’66 World Cup thieves robbed Sophia Loren of £2m gems
Mystery of £2m Loren jewellery raid is solved after 58 yrs
WORLD Cup thief Sidney Cugullere was the crook who stole diamonds, emeralds and rubies worth £2million from Sophia Loren, it is claimed.
The actress was left inconsolable by the raid in 1960, during filming of The Millionairess with Peter Sellers.
A chest of drawers at her hotel near Elstree, Herts, was forced open and a leather case containing the gems taken.
It was one of Britain’s biggest jewellery thefts, but no one was ever charged.
Now a source close to Sidney has said: “He took them, I know that. Sid was not one for lying about these things.”
Italian star Loren, then 24, was left “shocked and sobbing” and offered a £20,000 reward but the jewels, worth £185,000 at the time, were never found.
Pierre Rouve, producer of The Millionairess, said they must have been taken between 8 and 10pm while Miss Loren was meeting her husband, Carlo Ponti.
Mr Rouve said Miss Loren, then one of the world’s biggest stars, had been a very poor girl and the jewels symbolised her struggle for success.
Two ageing cat burglars claimed responsibility in 1994, but neither was charged.
Ray “The Cat” Jones, then 77, walked into a North London police station to confess to the theft weeks after Peter Scott, 63 – a burglar who styled himself “The Human Fly” – said it was him.
But the source said: “That is a load of rubbish.”
The Mirror revealed yesterday that armed robber Sidney, then 40, stole the World Cup in 1966 with the help of his brother, Reg.
His identity was originally given to us by an underworld source with no links to his family.
It was confirmed by Reg’s son, Gary, after we approached him, and another source who knew Sidney for decades.
The villain was part of the Walworth “thieving network” along with Ted
Betchley, the only man ever convicted in connection with the Jules Rimet trophy theft, when he was caught trying to collect a ransom. One source said: “Many a time Sid would say he was the first Englishman to lift the World Cup in 1966 and that he
did it before Bobby Moore. He was an opportunist and the stealing of the Cup was just that.
“He didn’t have any inside information or help from the guards. It was spur of the moment.”
He had tried to extort a ransom of £15,000 for the trophy with the help of Betchley, but the plan went wrong after his friend was arrested. Yet still he was not exposed as the culprit. Crane operator Gary, 50, said: “I was 15 when dad told me about it for the first time. At first I didn’t believe him but the look on my mum’s face told me that it was true. As he got older dad would come out with more and more of the story.
“It was a very close circle of family who knew and it has been a closely guarded secret for the last 52 years.
“I have had this incredible story on my shoulders for all those years. I didn’t want to take it with me to my grave but I have never said anything until now.”
Sidney was jailed for 25 years during a life of crime that was bookended by spells in borstal as a child and a stretch in Wandsworth prison while a pensioner.
During his heyday, Sidney is said to have walked into the Grosvenor Hotel in Central London dressed as a waiter and emptied the display cases before calmly walking out.
Sidney evaded justice for the World Cup theft, but got eight-and-a-half years in 1971 for a £100,000 fake-fivers plot. Reg got six years.
The last sentence he got was 13 years in the 1980s for robbery.
He died of prostate cancer in St Thomas’ hospital in 2005, three years after his only child, Lesley, died.
Gary said: “In his final days, Sid was laughing that the police had got the last laugh.
“He ended up in a hospital room that had been paid for by the police, with a plaque on the wall.”