Burglar admits £25m raid on Tamara Ecclestone’s Kensington mansion

Jay Rutland and Tamara Ecclestone
Dave Benett
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An Italian man has admitted being part of a team of burglars who carried out a £25 million raid on Formula One heiress Tamara Ecclestone’s home.

Alessandro Donati, 43, was involved in the December 2019 break-in at the Kensington mansion Miss Ecclestone shares with her husband Jay Rutland and her children.

Despite the presence of a security team at their £70 million 55-room home near to Kensington Palace, burglars were able to enter the property and spend almost an hour hunting for valuables.

An estimated £25 million-worth of jewels and others were stolen in the December 13 2019 raid, while Miss Ecclestone and her family were away on a skiing holiday.

A Louis Vuitton hand bag and a £300,000 pair of diamond earrings were reportedly among the stolen items.

At Isleworth crown court this afternoon, Donati pleaded guilty to a burglary conspiracy between November 29 and December 18, 2019.

Other high-value homes are said to have been targeted by the same thieves.

Fellow Italians Alessandro Maltese, 45, and Jugoslav Jovanovic, 23, are also in custody accused of being part of the burglary conspiracy.

Maltese is due to appear in court to enter a plea on April 23, while Jovanovic appeared before the crown court for the first time yesterday and has not yet entered a plea.

Judge Martin Edmunds, the Recorder of Kensington and Chelsea, remanded Donati in custody this afternoon, adjourning his sentencing hearing to a later date.

The court heard Donati has entered a “basis of plea” with his acceptable of guilty, which will now be considered by prosecutors.

“Mr Donati is remanded in custody”, concluded the judge. “The sentence will take place in due course.”

Donati was arrested in Italy under a European Arrest Warrant in October last year, and was returned to the UK on November 5.

His arrest came after an investigation by the Metropolitan Police’s Flying Squad.

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