Tamara case ‘ like Hollywood movie’
...and I’d be Liam Neeson, says prosecutor
A SERIES of multi-million-pound robberies at celebrity homes could well become the subject of a Hollywood movie, a court was told yesterday.
Watches, jewellery and other valuables worth £26million were stolen from stars including Formula 1 heiress Tamara Ecclestone over 13 days, jurors heard.
Prosecutor Timothy Cray QC yesterday said the story was likely to be turned into a film named Fat Geese And Stupid Chickens. Summing up the case, he said: ‘I don’t think it is too imaginative that one day the events we have all been [dealing] with are going to be turned into a movie. All the good stories are.’
Mr Cray added: ‘ We say there certainly were fat geese in this case – they don’t come much fatter than the Ecclestones – but these chickens were very far from stupid and were more than prepared to strip flesh from the geese.’
Four defendants are on trial accused of being the ‘support team’ for the burglars, who also allegedly targeted the homes of Chelsea manager Frank Lampard and the family of late tycoon Vichai Srivaddhanaprabha, who owned Leicester City.
The prosecutor told London’s Isleworth Crown Court the four defendants provided ‘transport, back-up, a base and help getting the loot out of the country’.
Mr Cray suggested his own part in the film should be played by Liam Neeson.
Referencing the actor’s line from the 2008 thriller Taken, Mr Cray said: ‘I would quite like to be played by Liam Neeson – “I will find you and I will convict you”.’ He reminded jurors that the home of Mr Lampard, 42, and his wife Christine, 41, was the first to be raided last December.
Thieves allegedly took valuables worth £60,000, including Mrs Lampard’s £36,000 diamond-studded watch.
They then targeted the home of Mr Srivaddhanaprabha in Knightsbridge, central London, nine days later.
He had died a year earlier in a helicopter crash. Euros
‘£26million was stolen’
worth £360,000 and expensive watches were taken from his home, the court heard.
The final burglary, at Miss Ecclestone’s £70million Kensington home, saw £25million of cash and valuables stolen jurors were told.
The thieves, who cannot be named for legal reasons, are claimed to have scaled the mansion’s back wall and evaded security staff.
Maria Mester, 47, of no fixed address, and her son EmilBogdan Savastru, 30, from London’s Bethnal Green, deny conspiracy to burgle.
Sorin Marcovici, 53, of Romford, and Alexandru Stan, 49, of Harrow in London, also deny conspiracy to burgle.
The trial continues.