Burglary suspect ‘an escort, not thief’
A WOMAN accused of taking part in Britain’s largest domestic burglary conspiracy, which targeted the home of Leicester City’s late owner Vichai Srivaddhanaprabha, said she was a “simple escort” not a thief.
Maria Mester, 47, denied having any involvement in the £26 million conspiracy, where four alleged thieves stole expensive jewellery, property and cash from three celebrity homes in West London during a two-week period last December, a court heard.
The pinnacle was a £25 million raid on the home of socialite Tamara Ecclestone and her husband Jay Rutland.
The alleged burglars cannot be named for legal reasons, while Mester, her son Emil Bogdan Savastru, and two other men are accused of being among the “supporting cast” by helping in various ways, rather than carrying out the raids. The four on trial deny all charges, including conspiracy to burgle, while Mester and Savastru are also charged with money laundering.
Mester gesticulated repeatedly as she told jurors she had nothing to do with the plot. Under crossexamination from junior prosecutor Paul Jarvis at Isleworth Crown Court on Monday, she described herself as a “stupid chicken” compared with the “professional” burglars.
Mester said she was in London only because she was paid about £5,000 to work as an escort for one of the alleged burglars, staying in an apartment in Orpington, Bromley, where the raiders were said to have been based.
Mr Jarvis asked: “Why would he (the alleged burglar) want an innocent person to spend the week with him at (the apartment)?”
Mester replied: “He invited me to be his escort, not to participate (in the burglaries).
“I came here as an escort. I didn’t come here to babysit them. It’s not rocket science.
“A man who wants to have fun does not entrust an escort with his personal details, his information.”
She described her and her son as “two victims in this”.
The court heard Mester was arrested in January after returning to London, when she was said to be wearing a pair of earrings identical to those stolen in the Ecclestone raid.
The trial previously heard three homes were targeted – that of Chelsea FC manager Frank Lampard, then the late Leicester City FC chairman Vichai Srivaddhanaprabha and then the Ecclestone home.
The trial continues.