote a book about it, Aan de Haal.

Dennis P. is also the name of a Dutch 2007 film about this event, directed by Pieter Kuijpers, and based on the book.

Dennis P. bought a microwave oven and brought it into the office pretending that this was done to take it home later. After leaving the office he came back later in the evening pretending to take home the micowave oven after having forgotten it earlier. Instead, he emptied the box and filled it with diamonds, and simply walked out with it.

He fled to Germany and Mexico, but turned himself in on 4 September 2001.

Previously he was an army cook and served in Bosnia. He was employed at Gassan Diamonds only since April of the same year.

Dennis was sentenced to a prison term of 2.5 years, but was released earlier because of good conduct. Most of the stolen goods have been returned to the owner, but Dennis reportedly still owes him ca. 500.000 euro. The mother of Dennis' girlfriend Tiffany and the mother's lover got a suspended sentence for complicity.

Plot

Dennis (Edo Brunner) is in love with prostitute Tiffany (Nadja Hüpscher). He is not so interested in sex, but pays her to keep him company, and gives her expensive presents. He gets the money from repeatedly stealing diamonds from his employer Globus Diamonds. In view of an upcoming investigation into the missing diamonds Dennis fears he cannot go on like this. Instead he decides to steal one more time, but now a lot. He succeeds and leaves most diamonds with Tiffany's parents, who will hide them. He and Tiffany go to Mexico: on one hand Dennis flees the country, on the other hand he fulfills Tiffany's wish to go to that country. However, they have to take separate flights: due to the overbooking of their flight the departure is after the theft is discovered, therefore Dennis has to acquire a false passport.

In Mexico it turns out that Tiffany has a lover there whom she is going to marry. The fact that, on top of that, he is a policeman, is no complication, he knows about the theft, but will not report it. Anyway, Dennis is disappointed, and returns to the Netherlands. On arrival he visits his parents' house, where he hears from his mother (Willeke van Ammelrooy) that his father (John Leddy) has just died. His mother strongly disapproves of the theft and refuses the money Dennis gives her, but her father was more positive, with the motto "It is better to regret what you have done than to regret what you did not do". First Dennis plans not to attend the funeral because he would likely be caught by the police, but he goes anyway and, after that, turns himself in. His mother is at last proud of him.

External links

• BBC news report
• Telegraaf news report about the trial (in Dutch)
• Logkrant report (in Dutch)
• Dennis P. on IMDb