Tamara Ecclestone has revealed she believes a £25million burglary at her home was an ‘inside job’ – and fears some of the culprits will never face justice in the UK.
The British model and F1 heiress, 40, has spoken out for the first time since raiders ransacked her home five years ago, making off with diamonds and other valuables.
She has also disclosed in a new interview about how her mind ‘boggled’ at the thought of her Formula One boss father Bernie having another child at 89 – with his eldest offspring being 69.
Mother-of-two Tamara, art mogul husband Jay Rutland and daughter Sophia were in Lapland when three thieves broke in and plundered £25million worth of jewellery and cash from her home on ‘Billionaire’s Row’ in Kensington, west London.
In just over an hour on December 13 2019, the burglars cleared the mansion of 400 items of jewellery and large sums of cash.
Italian defendants Jugoslav Jovanovic, Alessandro Maltese and Alessandro Donati were jailed for a total of 28 at years at Isleworth Crown Court in November 2021 after pleading guilty to conspiracy to burgle.
Donati, 46, was given an eight-year sentence as was Alessandro Maltese, 47, while Jugoslav Jovanovic, 26, got 11 years. A cleaner was charged in connection with the burglary but later cleared of involvement.
revealed Donati was freed just before last Christmas under the early release scheme for foreign prisoners, with Tamara later telling in a statement of her anger and ‘disappointment’ at him being released ‘so soon after the burglary occurred’.
Following the convictions an international manhunt was launched for the fourth man, named in court as Daniel Vukovic.
He is reported to have been charged was charged in Serbia in June this year in connection with the crime, under the name Ljubomir Romanov, but has not been extradited to the UK.
The BBC said, citing court documents, that he had invested money via ‘criminal activities’ in Britain into luxury cars, Belgrade real estate and other items worth £2million.
Alleged money laundering offences were said to be connected to raids on three celebrities’ homes in December 2019.
The gang also ransacked the London homes of Frank Lampard, the former Chelsea midfielder, and Vichai Srivaddhanaprabha, the late billionaire Leicester City owner.
Addressing the raid on her property for the first time now, Tamara told the Times: ‘It’s actually quite hard to talk about because my daughter now has access to Google.
‘We lied to her when it happened because she was young, but she found out anyway.’
Tamara says she now goes everywhere with two bodyguards out of fear of being kidnapped, as her 5ft 4in father has fallen victim to several burglaries.
She described how the burglary has ‘definitely made me feel that things aren’t always as they appear, people you think you can trust, you can’t always trust, which is a lesson I’ve learnt time and time again. This time it really hit home.’
And the socialite told of her frustration that potential offenders remain on the run, while none of the 400 stolen items have been recovered.
She added: ‘The biggest letdown really is that the [other] people who did it will probably never be extradited to the UK.
‘I think it is worse getting caught and then nothing actually happening to them.’
When asked whether she thought the burglary was an ‘inside job’, she replied: ‘I’m not really allowed to speak about that but I don’t see how it’s not.’
Tamara also said of the burglary’s aftermath: ‘I just felt violated. We thought about moving, or moving country.
‘But then I thought, actually, this is my house and, before this happened, this has been such a happy place.’
She had bought the home for £45million in 2011, though properties in the same street are now being valued at more than £200million.
Tamara has also spoken about her response to her father Bernie earlier this year welcoming into the world his son Ace with Fabiana Flosi, his third wife, and a Brazilian model 46 years his junior.
She told the Times, ‘The mind does boggle’, but dismissed the suggestion she might offer guidance on raising a toddler, adding: ‘My dad would not like my advice -or anyone else’s for that matter.’
Fabiana revealed at the time that she enjoyed an easy labour, saying: ‘It was all so easy. The birth was over after 25 minutes. I thank god’.
Tamara has previously said she was ‘absolutely thrilled’ for her father when Ace was born.
After being told that her father was set to welcome another child, over a family lunch, Tamara told the Mail On Sunday that she was ‘surprised but not totally blindsided’.
She said: We had no idea what was going on. We just thought we were meeting Dad and Fabi for a meal. We were in the middle of eating when Fabiana told us.
‘My husband missed it – he was like, “Hold on a minute, what’s going on? Have I missed something?”‘
Always keen to treat his offspring equally, Bernie immediately called his youngest daughter, Petra, who was pregnant with her fourth child and living in Los Angeles.
Tamara said: ‘He wanted us all to know at the same time, It was all done very diplomatically.’
But diverting away from her father, she opened up to The Times on her own experiences with motherhood and how she still breastfeeds her four-year-old.
‘People often ask, ”How long will you breastfeed Serena for?” And I’m like, ”Just ’til she’s done”,’ Tamara said.
‘There’s stigmas about everything – breastfeeding, bottle-feeding, going to work, not going to work, having a c-section, not having a c-section. Women can be so cruel to each other, which I find bizarre.’