Tamara Ecclestone burglars caught when one of gang sent NAKED PHOTO
Tamara Ecclestone burglars who swiped £25m of jewellery in heiress house raid were caught when one of the gang sent lewd NAKED PHOTO to worker at hotel they hid in during heist
- The gang stole £25million worth of jewellery from Miss Ecclestone’s £70million mansion in December 2019
- They left a trail of destruction while the heiress was abroad with her husband Jay Rutland and their daughter
- Hundreds of items including sentimental jewellery, cash, diamonds and precious stones were stolen in raid
- Police caught up with the gang when one of them sent an unsolicited picture of his genitals to a hotel worker
- The new documentary titled Who Stole Tamara Ecclestone’s Diamonds? is available to watch on BBC iPlayer
A gang of thieves who swiped £25million of jewellery from the house of heiress Tamara Ecclestone were caught when one of them sent a naked photo of his genitals to a hotel worker, a documentary has revealed.
The criminals left a trail of destruction through the Kensington home of Miss Ecclestone while she was on holiday in Lapland with her husband, Jay Rutland, and their daughter Sophia.
The four-strong gang had planned the raid on the £70million West London property down to the last detail, but were undone by a crucial mistake by one of their members.
Jugoslav Jovanovic sent a photo of his genitals to a phone number at the hotel where the gang stayed as they split up items taken in a series of raids – they had also targeted the London homes of former England footballer Frank Lampard and late Leicester City owner Vichai Srivaddhanaprabha.
This was a key break in the case as detectives searching for the culprits asked staff at TLK Apartments if any of their guests had caught their attention, with one member of staff saying she had received the photo and saved the number it had come from under the name ‘Weirdo’, The Times reports.
Detectives claim this unusual development prompted them to ask for a copy of Jovanovic’s passport, which had been left in the hotel, and provided the basis for them to identify and arrest three other people.
Jovanovic, Alessandro Maltese, and Alessandro Donati were jailed for a total of 28 years at Isleworth Crown Court in November last year for the terrifying raids. However, the suspected ring leader Daniel Vukovic remains at large and is thought to be in Serbia.
In the BBC 3 documentary, titled Who Stole Tamara Ecclestone’s Diamonds?, the stunning details behind the raid – which is Britain’s biggest domestic burglary – were revealed, as well as the struggle of detectives to find the culprits until their stroke of luck.
Speaking in the programme, Miss Ecclestone, who is the daughter of Formula One mogul Bernie Ecclestone, said her life will ‘never be the same again’ and described her fear at knowing that one of the thieves is still at large.
Footage shows how thieves left a trail of destruction through Tamara Ecclestone’s Kensington mansion before making off with £25million worth of jewels. Every room in the house was completely ransacked by the thieves
The documentary explores how the thieves climbed through this small window (left) at the Kensington mansion after they entered through the back garden. The programme also reveals that the intruders spend an hour in the house and cause a mess with Christmas decorations seen thrown all about the stairs (right)
Tamara Ecclestone appears on the new BBC Three documentary ‘Who Stole Tamara Ecclestone’s Diamonds?’ and reveals she will always worry about being safe at home
This CCTV handout shows the thieves breaking into Miss Ecclestone’s home through the garden as they are also seen to hide by the child’s Wendy House in the footage from that night
A Metropolitan Police photograph of screwdrivers left at the Miss Ecclestone’s property as it was revealed thieves left a trail of destruction throughout it
The raid was carried out on Miss Ecclestone’s £57million home in Kensington, West London which is pictured with Christmas decorations outside in this photo
A selection of the jewels stolen by the gang from Miss Ecclestone’s mansion. The circled image shows the bracelet that Tamara’s husband Jay bought her when their child Sophie was born. it has her daughter’s name spelled out in diamonds and was presented as Tamara was in hospital
This handout shows a selection of watches stolen from Miss Ecclestone’s £70million Kensington home in the devastating raid
Burglar who stole £20m diamonds from Tamara Ecclestone was identified by a ‘D**K PIC’: Thief behind jewellery heist at £70m mansion was caught when he sent hotel worker a lewd picture
The burglars who stole £25million worth of diamonds from Tamara Ecclestone were unmasked after one of them sent a ‘d**k pic’ to a hotel’s out of hours phone, a BBC documentary has revealed.
