ON THE LOOSE
Suspect in Tamara Ecclestone £25m jewellery heist STILL on the loose after Serbia refuses to extradite wanted man
A SUSPECT wanted over the £25million raid of Tamara Ecclestone's home is still on the loose after Serbia refused to extradite him.
Daniel Vukovic is said to have led a series of burglaries on the luxury homes of three celebrities in December 2019 - including the infamous jewellery heist.
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And he remains free after Met Police unsuccessfully applied to extradite him from Serbia last spring, reports the
Tamara - daughter of Formula One tycoon Bernie Ecclestone - was targeted by a gang of audacious robbers in the brazen £25m heist.
Vukovic is suspected to be part of a gang involving Jugoslav Jovanovic, Alessandro Maltese and Alessandro Donati, who also targeted the home of ex-Chelsea manager Frank Lampard, and a property owned by deceased Leicester City owner Vichai Srivaddhanaprabha.
The trio were banged up in November - almost a year after the audacious raid at Tamara's £70million London mansion.
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But suspected ring leader Vukovic currently remains at large with cops still on the hunt.
It comes after an investigation found a fresh image of Mr Vukovic leaving Heathrow Airport in December 2019.
A Croatian national, Vukovic is known to Italian authorities under 17 more identities and his real name could be Alfredo Lindley.
While government documents in Serbia show the request to extradite him came under another name - Ljubomir Romanov.
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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.
The first application to extradite him was made on 14 April and was brought to the High Court in Belgrade by the Republic of Serbia's specialised department for organised crime.
The Met Police wanted Vukovic extradited to be prosecuted for "conspiracy to commit a burglary" and for "conspiracy to launder money".
However, the extradition was refused on 15 July by a High Court in Belgrade, according to court documents.
Months later on 13 October this decision was appealed but again upheld by the High Court in Belgrade.
Details in the document say "Ljubomir Romanov" is a "legal resident" of Serbia and therefore the legal basis for extradition was not met.
It then cites an extradition treaty agreement between in which each country can deny extradition of its own citizens.
In a BBC Sounds podcast, Met Police Det Con Andrew Payne said: "It's clear Daniel Vukovic had a leading role in the conspiracy.
"The gang have links to Italy. They also have criminal associates in other European countries. It's highly likely that the stolen goods have gone through camps in Milan.
"It's also a fair assumption that the goods are likely to be in Serbia which is the host country where Daniel Vukovic is.
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"This is a classic case of it's buried treasure. It's out there somewhere. Someone knows where it is. And at some point some of it has to surface."
Tamara, 38, recently revealed she still will never feel safe at home until the final culprit is behind bars.
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