Millionaire and his Brazilian model wife sue hotel for £570,000 over watch thefts
A MILLIONAIRE British investor and his supermodel wife have sued a luxury hotel in Miami after thieves broke into their room and stole their £51,000 watches.
Oliver Ripley and Jeisa Chiminazzo are demanding that the Marriott in South Beach pay up $880,000 (£567,000) because the door did not lock behind them.
The couple say that this allowed thieves to strike while they were celebrating Miss Chiminazzo’s 30th birthday in the hotel.
An Audemars Piguet Women’s Royal Oak Offshore Limited Edition watch and a Jacob & Co. Brilliant Half Pave, which are worth £25,500 each, were stolen.
According to the lawsuit, the watches were anniversary and wedding gifts.
Eton and Oxford-educated Mr Ripley, 34, had hired the hotel’s bowling alley, bar and ice rink to celebrate his wife’s birthday ‘in unparalleled style,’ the Manhattan Supreme Court lawsuit claims. Some 75 friends had flown in from all over the world for the event on March 26.
According to the lawsuit, the door to Mr Ripley’s £250-a-night room closed but did not click into the locked position. The couple do not appear to have noticed that it did not lock as they went off to party for the next three-and-a-half hours.
Mr Ripley and Miss Chiminazzo, 30, are demanding $800,000 in ‘punitive damages’ for the stress they have endured, plus the cost of the watches. They claim that the hotel was aware of issues with the doors. Mr Ripley speaks six languages and is described by Bloomberg in a profile as an ‘international entrepreneur’. His wife has appeared on the cover of Vogue and modelled for designers such as Hugo Boss and Dolce & Gabbana.
They married in August 2013 in a Great Gatsby themed ceremony at Villa Erba on Lake Como in Italy. The South Beach Miami Marriott declined to comment.