Tamara Ecclestone offers £6m reward after ‘traumatising’ burglary

Bernie Ecclestone's daughter says she has waited long enough to have her items returned through conventional methods

Tamara Ecclestone. AP

Socialite Tamara Ecclestone has offered a multimillion-pound reward for information that might lead to the recovery of some of her “most precious” belongings, which were stolen in Britain’s biggest burglary.

The daughter of former Formula One supremo Bernie Ecclestone said she had “waited long enough” to have some of her items returned by conventional means and was “going Mel Gibson-style from the movie Ransom” in an attempt to do so.

The home of Ms Ecclestone, 38, was raided on December 13, 2019, while she was on holiday in Lapland with her husband, art gallery owner Jay Rutland, their daughter and their dog.

During a trial last year, Isleworth Crown Court heard how she was left “scared” and “obsessing over security” after her Kensington mansion was burgled of £25 million ($30m) worth of cash, jewellery and gems.

Police said the gang responsible is 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.

While three men were jailed in November 2021, Ms Ecclestone said none of her family’s stolen possessions, other than a single pair of earrings, had been found since the burglary.

On Sunday, she said the episode “still traumatises my family and I to this day”.

“The thought of those disgusting people rummaging through every room in my house, invading my home, touching my belongings and stealing some of the things most precious to me, means I will never be able to lay my head to rest in that house again with the same sense of security that I once had,” Ms Ecclestone wrote on Instagram.

She said her daughter “still asks if the burglars are coming back and won’t sleep alone”.

Ms Ecclestone said she would “happily” offer a reward of 25 per cent of the value of anything the police recovered from information brought forward.

“Whilst I have accepted that I will never likely see my stolen belongings again, I will happily put up a reward of 25 per cent of the value of anything that the police are able to recover resulting from information provided by a source," she wrote.

“If you are the source, you get the reward. It’s that simple.”

She said the reward could be up to £6m “for anyone that can help me get back what is rightfully mine”.

Ms Ecclestone said she was also offering a £250,000 reward to anyone who can “deliver Daniel Vukovic to the police in London”.

Vukovic, believed to be a Serbian national, was named in court as a suspected fourth member of the gang.

Police said he uses a string of aliases including Alfredo Lindley, Ljubomir Radosavljevic and Ljubomir Romanov.

The court heard he had fled to the Serbian capital Belgrade, where he is still thought to be living, after a failed extradition bid.

The Metropolitan Police said their inquiries are continuing and that detectives from their specialist crime department are seeking this man.

Italian nationals Jugoslav Jovanovic, Alessandro Maltese and Alessandro Donati, found to have been behind three raids in west London in December 2019, were all handed prison sentences last year.

They were extradited from Italy and pleaded guilty to conspiracy to burgle between November 29 and December 18, 2019.

Jovanovic also admitted conspiracy to commit money laundering and one count of attempting to convert criminal property.

He was jailed for 11 years, while Maltese and Donati were each sentenced to eight years and nine months in prison.

Victims of the other raids included former Chelsea FC midfielder Frank Lampard and his television presenter wife Christine, and the late Leicester City FC owner, Vichai Srivaddhanaprabha.

Ms Ecclestone’s reward offer follows a BBC documentary that was broadcast in recent days, entitled Who Stole Tamara Ecclestone’s Diamonds?.