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A gang of burglars who stole more than £26 million worth of items from celebrities' homes have been jailed after they were tracked down to a Kent hotel.
Among the trio's victims were former England footballer Frank Lampard and TV presenter wife Christine, the late former chairman of Leicester City FC and Formula 1 supremo Bernie Ecclestone's daughter, Tamara.
The gang were traced to Kent hotel
But after a lengthy investigation and only a 13-second CCTV clip to identify the burglars from one of the London properties they raided, detectives were finally able to crack the case thanks to a break tracing them to the TLK Hotel and Apartments in St Mary's Cray, near Orpington.
Jugsolav Jovanovic, Alessandro Donati and Alessandro Maltese – all from Milan in Italy – have now been jailed after carrying out the highest value residential burglaries in British history.
The burglars fled to Italy after the break-ins in December 2019 leading to an international investigation being launched by the Met Police.
They broke into the Lampards' house in Kensington on December 1 stealing some £60,000 worth of jewellery.
In a victim impact statement, Mr Lampard, the former Chelsea manager, said the incident has seriously impacted him and his family leaving them with sleepless nights through fears about their security.
Days later they took £1m worth of items – watches and Thai Buddha pendants – left as a shrine at the home of former Leicester chairman Vichai Srivaddhanaprabha, who was killed in a helicopter crash after watching the Foxes in 2018.
The final crime carried out by the gang saw them target Tamara Ecclestone's home in Palace Green where £26 million worth of precious stones, diamonds, watches and cash was taken.
But when the investigation was launched officers only had the short CCTV clip to work with entering and leaving the Palace Green home.
They established an extensive crime scene but had little evidence to identify the culprits except managing to establish the group had got into a taxi.
The registration number could not be distinguished and officers established 1,007 black cabs were in the area that night and started phoning each owner one-by-one.
"This incident has had a major impact on our general feeling of security, particularly with having a 16-month-old baby..."
On call 1,004 police finally spoke to the driver who confirmed he had picked up the suspects that night.
Police were able to establish the group had been travelling regularly between Orpington and central London.
After hours of investigations and finding no leads, a detective on the case walked through Orpington trying to find where the men were based and saw a hotel.
On a hunch, he went in and asked staff about people staying there in November and December 2019.
The team went through a list of all guests and found an identity card belonging to Jovanovic which matched an image of a man investigators had established as one of the suspects.
The subsequent investigation alongside Europol allowed detectives to also identify Maltese and Donati, who were known to have returned to Milan in the days after the last burglary.
Met detectives travelled to Italy and worked with officers in Milan before the three men were extradited to the UK to face charges.
The investigation, which involved more than 50 teams across the Met, saw officers work with authorities around the world including Sweden, Netherlands, France, Serbia, Romania and USA.
Further inquiries established the group flashed the cash in the days following the break-ins including enjoying a luxury sushi meal out at top London restaurant Zuma and a shopping spree at Harrods, which was captured on CCTV.
The gang also opened a £500 bottle of champagne at one of the properties which they drank while raiding the victim's home.
Jovanovic, 24, admitted charges of conspiracy to burgle and conspiracy to money laundering and has been jailed for 11 years.
Donati, 44, and Maltese, 45, were charged with conspiracy to burgle and were both jailed for eight years and nine months.
Mr Lampard added: "I would say that this incident has had a major impact on our general feeling of security, particularly with having a 16-month-old baby.
"The fact that my job means that I travel frequently again raises my concerns. Neither my wife nor I are sleeping too well as a consequence of this incident.
"I would add that while I have been an unfortunate victim of a crime previously, particularly burglary, this incident has had a far greater impact on our lives."
Det Con Andrew Payne, from the Met's Central Specialist Crime unit, compared the case to something from "a Hollywood movie" which unfortunately was "real life and involved real victims".
He said: "These three men meticulously planned these crimes, taking every step to make sure they were no more than shadows and ghosts when moving around London.
“They only paid in cash, they wore caps, they disguised their appearance and they never walked in a group. They carried out detailed reconnaissance for every job they did.
“But what they didn’t account for as part of their planning were the detectives who were to hunt them down, identify them and bring them back to the UK.
“In fact, they were so confident in their ability to evade justice that all three of them individually praised us for working out who they were and locating them.
“We are pleased they are now behind bars and that their plans to commit further crimes in England and further afield have been disrupted."
Det Con Payne added the victims had "all been affected" by the crimes.
"The family of one of the victims – who had recently passed away – said the house was a place of reflection and to pray as it was the place he spent the night before his death," he said.
"The sacred connection was violated, they said, by the burglary.
“The gang even stole the watch that had been left in the exact same place the victim took it off before he left the house for the final time. This is one of the only items that has been recovered, being worn on one of the gang’s associates when they were arrested.
“Almost all of the other property stolen has never been seen again and has been successfully laundered, concealed and disguised.
“Organised Crime Groups (OCNs) like this have intrinsic links to violence in London and we make no apology for tackling them. This investigation has ultimately led to a OCN being disrupted and prevented them from carrying out further offences both in the UK and across Europe.”
In a statement, the family of Mr Srivaddhanaprabha said: "Our late father’s residence was a place of reflection and to pray. We felt it was the strongest connection to him as he spent his last night there before his death.
"Since the burglary, our sacred and special connection has been damaged and violated beyond repair."
Ms Ecclestone said: "It has been really awful, I’m so scared I will not leave my daughter alone in the house at night because I just feel like the people I am meant to trust, I don’t, I’m not sure that I can trust anyone.
"A lot of it (the stolen items) was really personal, I wanted to give some of the items to my daughter one day.
"But aside from that, it has been really hard to try and carry on as normal and feel safe and feel like I can trust people that I meant to trust.
"I feel it (the burglary) has made me think twice about people that I’m meant to trust which is awful because I want be able to go out for dinner and leave my daughter in the house and not worry, and just be able to get back to normal life but it’s been really hard."
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