Duke’s son was burgled after nanny handed boyfriend keys to home

Lord Christopher Wellesley and his wife Emma trusted Sarah Hallcup, 27, with the keys to their three-storey home.

She had worked for Lord Christopher for four years, looking after the rural house and his three children, in Heckfield, near Hook, Hants.

But the family returned from a four-week holiday in Scotland to find their home had been ransacked and £30,000 of items stolen.

The haul included busts of the first Duke of Wellington, a Cartier clock, a fob watch, paintings and rocking horses.

The raid was said to have left them “very distressed”.

Edward Phillips, prosecuting, told Winchester Crown Court that the small annexe where Hallcup lived had also been ransacked.

A bathroom window had been left open at each property as a decoy. But officers grew suspicious because there was no sign of disturbance nearby, suggesting no forced entry. Detectives later discovered the fingerprints of Hallcup’s boyfriend Neal Akhtar in their home.

When Akhtar was arrested, officers found pictures of goods stolen from the Wellesley home on his mobile telephone and camera. Contact had also been made to an antiques dealer about selling some of the goods.

Hallcup was arrested after she admitted being in a relationship with Akhtar. The police found her telephone had been used to search for the value of a Cartier clock, and texts between her and Akhtar involved talk of “robbing the mansion”.

Mr Phillips said Hallcup “had the utmost trust” of the peer and his wife.

“They trusted her and they also trusted her with their property,” he added.

Prosecutors said that Lord Christopher had given her the keys to Top Hill House, which gave her access to the utilities in the kitchen while her employer was on holiday.

Akhtar, from Reading, Berks, admitted burglary, and another man, Scott Allaway, 27, also from Reading, admitted handling stolen goods.

He told police he went to the house to help Akhtar, 27, transport the stolen items.

Hallcup, from Reading, denied conspiracy to burgle between July 26 and July 30 last year but was found guilty by a jury.

She was granted bail yesterday and will be sentenced later this year along with Akhtar and Allaway, who remain in custody.

After the conviction, Edward Phillips, from the Crown Prosecution Service, said: “Sarah Hallcup grossly breached the trust that her employer had placed in her by conspiring with her boyfriend to burgle the home where she had been the nanny for four years.

“Sarah Hallcup was someone they had trusted for many years to look after their three young children and their house.

“Yet she was complicit in stealing items from them, some of which she knew

had a great sentimental value for their owners.”