By Rita Chioma,

Burglars stole an “eye watering” £400,000 worth of designer bags and jewellery from former England captain, John Terry’s mansion after he posted a picture of himself enjoying a ski trip on Instagram.

The footballer posed for pictures on the slopes of the French Alps with his wife Toni, 35, boasting to his 3.4million followers on the social media site that he was having a ‘great few days away skiing with the family’.

But while the couple happily shared photos and videos of their lavish holiday, they didn’t realise the posts had attracted the attention of a ruthless gang of prolific burglars, who broke into their £5million mansion in Oxshott, Surrey, and spent hours ransacking the property, swiping designer handbags worth £126,000 and rare signed first edition Harry Potter books valued at £18,000.

Knowing that no one was home, the audacious gang took their time strolling around his property armed with axes. They spent 45 minutes plundering the master bedroom before returning later that night to break into a safe.

On Thursday, Kingston Crown Court heard how an ‘eye watering’ collection of designer jewellery and handbags were looted from the ‘vast’ collection of Mrs Terry, who loves designer handbags so much that her 36-year-old husband had a handbag shaped cake made for her birthday last year, which she proudly shared on Instagram.

The raiders discovered that the footballer’s wife had so many handbags, they were unable to carry them all and instead plumped only for the 28 most valuable items including a £42,000 snakeskin Hermes bag, Chanel bags worth £8,000 and others from Gucci, Louis Vuitton and Yves Saint Laurent.

Details of the raid on February 25 this year emerged for the first time yesterday.

All five people involved are due to be sentenced today.