After thieves stole £25 million worth of jewelry from her £70 million estate, Tamara Ecclestone admitted she will always worry about being safe at home.
The socialite also remarked that their “lives will never be the same again” in her 57-room home in West London, where she resides with husband Jay Rutland and their daughter Sophia.
When her home was raided in December 2019, Miss Ecclestone, 38, the daughter of former Formula 1 executive Bernie Ecclestone, was vacationing in Lapland with her family.
The 2,000 square foot property in Kensington, which is on a private lane, had 400 items stolen from it, including jewelry, money, diamonds, and precious stones.
A new BBC documentary details the raid on the six-story home, which is thought to have been the largest domestic burglary in UK history.
I guess we won’t ever see those things again, and I have to be okay with that, Tamara Ecclestone remarked on “Who Stole Tamara Ecclestone’s Diamonds?”
Our lives will undoubtedly never be the same since there is now constant anxiety, including worry over the one thing—being safe in this house—that I used to care about.
I was concerned about a ton of different potential outcomes and circumstances.
Jugoslav Jovanovic, 24, Alessandro Maltese, 45, and Alessandro Donati, 44, all Italian nationals, were three of the gang of robbers who were sentenced to prison in November 2019.
A failed extradition attempt led to the escape of a fourth gang member, Daniel Vukovic, 44, who is believed to be a Serbian national using a number of names.
He is currently believed to be in Belgrade.
I just know there’s still one of them out there, and that’s probably one of the things that’s really hard to deal with, Miss Ecclestone continued.
The gang carried out three raids in West London over the course of just 13 days in December 2019, and the deceased Vichai Srivaddhanaprabha, owner of Leicester City FC, and former Chelsea FC footballer and manager Frank Lampard, both 43, were also victims.
According to police, the group is thought to have committed similar crimes against well-known victims across Europe and had intended to carry out other raids on the wealthy and well-known in the UK.
Other possible victims, who were unaware of how near they came to being broken into as the thieves conducted reconnaissance missions and dummy runs, have not yet been identified by detectives.
Miss Ecclestone remarked of the condemned men, “They are horrible.
The fact that people are such lowlifes makes me sick to my stomach. After seeing their faces, it’s somewhat eerie.
They f***ing look beyond.
“Knowing that they kind of person has been hanging out in your house and helping themselves freely to my most valuable and treasured items.”
Simply said, it’s a terrible feeling.
I feel as though I will never be able to forget those faces.
Following their extradition from Italy, Jovanovic, Maltese, and Donati pled guilty to conspiring to commit robbery between November 29 and December 18, 2019 in connection with the three searches.
Jovanovic also acknowledged one count of attempting to convert illegal property between December 10, 2019, and January 31, 2020, as well as a conspiracy to launder money.
In November 2019, he was sentenced to 11 years in prison at Isleworth Crown Court, while Maltese and Donati received individual sentences of 8 years and 9 months apiece.
A police helicopter hovered overhead as the guys were transported to the court in West London under armed police protection.
Only a few of the £26 million worth of loot have been found; the remainder is thought to have been taken abroad.
On December 1, the Lampards’ Chelsea home was broken into while they were away, taking over £60,000 worth of watches and jewelry.
The group went after Mr. Srivaddhanaprabha’s Knightsbridge residence on December 10, which his family had turned into a shrine after his death, at the age of 60, in a helicopter crash shortly after takeoff at the King Power Stadium on October 27, 2018.
The TAG Heuer watch he was sporting when he went for Leicester that day was among more than £1 million in stolen valuables.
The thieves even opened a £500 bottle of Cristal champagne to enjoy during the robbery before celebrating with a £760 sushi dinner at the Zuma restaurant in Knightsbridge.
A Maltese burglar grabbed a pack of chewing gum from a vending machine at Victoria station while the gang paused to get coffee and pastries on their approach to the last £25 million heist at Miss Ecclestone’s home.
Later, CCTV footage from the Harrods department store revealed that Jovanovic and his uncle Vukovic had spent hundreds of pounds there on expensive items and bogus names had been used to sign up for loyalty cards.