In a terraced street in the suburbs of East London a young couple were locked in a heated discussion.
To those who overheard them, it would have sounded like a familiar argument – namely, who wasn’t pulling their weight.
‘She was saying that he was staying at home and lazing around while she was making all the money,’ said an onlooker who witnessed the bust-up.
But this was no normal domestic. Because the woman in question is a Romanian by the name of Luminita Zamfir – and her line of ‘work’ is of a decidedly illegal nature. And from home, the man in her life appears to have been orchestrating their criminal enterprise.
Not long after that row, 24-year-old Zamfir was arrested. Her crime? Posing as a cleaner to steal more than £500,000 of jewellery.
Targeting London’s second-largest home – only Buckingham Palace is larger – she coolly talked her way into the property in February by claiming she had been sent by an agency for a trial shift.
Having duly been escorted into the £105 million mansion, she snatched £548,565 worth of rings, necklaces and earrings belonging to a wealthy international business family.
Zamfir also carried out two further heists, stealing more than £50,000 in watches, cufflinks and cash from the London homes of a property mogul and a property management boss.
Luminita Zamfir snatched £548,565 worth of rings, necklaces and earrings belonging to a wealthy international business family
She was snared through DNA evidence left at one of the homes, and CCTV footage that caught her in the act. None of the valuables has been recovered, and when she appeared in court last week to admit the offences, the judge in the case suggested that it would be in her best interests to help the police find some of the stolen items.
But given her past record it seems unlikely that Zamfir will have a sudden pang of conscience.
Because The Mail on Sunday can reveal that she has a string of convictions for similar crimes dating back to when she was just 17. Targeting exclusive London hotels, she entered guests’ rooms, stealing valuables worth thousands of pounds.
It is unclear whether back then she posed as a cleaner or was actually working as a cleaner – but her activities echo those of a growing list of Romanian women caught stealing from hotels in the capital.
They include 23-year-old Sabrina Rova, who is serving a five-year sentence for stealing £365,000 of jewellery from well-heeled guests while working as a maid at the five-star Hilton in Park Lane, and at the Club Quarters Hotel in Trafalgar Square.
Bianca Didirea, 22, was also jailed, for two and a half years, after she stole £43,000 of jewellery from a wealthy Indian tourist at the Radisson Blu Edwardian Berkshire Hotel on Oxford Street. She then got a job at the Home Grown Hotel in Great Cumberland Place, where she stole a £7,000 Rolex Submariner watch and a diamond wedding ring worth £20,000.
Meanwhile, Marinela Manolesu is on Scotland Yard’s ‘wanted’ list in connection with an incident in which jewellery worth £350,000 was stolen from a guest at a hotel in Knightsbridge. The 29-year-old housekeeper is believed to have fled back to Romania.
The MoS is also aware of a number of other Romanian women convicted of stealing tens of thousands of pounds worth of jewellery from London hotels while working as cleaners.
Sabrina Rova stole £365,000 of jewellery from guests while working as a maid at the five-star Hilton in Park Lane, and at the Club Quarters Hotel in Trafalgar Square
In some of the cases, having stolen items from one hotel, they would move to another establishment and strike again.
Among them is a woman who lived on the same street in London where Zamfir previously resided – and who had even gone to the trouble of officially registering her own cleaning company with Companies House.
Typically, the women are young, often have children or, as in the case of Zamfir, are actually pregnant when they carry out their crimes.
Zamfir gave birth only a month ago and appeared at Wood Green Crown Court via video-link from HMP Bronzefield, where she is being held on remand, while cradling the baby.
What’s also clear is that some of those involved in the thefts have been linked to organised crime groups. When arrested the women generally plead guilty, claiming to have personally made little money from the thefts, despite their high value.
Certainly, those who know Zamfir say that, outwardly at least, she did not appear to be living a luxury lifestyle. Home for the past two years was a rented terrace house close to the busy high street in East Ham, East London. Several other women, along with young children, lived there too.
A Romanian neighbour told the MoS: ‘From what I know I would say this woman was being used.
‘She would not have been a criminal so that she could buy designer clothes and have holidays on yachts. I’m afraid to say that young people, especially women, are exploited by others.
Marinela Manolesu is on Scotland Yard’s ‘wanted’ list in connection with an incident in which jewellery worth £350,000 was stolen from a guest at a hotel in Knightsbridge
‘I would be surprised if she even knew the value of what she stole. She would have been following instructions and the jewels would have gone straight out of the country. They will never be seen again.
‘The money will go to family back home. When I go back to Romania, you go to small villages there that have villas like castles with swimming pools – that’s where the money goes.’
He added: ‘Unfortunately you are too soft in this country and these people know how to manipulate things. They know exactly how the system works – that’s why a young woman who is pregnant will be doing this.
‘She will go to court and she will get a low sentence because of her circumstances.
‘Even for the men it’s easy. Have you seen the prisons here? They get everything – phones, Xbox. They smoke weed and the women guards have sex with them. It’s like a holiday.’
