A pregnant thief has pleaded guilty to stealing more than £500,000 of jewellery from London’s second largest home while posing as a cleaner.
Luminita Zamfir, 24, told staff in February she had been sent by an agency for a trial shift and was escorted into a £105 million mansion in central London.
Despite the building being under the protection of former royal protection officers, Zamfir snatched £548,565 worth of jewellery, including rings, necklaces and earrings, belonging to an affluent family on February 5.
She also carried out two further heists, stealing watches, cufflinks and cash from the homes of housing boss Sean Gorvy and a property magnate couple.
Despite being nicked by officers, having left a discarded tissue and being caught on CCTV, none of the loot has so far been recovered.
Zamfir, who has four previous convictions for burglary and shoplifting offences, gave birth last month while she was on remand and now faces a lengthy jail term after pleading guilty to three counts of burglary on Tuesday.
She appeared at Wood Green Crown Court via video-link from the women-only HMP Bronzefield in Surrey while cradling her newborn.
Zamfir’s spree began in November last year when she raided the £11 million home of Mr Gorvy, making off with £50,000 worth of goods.
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She then went on to target the capital’s second largest home after Buckingham Palace by knocking at the property next door, which was used to house staff for the resident’s family.
“This defendant was not known to the staff, and she said she was a trial cleaner, prosecutor Tim Sleigh-Johnson said. “She was therefore allowed into the property (next door) and left later that day.”
Zamfir was guided to the main property to “complete her shift” when she was then able to rob the items.
Five days after the raid she looted a gold ring, a Gucci timepiece and £200 in cash from the £1.6 million home of a property management couple.
The wife Pippa, 61, told the Daily Mail the antique Intaglio depicting the Roman goddess of wisdom Minerva was her late father’s engagement ring.
Pippa said: “She said she was a cleaner and came right in. She flicked her shoes off and began to pet the dogs.
“(My husband) Christopher was upstairs in his study and began to think something did not seem right and came downstairs and saw her plumping the cushions.”
Pippa said Zamfir never returned home having claimed “she needed to go out and buy some cleaning products and would be back in ten minutes”.
When Pippa and Christopher found out Zamfir was not from their cleaning agency, they provided footage from their Ring doorbell to the Metropolitan Police.
It is very telling her husband is not here.”
Scotland Yard previously collected a DNA sample from a tissue left at the home of Mr Gorvy and found it matched Zamfir.
Zamfir, originally from Romania, was advised by Judge John Dodd KC she should indicate where the stolen items had been hidden.
He said: “These are clearly extremely serious offences, and you must expect to receive a term of imprisonment.
“I will just add one other thing, one you might want to speak to your counsel about, because not only will it help you, it will help the victims of these various crimes.
“If you were prepared to tell the police where it has all gone that would be extremely powerful mitigation.”
Dhaneshwar Sharma, defending Zamfir, was forced to translate the hearing for his client due to a lack of an interpreter.
She said: “I shall only say this today: it is very telling her husband is not here.”
Zamfir will be sentenced on June 11.
