MEGA HEIST
Tamara Ecclestone says £25million burglary of cash & jewellery from her £70million mansion was an ‘inside job’
Tamara revealed how the burglary has had a long lasting effect on her and the whole family
SOCIALITE Tamara Ecclestone fears her £25million home burglary could have been an "inside job".
Tamara - the daughter of Formula One tycoon Bernie Ecclestone - was targeted by a gang of audacious robbers while living on exclusive street "Billionaire's Row" back in 2019.
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A trio of Italian thieves were all jailed for a total of 28 years but a still paranoid Tamara says she thinks the raid has almost certainly more to it than a routine robbery.
The 40-year-old British model and mum-of-two has spoken out on the UK's biggest ever break-in for the first time this week.
She told The Times: "I just felt violated. We thought about moving, or moving country.
"It definitely made me feel that things aren’t always as they appear.
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“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.”
When asked if she felt like the burglary could have been an inside job, Tamara replied: "I’m not really allowed to speak about that but I don’t see how it’s not."
Despite three men being locked up - one of which has already been freed - a fourth person remained on the run from cops.
An international manhunt was launched for Daniel Vukovic with officials finally saying they've caught the thief living under an alias in Serbia.
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But Vukovic is reportedly yet to be extradited to the UK.
Tamara has always been clear that her family will never feel safe at home until the final culprit is behind bars.
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She told the BBC: "Definitely our lives will never be the same because there's just now always worry, there's worry about the one thing I didn't worry about which was being safe in this house.
"I worried about so many other scenarios, so many other situations."
A cleaner was also charged in connection with the burglary at the time but was later cleared of any involvement.
Tamara has consistently blasted the authorities dealing with the case after it was revealed the criminals have only paid back £4,725 out of the £435,000 ordered by a judge in court.
Heiress Tamara said her family were still “traumatised” by the raid adding that as of last year only a single pair of earrings, a watch and a bag have been recovered.
Tamara says the memories have really affected her young daughter Sophia: "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."
In total 450 items were snatched from the London home.
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The home was targeted after Tamara posted about a family holiday to Lapland.
Grainy footage from that night shows a group of men sneaking into the model's back garden and hiding behind daughter Sophia's play house.
They climbed through a window and wrenched open all 57 doors in the mansion with a crowbar before ransacking the home searching for jewels.
A security guard eventually found the men rifling through Tamara's dressing room but they still managed to flee with the millions in diamonds and cash.
Cops miraculously managed to track down a taxi which dropped off the brazen raiders before discovering the robbers spent the following night in a hotel.
Det Con Thomas Grimshaw was told by hotel staff that they had given the men emergency contact details when they checked in.
A few hours later, one of the thieves did the "typical creepy guy thing" and sent a picture of his private parts to the phone, a BBC documentary on the topic alleges.
The receptionist then blocked the number and saved it on the iPhone as "weirdo".
This led officers to track down the number and identify one of the criminals.
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It was later revealed that the group had a history with breaking into celebrity homes.
Football ace Frank Lampard and wife Christine were left with a ransacked house as was late Leicester City owner Vichai Srivaddhanaprabha.
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