Another neighbour told how the residents of Zamfir’s house were friends with another group of Romanians who lived two doors away and worked as a ‘begging gang’. The Asian woman, who has lived in the street for the past 20 years, said: ‘There are a group of them who go out of the house one by one early in the morning – there are four or five of them. They have backpacks and some have walking sticks.
‘They go begging near the station. I saw one of the women yesterday. She was saying, “Oh God bless you. God bless you. Give me money.” They come and go. You see them one day then the next they are gone.’
Romania joined the EU in 2007. In 2014 restrictions on Romanians’ rights to work in the UK were lifted. The number of Romanian-born people resident here rose from 83,168 in 2011 to 557,554 at the time of the 2021 census.
The Romanian home of the Rostas, a family of professional thieves. The gang preyed on sleeping London commuters but sent the money to Romania to finance elaborate mansions
Due to the UK’s departure from the EU in 2020, Romanian citizens who now arrive wishing to live, work, study or run a business require an immigration visa.
In recent years, Romanian gangs have been linked to an array of crimes, from ‘professional’ shoplifting rings to sex trafficking.
Of all foreign-born male prisoners held in England and Wales, Romanians are the third most numerous, after Bulgarians and Poles. But in women’s prisons they represent the most common non-British nationality.
Zamfir now finds herself among their number. When she arrived in Britain is unclear, but court records show that her criminal career dates back to at least 2018 when she stole cash and jewellery, including a Rolex watch – from a number of rooms at the Westbury Hotel in London.
What sentence she received for that spree is unknown – but clearly it was not substantial enough to result in her deportation. Under the UK Borders Act 2007, those sentenced to 12 months or more can be sent back to their country of origin.
And nor did that brush with the criminal justice system teach her a lesson.
Because on November 28 last year, she was up to her old tricks, gaining entry to an £11million home in South Kensington, making off with £50,000 worth of watches and cufflinks.
Then, in February, she targeted the mansion that is London’s second-largest private residence.
Tim Sleigh-Johnson, prosecuting, told the court she had first called in at the home next door, which was used to house staff for the family.
‘She said she was a trial cleaner,’ he said. She was escorted to the main property, where she was then able to steal the items.
The prosecutor added: ‘When the occupants returned, valuable property – jewellery and other items – were found to be stolen, which has been valued at £548,565.’
Five days after the raid she targeted a £1.6 million home belonging to a couple working in property management. The man – Christopher – was at home when Zamfir knocked at the door.
The couple do not wish to give their full names but speaking to The Mail on Sunday, Christopher’s wife Pippa said: ‘She said she was a cleaner and came right in. She flicked her shoes off and began to pet the dogs. Then she went into one of the bedrooms, which is when we think she must have taken the ring, watch and cash.’
The gold ring stolen was an antique. It had been Pippa’s father’s engagement ring and held a sentimental value as he died aged 96 last year. A Gucci watch and £200 cash were also taken.
The 61-year-old continued: ‘Christopher was in his study and began to think something did not seem right and came downstairs and saw her plumping the cushions. She quickly said she needed to go out and buy some cleaning products and would be back in ten minutes.’ But she never returned.
The couple provided footage from their Ring doorbell to their usual cleaning agency and when they confirmed Zamfir was unknown to them, the film was passed to the police. Officers had previously collected a DNA sample from a tissue left at the home of the first burglary and found it matched Zamfir.
Zamfir, who pleaded guilty to three counts of burglary and will be sentenced in June, was advised by Judge John Dodd KC that she should indicate where the stolen items were.
Dhaneshwar Sharma, defending, said: ‘I shall only say this today: it is very telling her husband is not here.’ His whereabouts is unclear.
It remains to be seen what sentence Zamfir is given, but two years ago hotel maid Sabrina Rova, a mother of two, was jailed for five years and eight months for stealing items from hotel guests. They included a Cartier watch, a pair of Cartier earrings worth more than £22,000, a Rolex watch worth £17,000 and Dior earrings.
She claimed she gave some of the stolen gems to her partner but, as with Zamfir’s husband, police have been unable to trace him.
‘This is a spate of targeted burglaries at high-end hotels,’ Alex Matthews, prosecuting, told the court in Rova’s case, explaining the cleaner was working for an ‘organised crime group’ when she carried out the thefts. In her defence it was claimed that Rova was ‘living in poverty’ and had not profited from the theft.
Other cases involving Romanian cleaners have heard similar sob stories about the defendants.
In that of Didirea, it was claimed she had left her two children at home in Romania to travel to London, where she struck two hotels.
One of the items stolen was a wedding ring, taken from an Indian guest. In a victim impact statement the woman said: ‘I wore those rings every day, they were very important to me. I can’t show my face to my husband because of what has happened. I have never been robbed and I feel betrayed.’
An emotion that will doubtless be shared by anyone reading how these newcomers to Britain have found homes and jobs – only to then go on to cynically abuse their welcome.
Additional reporting by George Odling
