FORMULA One boss Bernie Ecclestone has been mugged and robbed of jewellery - just weeks after he said only "simple" people got attacked in London.
Four men punched and kicked the 80-year-old billionaire to the ground after pouncing on him and his girlfriend, Fabiana Flosi, 31, outside the headquarters of his business empire, Formula One Holdings.
The attackers escaped with $320,000 worth of jewellery including a watch and diamond rings.
A spokesman for Scotland Yard said police were called to the scene on Wednesday night to "reports of a man and a woman robbed".
"The man was taken to a west London hospital for treatment to a minor head injury and was subsequently discharged. There were no reports of any other injuries," the spokesman said. "The items stolen are believed to be a quantity of jewellery."
Mr Ecclestone, the commercial rights holder for motor racing's elite division, compared London to Sao Paolo earlier this month after Formula One driver Jenson Button escaped a roadside assault ahead of the Brazilian Grand Prix.
"You have to remember we have a lot of problems in England, Oxford Street and places, and in New York people get mugged," he said.
"They look for victims, they look for people who are a little bit slow and simple, but the people who look a bit bright, they never go after them." |