ZB ZB
Live now
Start time
Playing for
End time
Listen live
Listen to NAME OF STATION
Up next
Listen live on
ZB

F1 heiress has $100m worth of jewellery stolen after posting about holiday

Author
Newstalk ZB, CNN,
Publish Date
Tue, 17 Dec 2019, 7:03PM
Tamara Ecclestone posted that she was going on holiday before she was robbed. (Photo / Getty)

F1 heiress has $100m worth of jewellery stolen after posting about holiday

Author
Newstalk ZB, CNN,
Publish Date
Tue, 17 Dec 2019, 7:03PM

Thieves took off with jewellery reportedly worth tens of millions of dollars after raiding the London home of Formula 1 heiress Tamara Ecclestone on Friday.

Police officers attended an address in Palace Green, Kensington just after 11 p.m. local time following reports of a burglary in which a number of items of jewellery were stolen, according to a statement from the Metropolitan Police.

"At this time we are investigating this as an isolated burglary and we are retaining an open mind around other lines of inquiry," said Detective Sergeant Matthew Pountney, from Central West Command Unit.

"Police were called by security within the building to three males who had been present inside the property and a fast-paced investigation is underway to locate the suspects and missing items."

No arrests have been made and inquiries continue following the incident, police said.

Ecclestone is known as a model, television presenter and socialite, as well as being the daughter of former Formula 1 Chief Executive Bernie Ecclestone.

"I can sadly confirm there has been a home invasion. Internal security are cooperating with police in this matter," a spokesman for Tamara Ecclestone told the Press Association news agency.

"Tamara and family are well but obviously angry and shaken by the incident."

Sky News correspondent Enda Brady told Andrew Dickens that Ecclestone posted on Instagram that she was going on holiday. 

"Well, over the weekend, the burglars got in."

Brady says that she lives on Billionaire Row near Kensington Palace, with multiple billionaires and embassies in close proximity that are under close watch by CCTV cameras, but somehow the burglars managed to avoid being caught. 

"There's a massive manhunt underway."

British tabloid The Sun reported that £50 million (NZ$100 million) in jewellery had been stolen by thieves who entered the property and smashed their way into safes hidden in the bedroom Ecclestone shares with husband Jay Rutland.

"Every piece of jewellery in the £70 million mansion is said to have been swiped in a 50-minute raid — just hours after the F1 heiress, 35, left the country for her Christmas holidays," wrote The Sun, citing a neighbourhood source.

Rings, earrings and an £80,000 (NZ$160,000) Cartier bangle are among the items stolen, the newspaper said.

"Burglary is a distressing crime and we are keeping the victim up to date with the investigation," said Pountney.

Other famous jewellery heists in recent times include the July 2018 raid in which thieves stole a number of precious royal artifacts from a Swedish church before escaping by speedboat.

In 2015, burglars broke into Hatton Garden Safe Deposit Co. in London before making off with nearly £14 million ($21.2 million) in gems, jewellery and cash.

It was later described in court as the "largest burglary in English legal history."

 

 

Take your Radio, Podcasts and Music with you