Police who cracked the infamous jewellery heist at the £70million Kensington mansion of Bernie Ecclestone’s daughter have revealed how they caught Jugoslav Jovanovic after he sent a hotel worker a lewd photo.
Scotland Yard Detective Constable Thomas Grimshaw has described asking a receptionist at a budget hotel called TLK Apartments in St Mary Cray about guests who stayed there in mid-December 2019.
To his astonishment, she told the detective about a man who had sent her colleague inappropriate messages on the hotel’s out of hours iPhone, including a so-called ‘d**k pic’. They saved his number as ‘Weirdo’.
By getting that number, Det Con Grimshaw identified Jovanovic and from there caught most of the gang behind Britain’s biggest domestic burglary.
The raid itself took place in December 2019, with the criminals entering through the garden before being seen hiding behind a child’s Wendy House from security cameras. The gang then smashed open a window to get into the house.
They then ransack her home flinging Christmas decorations around the place, ripping open lots of the doors, causing destruction in every room in the house and breaking furniture over the course of an hour before they were disturbed by a security guard who goes to investigate unarmed and the thieves flee.
Branding the gang ‘disgusting’, Miss Ecclestone said now she has seen the faces of those responsible it is ‘kind of haunting’.
‘Knowing that kind of person has been roaming around your house and helping themselves to my most treasured valuable possessions is just a horrible feeling. I feel like I can’t get those faces now out of my mind.
‘Definitely our lives will never be the same because there is always worry about the one thing I never used to worry about – which was being safe in this house.
‘I worried about so many other scenarios and situations. I just know that there’s still one of them out there and that is probably one of the things that is really hard to deal with.’
She also revealed that several of the jewellery items had sentimental value like a bracelet Jay bought her when their child Sophie was born which was inset with diamonds spelling out their daughter’s name.
Her mother, Slavica Ecclestone, also gave her the diamond earrings she owned when her daughter was in her 20s which Tamara has kept ever since and are now gone.
‘They are irreplaceable to me as they have such sentimental value,’ she added. ‘[These] are the things that hurt the most as they are the memories of the most special moments of my life.’
Speaking to the BBC Jay said: ‘In terms of the amount that was stolen, it was something like 450 different items.
‘All of the jewellery and the watches that were stolen were all excluded in the insurance policy. The total monetary value of everything that was stolen was just over £20million.
‘After [the thieves] had been in there an hour, after they have ransacked every single room. The security guard hears a noise and goes off to investigate, he doesn’t raise an alarm, he doesn’t arm himself with a weapon, he doesn’t do anything. He just goes off to investigate.
‘He continues to go upstairs where he runs into the three intruders. He apparently chases them downstairs and at some point there is a fire extinguisher thrown at him that misses.
‘And all three intruders are able to escape with all the bags off into the night.’
The suspected ring leader Vukovic currently remains at large and is thought to be in Serbia. Attempts have been made to extradite him, but these have been refused by the Serbian authorities.
A Croatian national, Vukovic is known to Italian authorities under 17 more identities and according to the BBC his real name could be Alfredo Lindley. He has a criminal record dating back to 1995 and by 2017 his various aliases had links to Sarajevo, Belgrade, Zagreb and Milan, the BBC found.
Police have also linked Vukovic to the alleged burglaries of international footballers Patrick Vieira and Sulley Muntari in 2009, according to Italian court documents.
