The husband of Formula 1 heiress Tamara Ecclestone has revealed the couple could not recoup any of the £25 million lost in Britain's biggest burglary due to an astonishing insurance blunder.
Art gallery owner Jay Rutland, Ms Ecclestone, 40, their daughter and dog were holiday in Lapland when their mansion in Palace Green, Kensington, was raided.
Thieves stole hundreds of items of jewellery, cash, diamonds and precious stones worth from the 2,000 square-foot property in December 2019.
Mr Rutland, 44, told the Daily Mail an insurance policy for their £75m home he shared with the daughter racing supremo Bernie Ecclestone contained an exemption clause for watches and gems which had previously gone unnoticed.
He accepted responsibility for a lack of diligence that meant the family were unable to make a claim for the valuables that looted, adding: “Our total insurance claim was for, I think, 40 grand or 45 grand, something like that, which was for the doors in the house - because [the burglars] smashed down 25 or 30 doors.
“Every door to every room was locked. So that meant they had to crowbar each door open.
“So, I remember we claimed on the insurance for those doors to be replaced, but that was it. Nothing else was insured.”
Italian nationals Jugoslav Jovanovic, Alessandro Maltese and Alessandro Donati – who also took part in raids on the homes of former Chelsea FC midfielder and manager Frank Lampard and the late Leicester City FC owner Vichai Srivaddhanaprabha – were jailed for a total of 28 years in November 2021 after a Metropolitan Police investigation.
One suspect, Daniel Vukovic, fled to Belgrade in the wake of the raid and Ms Ecclestone offered £250,000 for information leading to his capture, as well as a £6 million reward if her belongings are recovered.
Another man accused of being involved in the burglaries, Ljubomir Radosavljevic, 43, was charged with money laundering offences – understood to be linked to the 2019 raids – in Serbia in June.
It emerged today the gang behind the break-ins also targeted the homes of supermodel Kate Moss and musician Eric Clapton, who declined to comment.
Mr Rutland added: “For Tamara, it was literally every piece of jewellery that she'd accumulated since she was 16.
“I think she was lucky in the sense that it wasn’t her wedding ring because she had it on her.
“But there were lots of very sentimental pieces that she’d been given by her mum, by her dad, by other family members, by me.”
