Who is Tamara Ecclestone? Focus of BBC Three diamonds documentary explained
The documentary delves into the biggest domestic burglary in English legal history.
Christmas 2019 was fast approaching when Tamara Ecclestone, her husband Jay Ruthland and daughter Sophia jetted off to Lapland for the perfect holiday.
But their seasonal celebrations soon descended into a nightmare as, that evening, a gang of thieves broke into Ecclestone's property in West London’s Kensington Palace Gardens and made off with more than £25m worth of cash and jewellery.
A security guard at her home discovered three intruders just after 11pm, who had somehow managed to get past the six-inch reinforced steel door of Ecclestone’s dressing room.
Now, the story of the biggest domestic burglary in English legal history is being told in the BBC Three documentary Who Stole Tamara Ecclestone’s Diamonds?, which sees Ben Bryant and journalist Thomas Mackintosh meet with some of the suspects, as well as the heiress, to try to demystify the case that baffled authorities.
So, who is Tamara Ecclestone and who stole her diamonds? Read on for everything you need to know about the heiress.
Who is Tamara Ecclestone?
Tamara Ecclestone is a British socialite and daughter of former F1 boss Bernie Ecclestone and model Slavica.
The billionaire heiress was born in Milan, Italy, but was educated in London, and has tried her hand at modelling as well as TV presenting, having hosted Sky Sports Italia's coverage of the 2009 Formula 1 season.
She was also the focus of an ITVBe reality show in 2017, titled Tamara's World, which offered viewers a glimpse into her life.
Who stole Tamara Ecclestone’s diamonds?
As seen in the BBC Three documentary and on BBC News, after fleeing the scene, the three burglars went to a hotel in St Mary Cray, Bromley, on London’s Zone 6.
It was there that one of them sent a hotel employee an explicit picture, leading her to save his number in the phone under “weirdo”.
This was the breakthrough that Det Con Grimshaw needed to identify the first suspect in the burglary: a 23-year-old man called Jugoslav Jovanovic.
After a lengthy police investigation, an appeal through EuroPol eventually helped identity the final two suspected burglars: jewel expert Alessandro Maltese, aged 45, and 44-year-old Alessandro Donati.
In a 2021 trial, the trio were convicted for conspiracy to burgle after pleading guilty, and jailed for 28 years in total.
Four suspects accused of helping the gang behind the burglary plot – Maria Mester, 48, her son Emil Bogdan Savastru, 30, former sports teacher Sorin Marcovici, 53, and hotel concierge Alexandru Stan, 49 – were all found not guilty following a two-month trial.
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Who Stole Tamara Ecclestone’s Diamonds? airs on BBC Three tonight (21st July) at 9pm, and is available to watch on BBC iPlayer.
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Authors
Molly Moss is a Trends Writer for Radio Times, covering the latest trends across TV, film and more. She has an MA in Newspaper Journalism and has previously written for publications including The Guardian, The Times and The Sun Online.
