London, September 24 (ANI): Tamara Ecclestone, who had been getting kidnapping threats from a dental technician from Essex, has revealed for the first time how it left her fearing for her life and too frightened to leave her home.
The blackmailer demanded her father, Bernie Ecclestone, to pay 200,000 pounds or a team of kidnappers would take his daughter Tamara.
"Being kidnapped has always been my biggest fear," the Daily Mail quoted her a saying.
"I felt physically sick. Someone was telling me my life was in danger and I was being watched by people I couldn't even see. It was the most frightening thing I have ever been told," she said.
It all started with a phone call to the London headquarters of Formula 1, in an art deco block overlooking Hyde Park.
The caller, who introduced himself as Marcus Black, claimed he had information about Bernie's daughter Tamara and asked to be put straight through to the F1 tycoon.
The caller said a Middle Eastern gang was plotting to kidnap the businessman's daughter. In a short but direct conversation, Black said he could foil the plot if the F1 boss handed over 200,000 pounds in cash.
After that call to his office, Bernie called the 28-year-old model to warn her of the threat as she drove back from a birthday dinner with her then boyfriend Omar Khyami.
Despite the seriousness of what he had been told Bernie did not to call in the police or his own security staff.
Instead the billionaire Black's number to his daughter and her boyfriend and advised them to deal with him directly.
"When we left the restaurant I saw I had dozens of missed calls from my dad. Omar called from the car and he said, "Is Tamara with you? Is she OK?" and Omar was like, "She's fine, we're driving home" but he said, "Call me as soon as you get back"," she said.
"Omar called him back once we were home and said to me, "Someone called your dad's office saying there are people from Bahrain who are going to kidnap you. This man says he can stop it happening but he wants your dad to deliver 200,000 pounds in cash to him tomorrow".
"I don't think anyone who finds themselves in that situation would take the chance that it wasn't a genuine threat," she said,
Tamara was then asked why her father did not involve the police.
"My dad is so hands-on, as a businessman and as a parent, I don't think he would have felt comfortable palming this off to someone else to deal with. When it's about his kids, he wants to be involved," she sai,d
According to her, she and Khyami began trying to call 'Mr Black', on the number her father had given.
"I was too scared to use my own phone so Omar tried from his. We tried a dozen times but there was no reply. The stress of not being able to speak to this man was awful. I was crying and scared. Eventually Omar texted him saying, "This is Omar. We need to speak"," she said.
"We went to bed but neither of us slept. I had two security staff in the house up all night but I was still paranoid. I was checking windows, doors, making sure the balconies were closed, and walking round the house like a mad person," Tamara said.
Unknown to Tamara, the man behind the plot was Peckham, a divorced father of two, who came up with the idea of the kidnap threat after losing an 8,500-pound deposit on a wedding venue.
In desperation and unable to afford another deposit he decided to extort the money after reading about an alleged previous blackmail attempt against Tamara, which was entirely unconnected.
"The next day we had a message on Omar's phone saying only, "There are people watching you". The messages were chilling because they were so blunt. I was in my own home, where I should feel safe, but shaking with fear," she said.
"I had meetings so I went out but on the way back we were driving down the King's Road when a moped began following us. We pulled up at a zebra crossing and the driver pulled up alongside and stared straight at me. I will never forget it as long as I live. He was wearing a helmet with a clear glass visor and he stared at me for three to four seconds. Then he sped off.
"When we pulled on to my street he was outside my house before speeding off again. I don't know if it was the blackmailer, but two minutes later Omar, who was driving along Park Lane, received a call from Marcus Black asking him to meet him," she said.
She said that was the only phone call they received during the blackmail attempt.
"Everything else was a text, which made it worse because you have no idea who's at the other end of the phone," Tamara said.
'Mr Black' suggested two meeting points in Essex at midnight that night, but Khyami refused.
"So he told him to go to Lakeside shopping centre at 9am on Saturday with the cash," Tamara said.
"He said, "This is your last chance. It's a drop-off only. Once you drop the money I will give you the rest of the information".
"By now he said he wanted an initial 200,000 pounds dropped off in cash, then once his men had intercepted the kidnap plot, he wanted another 900,000 pounds. He was saying, "You have 12 hours left for me to tell my men to stand down and then whatever happens, happens".
"He was basically saying that if Omar didn't come with the money, I would be kidnapped and there was nothing he could do," she added. (ANI)
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