A woman accused of being the “matriarch” in Britain’s largest domestic burglary conspiracy claims she was actually only an escort paid £5,000 to keep one of the suspects “company”.

Maria Mester, 47, told a court she was only in London to “kill two birds with one stone” – to escort the man, and to allow her to spend time with her son, Emil Bogdan Savastru, 30, who is also accused of conspiring to carry out raids on celebrity homes in West London over a two-week period last December.

Prosecutors say the alleged plot’s pinnacle was a £25m jewellery, cash and property theft from the home of socialite Tamara Ecclestone and her husband Jay Rutland, in Kensington.

Mester, Savastru and two other defendants, Alexandru Stan and Sorin Marcovici, are accused of being part of the “supporting cast” to the burglars, who cannot be named for legal reasons.

They are not on trial for carrying out the raids.

Mester described how she was paid up to £5,300 to accompany one of the alleged burglars, who was one of her regular clients, to London for a week in December, just before the Ecclestone raid.

Giving evidence through an interpreter at Isleworth Crown Court, Mester said: “I came (to London) because he (the client and alleged burglar) asked me to come and spend the week with him.

“I knew he was a sweet client, I thought ‘why not?’.

“I knew Bogdan was supposed to come back from Japan and I would kill two birds with one stone.”

Mester told defence counsel Leonard Smith QC she was given little information about her client’s reason for being in London at the time.

She said: “(The client said that) he is here on business, and if I would come to be with him and keep him company for one week, he would pay me about 4,000 or 6,000 euros, it depended.”

She said of the client: “He wasn’t an alcoholic, he wasn’t a drug addict, he wasn’t violent, he was civilised, educated and with good manners.

“From my point of view he was very generous.

“Apart from the money he would pay me, he would also give me presents.”

Mester described how she was a child bride in Romania and became a mother aged 17, before moving to Milan to work as a lap dancer, while her son was raised by her mother back home.

She became an escort soon after turning 30, the court heard, travelling to destinations including the United Arab Emirates for work.

Prosecutors said Mester fled the UK immediately after the Ecclestone raid.

Other homes targeted by the alleged burglars including those belonging to Chelsea FC manager Frank Lampard and television presenter Christine Lampard, as well as that of the late Leicester City FC chairman Vichai Srivaddhanaprabha.

Mester was arrested on January 31 2020 at Stansted airport upon her arrival back into the UK, when she was said to have been wearing earrings identical to those stolen in the Ecclestone theft.

Mester was accused of assisting with the Srivaddhanaprabha and Ecclestone jobs, meeting up with the four alleged burglars in London, some of whom she described in court as “idiots” for “destroying (her) life”.

Asked if she had any conversations with them about carrying out the raids, Mester replied: “No, about all these burglaries, I found out from the lawyers and here in court.”

Defence counsel Mr Smith asked: “Did you ever have any knowledge at all prior to being arrested that you may have come into contact with property from those burglaries?”

Mester replied: “No, no.”

She wiped away tears as she addressed the judge at the start of her evidence, saying: “I thank you, My Lord, after 11 months for listening to me.”

All four defendants on trial deny conspiracy to commit burglary, among other offences.

The trial continues.

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