Mother and son are cleared over £25m Ecclestone burglary
FOUR Romanians have been cleared of taking part in a plot to burgle wealthy celebrities.
The four, including a mother and son, were acquitted by a jury on charges relating to what police described as the UK’s biggest conspiracy to raid homes.
Victims included Chelsea manager Frank Lampard and his TV presenter wife Christine, the late Leicester City owner Vichai Srivaddhanaprabha and socialite Tamara Ecclestone. In the raid on Miss Ecclestone’s home in Kensington, west London, thieves stole cash and jewellery worth £25million.
Prosecutors claimed the four defendants had provided logistical support to the alleged burglars. But escort Maria Mester, 48, her bartender son Emil Bogdan Savastru, 30, former sports teacher Sorin Marcovici, 53, and hotel concierge Alexandru Stan, 49, were all cleared following a two-month trial.
They wept yesterday as the jury at Isleworth Crown Court unanimously found them not guilty of conspiracy to burgle homes in west London in December 2019.
Savastru was convicted of one count in relation to a bag and a watch stolen in one of the raids. He will be sentenced later.
Miss Ecclestone, the daughter of ex-Formula 1 supremo Bernie Ecclestone, was on holiday in Lapland with her husband, art gallery owner Jay Rutland, their daughter, their dog and a security guard when her home was burgled.
Prosecutor Timothy Cray QC told jurors the three raids netted ‘big money’. Most of the ‘fabulous jewellery’ stolen had not been recovered. The Lampards had around £60,000 in watches and jewellery stolen on December 1, 2019, while they were out. Raiders then ransacked the family home of Mr Srivaddhanaprabha, who died in a helicopter crash in 2018.
The court heard that Miss Mester flew to the UK from Italy days after the raid on the Lampards’ home in Chelsea.
Police said she was the plot’s ‘matriarch’ and ‘inseparable’ from the alleged burglars, who cannot be named for legal reasons and whom she was alleged to have introduced to Savastru and Mr Marcovici, a childhood friend. The jury did not accept this, however.
Miss Mester said she was in London only because she was paid around £5,000 to accompany one of the alleged burglars for the week.
Savastru was arrested at Heathrow on January 30 last year as he prepared to leave for Japan wearing Mr Srivaddhanaprabha’s Tag watch and carrying a Louis Vuitton bag stolen from Mr Rutland.
He said he thought the items had been left by the alleged burglars at an Airbnb property he had helped them rent but was convicted of attempting to conceal criminal property.
Defence lawyers said the prosecution would have cost the taxpayer millions.