A woman accused of involvement in the £50 million jewellery burglary at Tamara Ecclestone’s Kensington home has today denied involvement in the raid.
Maria Mester, 47, has been charged with conspiracy to commit burglary after a cache of jewels were stolen from Ms Ecclestone’s £70 million mansion.
The Formula 1 heiress and her family were on holiday at the time of the burglary, on December 13 last year, when a group of thieves are said to have raided their 55-room home on a road dubbed ‘Billionaire’s Row’.
The stolen items, worth an estimated £50 million, are said to include rings, earrings, and an £80,000 Cartier bangle given as a gift when Ms Ecclestone married businessman Jay Rutland.
Mester, a Romanian national who lives in Italy, appeared via videolink at Isleworth crown court this morning (fri) to plead not guilty to a burglary plot between November 30 last year and February 1 this year.
Speaking through an Italian interpreter, she told the court: “Not guilty, I was not even there.” She also denied a charge of concealing criminal property.
Her son, Emil-Bogdan Savastru, 29, from Bethnal Green, east London, is facing the same conspiracy to commit burglary charge but did not appear at court today.
Judge Robin Johnson remanded Mester back into custody until a provisional trial date on July 20.
