Pictured for first time, maid who ‘raided Tamara’
A ROMANIAN cleaner accused of a £50million raid on the home of Tamara Ecclestone wept yesterday as she denied any involvement.
Maria Mester, 4 , was allegedly wearing £300,000, 18-carat diamond earrings, identical to those stolen in the burglary, when she was arrested.
But yesterday she sobbed as she told a judge: ‘I’m not guilty – I wasn’t even there.’
The housemaid and her son Emil-Bogdan Savastru, 29, are accused of plotting to steal £50million in jewellery and cash from Miss Ecclestone’s £ 0million gated mansion on ‘Billionaires’ Row’ in Kensington, west London.
Savastru, a bartender in London, was allegedly found with a Louis Vuitton bag similar to one stolen in the December 13 raid.
Mester, pictured here for the first time, appeared at Isleworth Crown Court in West London yesterday via video link from HMP Bronzefield in Surrey to deny conspiracy to burgle and a charge of concealing criminal property. Dressed in black, she sat with her head bowed weeping throughout the hearing and spoke only to confirm her name, nationality, date of birth and plea.
Miss Ecclestone, 35, the daughter of ex-Formula One boss Bernie Ecclestone, had left the country with her husband Jay Rutland, 38, for a threeweek Christmas holiday the day their home was burgled.
Prosecutors say an organised international crime group flew in specifically to target them.
Most of the stolen property has never been recovered and Miss Ecclestone wrote on Instagram recently that she had been suffering from anxiety since the burglary.
Savastru was not in court yesterday due to an error by prison staff and will appear next month. Mester was remanded back into custody, with a provisional trial date set for July 20.
Thomas Williams, prosecuting, said police are still collecting evidence in the case.
Mester was arrested on January 31 at Stansted airport after arriving from Italy, where she lives. Savastru was arrested at Heathrow airport as he prepared to fly to Japan.
Two other suspects have been released under investigation.
‘I wasn’t there’