Huge Tamara Ecclestone Housebreaking Case Cracked … Because of a Penis Pic?!

A brand new BBC report detailed how Detective Constable Thomas Grimshaw’s go to to a finances lodge in January 2020 led to the police discovering a photograph of male genitalia that had been despatched to a lodge worker — and the way that message led to the police discovering their first suspect within the case.

Again in December 2019, Ecclestone — a British mannequin, socialite and heiress, who’s the daughter of former Formulation 1 racing boss Bernie Eccelstone — left to go on trip along with her husband Jay Rutland and their daughter Sophia.

That night time, their Kensington Palace Gardens residence — which is positioned on what known as “billionaire’s row” — was burglarized by a gaggle of thieves, who stole about $30 million in money and jewellery, which included watches and diamonds.

Whereas a safety guard on the household’s property noticed three unmasked intruders, they in the end escaped. The guard discovered them inside Ecclestone’s dressing room, known as a “vault,” which has a six-inch metal door however was not locked. The burglars had been capable of get previous the guard and escaped by a window.

The Met’s Flying Squad then started the investigation — titled Operation Oakland — nonetheless, they initially did not have a lot proof to go on.

However after CCTV footage confirmed the gang of thieves getting in a cab, detectives then contacted the round 1,000 cab drivers who had been working that night time to ask in the event that they recalled selecting up three Japanese European males.

One taxi driver remembered driving the burglars, which led investigators to a finances lodge known as TLK Flats in southeast London. Det Con Thomas Grimshaw then went to the lodge and spoke to the receptionist, asking her if she recalled the three males who had stayed there the month earlier than.

The receptionist mentioned she remembered a sure group of males specifically, as one in all them had despatched her co-worker a sequence of vulgar messages on the lodge’s after-hours iPhone. One of many messages was, most notably, a penis pic. The lodge even saved the person’s quantity within the telephone, labeling it as “Weirdo.”

“As soon as I knew this, I felt like we would recognized the suitable group of individuals,” Grimshaw mentioned.

The lodge employees had made a replica of the person’s picture ID when he had checked in. This gave police their first suspect, who was recognized as Jugoslav Jovanovic, a 23-year-old from Italy.

Detectives realized about Jovanovic’s legal previous, connecting him to a number of superstar residence burglaries, and in October 2020, Jovanovic was arrested in Italy. He was then extradited to the UK the next April.

In the meantime, the opposite two thieves — Alessandro Maltese and Alessandro Donati — like Jovanovic, had been arrested in Italy and extradited to Britain. In November 2021, all three pleaded responsible to conspiracy to burgle and had been sentenced to a complete of 28 years in jail for his or her involvement in three superstar residence raids.

Nevertheless, the true id of the alleged mastermind behind the robberies continues to be on the run. The suspect — who the BBC discovered has practically 20 aliases — is reportedly dwelling in Serbia as a free man.