TAMARA Ecclestone fears the £50million jewellery raid on her London mansion was an inside job.
There were a catalogue of apparent security blunders that allowed three burglars to carry out their 50-minute raid just after the F1 heiress and her family headed off to Lapland on holiday.
Dad Bernie Ecclestone said today: “I don’t have all the facts but given all the security at the house, I’m assuming it was an inside job.
“It’s an awful thing to happen just after she had left the house to go to Lapland. Although maybe it’s better that she wasn’t in at the time.”
The Sun understands security at the property on London’s Billionaires’ Row is overseen 24 hours a day by the prestigious Gavin de Becker and Associates.
Security officers are inside the property at all times.
However, one guard decided to leave the property shortly before the raid — while the other is said to have turned off or ignored sensors in the garden.
A source said: “CCTV shows three robbers climbing over the back fence and into the garden. There are meant to be sensors to pick up anyone entering.
“But the security guard appears to have missed it, even though he was apparently in the security room where the CCTV should be monitored.
“The other security guard had left the property to fill the family car up with petrol after 10pm. It’s surprising because the car didn’t need to be used at that time.”
In the 50 minutes the raiders were in the house, they managed to locate two hidden safes in Tamara and husband Jay Rutland’s dressing rooms. The source added: “The safes are very well hidden behind panelling in the dressing rooms with massive security doors.
“It would not be straightforward to find them without knowledge of what’s in the house. The security guard ended up reacting to what was going on and spotted them at work.
“It’s been said they bundled out through a window but some doubt has been cast about whether they would even be able to fit through it.”
The timing of the raid is also suspicious. It took place on Friday night, just hours after Tamara and the family departed for a lengthy Christmas holiday.
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The source said: “The first day of Tamara’s holiday and this happens. It feels like a whole catalogue of things weren’t done.”
Tamara posted Instagram photos of her Lapland trip with daughter Sophia over the weekend. Gavin de Becker and Associates’ website says the firm “protects over 90 of the world’s most prominent families.”
Prince William and Kate live near Tamara’s West London street, as do Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich and the Sultan of Brunei, so it is permanently patrolled by Diplomatic Protection Group police officers.
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