A gang of bijou thieves has been jailed for a string of burglaries on the houses of celebrities, described by authorities because the “highest worth sequence of residential burglaries in UK historical past.”
Jugoslav Jovanovic, Alessandro Donati and Alessandro Maltese focused the houses of high-profile figures, the place they made off with a mixed £26 million — or $34.9 million — price of bijou and luxurious stolen items, in accordance with CNN. Some their victims included soccer supervisor and former England participant Frank Lampard, tv presenter Christine Lampard, Formulation 1 heiress Tamara Ecclestone and the late chairman of the Leicester Metropolis soccer membership, Vichai Srivaddhanaprabha.
The group traveled from Milan, Italy, to the UK simply days earlier than finishing up their first housebreaking on Dec. 1, 2019, in accordance with London’s Metropolitan Police. They managed to steal £60,000 or $80,600 from the house within the upmarket London borough of Kensington and Chelsea. Just some days later, they lifted £1 million — $1.34 million — of watches and money from an handle in Knightsbridge.
Their third housebreaking, at a house in Palace Inexperienced, netted them greater than £26 million in diamonds, treasured stones, watches and money.
Upon their arrest earlier this yr, authorities stated the “three of them individually praised us for figuring out who they had been and finding them.”
The break within the case got here by means of a grainy 13-second clip of CCTV footage, which revealed the burglars sneaking by way of the again backyard of the Palace Inexperienced property and again out once more. From there, they slipped right into a black cab and disappeared into the evening.
Authorities recognized 1,007 potential cabs that might have been the getaway automobile, finally discovering the driving force after interviewing 1,004 others.
All three thieves appeared in court docket and had been sentenced on Monday.
Jovanovic, 24, who pleaded responsible to conspiracy to burgle and conspiracy to cash laundering, was handed a complete of 11 years in jail.
Donati, 44, and Maltese, 45, pleaded responsible to conspiracy to burgle and had been each given sentences of eight years and 9 months.