Ogling the homes of the uber-wealthy is not just the preserve of these property pages. Criminals have been targeting their properties in a series of headline-grabbing burglary sprees. Jack Grealish , Kurt Zouma, Joelinton and Raheem Sterling are some of the scores of elite footballers who have been targeted.
Frank Lampard was targeted by the same gang that took £25 million of jewellery from Tamara Ecclestone’s Kensington mansion . The Beckhams ordered a security overhaul for their west London home after a burglar broke in undetected while they were at home . Simon Cowell put his multimillion-pound home in Holland Park on the market and left London altogether because his family were living in “constant fear” following a string of burglaries .
In response, the wealthy are beefing up their home security, installing CCTV cameras, bringing in security patrols and canine units, and hiring close protection operators. But any one of these measures can fail in the face of a determined burglar, warns Jeff Hill , head of protects for luxury estate agency The Private Office: Real Estate . Hill knows a thing or two about what he terms “sophisticated career criminals”.
A former detective chief superintendent, Hill’s 30-year career in the police saw him commanding units covering counter-terrorism, major crime and undercover operations. “We know how criminals operate, we know how they think and we can counter the threat that they present,” he says. These criminals are not yo.