This handout shows a selection of jewellery stolen by the gang from Miss Ecclestone’s West London home in December 2019
Croatian ring leader Daniel Vukovic, pictured at Heathrow, still remains at large and is thought to be in Serbia. Attempts have been made to extradite him, but these have been refused by the Serbian authorities. A Croatian national, Vukovic is known to Italian authorities under 17 more identities and his real name could be Alfredo Lindley. He has a criminal record dating back to 1995 and by 2017 his various aliases had links to Sarajevo, Belgrade, Zagreb and Milan, the BBC found
Gang members Jugoslav Jovanovic (left) Alessandro Maltese (centre), and Alessandro Donati (right) were jailed in 2019
The gang carried out three raids in West London over just 13 days in December 2019 – with the other victims being former Chelsea FC midfielder and manager Frank Lampard, 43, and his 42-year-old television presenter wife Christine, and the late Leicester City FC owner Vichai Srivaddhanaprabha.
Police said the gang are believed to have carried out similar crimes against high-profile victims across Europe and had planned to commit further raids on the rich and famous in the UK.
Detectives have not revealed the identities of other potential victims, who did not know how close they came to being burgled as the thieves carried out reconnaissance missions and dummy runs.
Jovanovic, Maltese and Donati were extradited from Italy and pleaded guilty to conspiracy to burgle between November 29 and December 18, 2019 over the three raids.
Jovanovic also admitted conspiracy to commit money laundering between December 10, 2019 and January 31, 2020, and one count of attempting to convert criminal property.
He was jailed for 11 years at Isleworth Crown Court in November 2019, while Maltese and Donati were each sentenced to eight years and nine months in prison.
The men were brought to the court in West London under armed police guard as a helicopter flew overhead.
Only a handful of items have been recovered with the rest of the £26million worth of loot believed to have been taken abroad.
The Lampards had around £60,000 in watches and jewellery stolen while they were out of their Chelsea property on December 1.
On December 10, the gang targeted Mr Srivaddhanaprabha’s Knightsbridge home, which had been turned into a shrine by his family following his death, aged 60, in a helicopter crash shortly after take-off from the King Power Stadium on October 27, 2018.
Among more than £1million in property stolen was a TAG Heuer watch he was wearing before he left for Leicester that day.
The burglars even popped a £500 bottle of Cristal champagne to drink as they carried out the raid and later celebrated with a £760 sushi meal in Knightsbridge restaurant Zuma.
On the way to the final £25million burglary at Miss Ecclestone’s house, Maltese stole a packet of chewing gum from a kiosk at Victoria station as the gang stopped to buy coffee and pastries.
Jovanovic and his uncle Vukovic were later seen on CCTV in Harrods department store spending thousands of pounds on luxury goods and signing up for loyalty cards using fake names.
Tamara Ecclestone and husband Jay Rutland pictured at the 9th Annual Global Gift Gala at the Rosewood Hotel in London in November 2018. The couple were away on holiday with their daughter, Sophia, when the raid took place
Police van carries the three convicted burglars from Isleworth Crown Court following their sentencing in November 2021. The gang were escorted to court by a police helicopter during their trial
Incredibly, detectives who were struggling to find the burglars unmasked the crooks when one of them sent a so-called ‘d**k pic’ to a hotel’s out of hours phone.
Police who cracked the infamous jewellery heist have revealed how they caught Jovanovic after he sent a hotel worker a lewd photo.
Scotland Yard Detective Constable Thomas Grimshaw has described asking a receptionist at a budget hotel called TLK Apartments in St Mary Cray about guests who stayed there in mid-December 2019.
To his astonishment, she told the detective about a man who had sent her colleague inappropriate messages on the hotel’s out of hours iPhone, including a so-called ‘d**k pic’. They saved his number as ‘Weirdo’.
By getting that number, Det Con Grimshaw identified Jovanovic and from there caught most of the gang behind Britain’s biggest domestic burglary.
Who Stole Tamara Ecclestone’s Diamonds? is available on BBC iPlayer and was broadcast on BBC Three at 9pm last night. It will be repeated on the channel at 10.50pm on Sunday night.
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