Premier League football star Mamadou Sakho falls victim to £500,000 burglary

A Premier League defender has has up to £500,000 of valuables grabbed from his mansion in a raid around the corner from where 'burglary tourists' hit Masterchef star Marcus Wareing's £7million London mansion.

Crystal Palace star Mamadou Sakho, 29, was away with his wife Majda and their three children when the home in Wimbledon was hit by a gang of thieves.

The shocked French international, who moved to the south London club from Liverpool 2017 and now earns £100,000 a week, told the Evening Standard last night: 'Everything is OK. Me and my wife, we're OK'.

The burglary will raise fears that he may also have been targeted by South American thieves who are often flown in from Chile to carry out as many raids as possible in two to three days before fleeing the country before they are caught.

Scotland Yard is investigating the burglary at the gated mansion the Sakho family rents from former Arsenal star Nicolas Anelka, who was at home in 2014 when the Wimbledon Prowler Asdrit Kapaj also tried to break in.

Mr Anelka, who chased Kapaj out through the garden but was out-run, said today: 'The house is rented so I do not know what happened to them. Yes, I knew about it, but I have no details. Everything is OK'.

The burglary took place on December 27 while Mr Sakho was away from home ahead of a match at Southampton for Crystal Palace the following day. His fashion designer wife Majda was also away with their three children for Christmas.

Met detectives believe two men carried out the raid and while no information has been released about what was taken, the Evening Standard believed the items could be worth up to £500,000.

Yesterday police released an image of a woman spotted on CCTV near the Wimbledon Park home in an appeal for information.

Pc Dean Shaw, who is leading the investigation, said: 'It is believed that two male suspects carried out this burglary but we would like to speak to the woman pictured as she was seen near the address on the day of the incident and may be able to assist us.'

Masterchef star Marcus Wareing's £7million London mansion was raided by a team of 'burglary tourists' who jetted in from Chile and took his watch collection including his prized gold Rolex and his wife's Louboutin shoes.

The Michelin-starred restaurateur's Wimbledon home was broken into in October last year by a South American gang who sprayed a small orange spot on the chef's fence to remind them of their targets.

Mr Wareing was at his second home in Kent with his wife Jane when Danko Carvajal-Donaire, 20, Claudio Donoso, 20, Nicolas Portilla Astorga, 27, and Jorge Rojas, 22, smashed their way in through the six-bedroom property's patio doors and grabbed £33,000 of valuables from their bedroom.

The Chileans took his gold Rolex, a pair of Omega watches worth £12,000, and another watch engraved with 'Hell's Kitchen' - a curious nod to Mr Wareing's mentor Gordon Ramsay who he famously fell out with, the Evening Standard has reported.

Jane Wareing's valuable bracelets, earrings and gold chains, a £1,500 Cartier watch, £520 Louboutin shoes and a locket with irreplaceable pictures of her beloved father were also stolen.

The thieves, who were arrested days later on their way to burgle another London property even posed wearing some of the valuables - but only a small pendant has been recovered.

Mobsters have been sending teams to target houses in London and the Home Counties for at least eight years with the thieves recruited in South America and sent to the UK for two to three days to burgle as many homes as possible before fleeing home.

In 2015 a Colombian female kingpin living in West Norwood was rooted out and jailed after masterminding 800 burglaries but the gangs are still hitting high-value houses, often in London's richest suburbs or in Asian communities where residents often have large amounts of gold at home.

Some teams never even left the airport, grabbing suitcases from carousels and taking any valuables from inside before dumping them in arrivals.

Mr Wareing told Kingston Crown Court his family's loss of sentimental items in the raid had been 'enormous', adding: 'The loss of the jewellery and watches is deeply upsetting'.

But he added: 'We are pleased that the men have been caught and would like to thank Wimbledon police for assisting us during this time. They made us feel safe and secure again in our home and were utterly brilliant.'

Judge Jonathan Davies jailed the four men for three years and four months each and told them: 'No one here or abroad should be under an illusion that somehow the UK is a soft touch. Each of you came to this country with one purpose — crime. No other reason for your visit to the UK has been offered to me.'

The group will be deported after they serve their time in prison.

The judge also raised the orange dots on the chef's as a matter of public importance.

He said: 'I mention that so others are made aware to be on their guard if they see such markings.'

Prosecutor Christiaan Moll said: 'The master bedroom had been broken into and their possessions had been strung out all over the floor. There had been an untidy search of that room, which is on the first floor.

'A double patio door which leads to a large balcony was smashed'.

The break-in is the latest in a pattern of burglaries by South American thieves whom the Metropolitan Police suspect are flown into the country by an organised network thought to be behind hundreds of such crimes.

The Metropolitan Police's investigation, known as Operation Genie, began after a spate of burglaries in the south-west London and Surrey areas in 2017.

Typically the thieves targeted unoccupied addresses situated in rural areas, often near parks or golf courses.