F1 heiress Tamara Ecclestone and her husband were unable to recoup any of the £25million lost in Britain’s biggest burglary because of an astonishing insurance blunder, it has been revealed on a new investigative podcast from the Daily Mail, Heists Scams and Lies: The Hunt for Tamara Ecclestone’s Missing Diamonds.
International jewel thieves ransacked the family’s sprawling Kensington mansion while they were on holiday in Lapland, making off with millions worth of priceless gems, watches and cash.
And there was another gut punch to come when the devastated mother-of-two and her husband, Jay Rutland, discovered they could not claim a penny back for the stolen goods.
Incredibly, the insurance policy for their £75million home contained an exemption clause for watches and jewellery that had previously gone unnoticed.
The bombshell is one of several shocking revelations from the Heists, Scams and Lies podcast, out today and available on all good podcast platforms.
The explosive new True Crime series lifts the lid on the burglary spree that rocked Britain, tracks the stolen loot across Europe and even features interviews with associates of the thieves themselves.
Another bombshell revealed in the show is that the gang behind the break-in also targeted the homes of supermodel Kate Moss and musician Eric Clapton.
The thieves spent days scouting the mansions of London’s rich and famous before selecting their final targets: the homes of Frank and Christine Lampard, the late Leicester City owner Vichai Srivaddhanaprabha and of course, the Ecclestone mansion on Billionaires’ Row.
F1 heiress Tamara Ecclestone (right) and her husband Jay Rutland (left) were unable to recoup any of the £25million lost in Britain’s biggest burglary
The jaw-dropping investigation will unfold on the first season of the Mail’s ‘Heists, Scams, and Lies’. Listen here
Incredible CCTV shows the thieves breaking into Ms Ecclestone’s home through the garden and tiptoeing past a Wendy House
Jay Rutland and his wife, Tamara Ecclestone, pictured with her father, F1 supremo Bernie, were on holiday in Lapland when the thieves smashed into their home
The thieves spent almost an hour in Jay and Tamara’s home on Kensington’s ‘Billionaires’ Row,’ smashing through almost every door and filling their bags with jewels, watches and cash
A selection of the jewels stolen by the gang from the mansion. The circled image shows the bracelet that Tamara’s husband Jay bought her when their daughter Sophia was born
Some of the luxury watches snatched from the home
Speaking exclusively to the Heists, Scams and Lies podcast, Mr Rutland said he accepted responsibility for a lack of diligence that meant the family were unable to make a claim for the valuables looted from their home.
‘Our total insurance claim was for, I think, 40 grand or 45 grand, something like that, which was for the doors in the house because [the burglars] literally smashed down about 25 or 30 doors,’ he said.
‘If you can imagine, every door to every room was locked. So that meant they had to crowbar each door open. So, I remember we claimed on the insurance for those doors to be replaced, but that was it. Nothing else was insured.’
The creative director at the Maddox Gallery added: ‘Don’t get me wrong, that’s our own fault and clearly it teaches you the importance of checking the small print.
‘But that was one of the exclusions in the policy – watches and jewellery, very specifically.’
In just one hour the burglars cleared the mansion of 400 items of jewellery, watches and large sums of cash while the family were abroad.
‘For Tamara, it was literally every piece of jewellery that she’d accumulated since she was 16,’ Mr Rutland said.
‘I think she was lucky in the sense that it wasn’t her wedding ring because she had it on her where we were.
‘But there were lots of very sentimental pieces that she’d been given by her mum, by her dad, by other family members, by me.’
The gang smashed through almost every door in the home using crowbars
More of the jewellery stolen from the home
Almost none of the stolen property, snatched from the three mansions over 13 days in December 2019, has ever been recovered and is thought to have been smuggled across Europe and beyond.
Prior to the raids, the gang also scouted a £3.5million central London property owned by Mr Clapton since 1991, and a £11.5million mansion in north-west London which was owned by Ms Moss at the time.
A source close to the investigation confirmed that the two celebrities had been on the hitlist for the gang of thieves.
‘Scouting missions were carried out on a number of celebrities’ homes, because the thieves knew these people would have expensive jewels and memorabilia inside,’ they said.
‘The purpose of the reconnaissance was to get a feel for possible entry points and weaknesses – anywhere that looked too secure they would leave and move onto the next home.’
Neither Ms Moss or Mr Clapton, named as the second greatest guitarist of all time by Rolling Stone magazine, would comment.
But Mr Rutland told the podcast: ‘I’m sure for them it feels like a lucky escape…because [the burglars] were clearly professionals.’
A spokesman from Scotland Yard said they could not confirm which houses the burglars had observed prior to the break-ins.
Jugoslav Jovanovic (wearing black) carried out the £25million heist at Ms Ecclestone’s Kensington property with expert jewel thieves Alessandro Maltese (red), nicknamed the ‘Pink Panther’, and Alessandro Donati (beige)
Ringleader Ljubomir Radosavljevic, 43, remains in custody in Belgrade after armed police swooped on a hotel room to arrest him and his family. He faces charges of trying to smuggle the stolen luxury goods across international borders and laundering £26million of assets stolen from Switzerland and the UK
Security worker Sorin Marcovici was cleared of involvement in the ‘Burglary of the Century’ raid on Tamara Ecclestone’s mansion, and has spoken with the Heists, Scams and Lies podcast about driving the thieves around London
In November 2022, Italians Jugoslav Jovanovic, Alessandro Maltese and Alessandro Donati were jailed for a total of 28 at years at Isleworth Crown Court after pleading guilty to conspiracy to burgle.
The fourth man, a Serbian said to have been the mastermind behind the heists, Ljubomir Radosavljevic, 43, remains in custody in Belgrade.
An extradition request from the UK was turned down, but he faces charges in his homeland of trying to smuggle the stolen luxury goods across international borders and laundering £26million of assets stolen from Switzerland and the UK.
The first series of Heists, Scams and Lies podcast, which launches today, tells the story of the most incredible burglary spree in British history from the perspectives of the victims, the detectives who hunted the thieves and even associates of the criminals themselves.
Listen to Episode 1 now on all good podcast platforms, or binge the whole series from today by subscribing to The Crime Desk, the home of arresting podcasts.
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