Tamara Ecclestone and her husband Jay Rutland were left devastated after discovering they couldn’t reclaim a single penny of the £25 million in jewellery and watches stolen from their home, all due to a small but costly insurance loophole.
The high-profile burglary took place in late 2019 while the couple were away on a festive trip to Lapland. International jewel thieves had scoped out the homes of London’s elite before targeting the Ecclestones’ mansion in Kensington, famously nicknamed “Billionaires’ Row.” The same gang also hit the homes of Frank and Christine Lampard and the late Leicester City owner Vichai Srivaddhanaprabha.
Despite the staggering value of items stolen, the family’s insurance policy excluded coverage for watches and jewellery — something that had gone completely unnoticed. Speaking on the Heists, Scams and Lies podcast, Jay, 43, admitted the oversight was theirs. “Our total insurance claim was for, I think, 40 grand or 45 grand, which was for the doors in the house,” he said. “They smashed down about 25 or 30 doors… but nothing else was insured. Watches and jewellery were very specifically excluded. That’s our fault and it teaches you the importance of checking the small print.”
The break-in left Tamara, 40, traumatised. The haul included nearly every piece of jewellery she’d ever been gifted or collected since her teenage years, many holding deep sentimental value. “For Tamara, it was every piece of jewellery that she’d accumulated since she was 16,” Jay added. “There were lots of very sentimental pieces given to her by her mum, her dad, other family members, and me.”
Thankfully, Tamara was wearing her wedding ring on holiday at the time, sparing that one cherished item. But almost everything else — including priceless family heirlooms — vanished in the blink of an eye.
The thieves, identified as Jugoslav Jovanovic, Alessandro Maltese, and Alessandro Donati, were eventually caught and sentenced to a total of 28 years in 2021 after pleading guilty to conspiracy to burgle. But the stolen items, looted over 13 days across three properties, have largely never been recovered and are believed to have been smuggled out of the UK.
The experience forced the couple to ramp up their home security — and served as a brutal reminder that even the ultra-wealthy can be caught out by a few lines of fine print.
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