The British blonde held over Barbie Bandit raids in Argentina
Falklands jibes as Argentine police hold British mum over robberies
A GLAMOROUS 26-year-old Briton has been accused of orchestrating a spate of robberies at luxury homes in Argentina.
Georgia Wawman, nicknamed locally as the ‘Barbie bandit’, was arrested at gunpoint for allegedly leading a gang who posed as police officers to burgle gated communities.
The gang – which allegedly included Miss Wawman’s ex-boyfriend, who is thought to be from a respected Argentine polo-playing family – tied up their victims before ransacking their homes.
Miss Wawman – who grew up in affluent Marlborough, Wiltshire, and went to school near Ascot, Berkshire – has been called ‘the English boss’ by local police after she is said to have shouted to gang members as they were arrested, warning them to keep quiet during questioning.
But her family insist she is innocent – and claim her nationality led to anti-British abuse by officers, who ‘intimidated’ her by singing songs about the Falklands.
And friends yesterday described the mother of one, whose father is a documentary maker in the UK, as a ‘sweet girl’ who enjoyed a ‘perfectly normal’ upbringing.
The gang is believed to have carried out at least 16 robberies in upmarket northern suburbs of Buenos Aires. Police said the group dressed as officers to avoid detection as they looked for homes to target. They then scaled or cut through perimeter fences of the gated communities at night before breaking into mansions.
During raids to arrest the alleged gang members, police seized a huge haul of goods, including laptops, jewellery and cameras. They also found weapons and ammunition, as well as walkie-talkies, a wig, handcuffs and a balaclava.
Investigators described Miss Wawman’s ex-boyfriend Jose Mino, who was also arrested, as the leader of the gang and revealed he has previously been jailed for burglary.
Mr Mino, 32, with whom Miss Wawman had a child in 2013, is believed to be from a well-respected family and his two brothers are polo players who have competed globally. Five other Argentinian men, aged 19 to 44, including a 22year-old horse trainer nicknamed ‘The Dog’, and a 31-year-old woman from Paraguay were also arrested.
It is thought Miss Wawman, who attended Charters School in Sunningdale near Ascot and describes
‘Handcuffed against a wall’
herself as a ‘full time mummy’ on Facebook, moved to Argentina to live in a luxurious rural property with her Argentine stepmother, but several months later relocated to Buenos Aires to live with Mr Mino.
Her stepmother Laura Pereira de Mello yesterday released a state- ment to local media insisting she is innocent and accusing police officers of mistreating her.
Miss de Mello claimed they did not give her any food or water during a ten-hour interrogation, adding: ‘The police mistreated her in the most terrible way. They insulted her and an official sang her a song about the Falkland Islands which really intimidated her.
‘Then a doctor checked her and discovered she had high blood pressure and told the police she needed to rest. However they made her stand up for two hours, handcuffed, with her face against a wall.’
Miss de Mello, an investigative journalist and TV producer, also said Miss Wawman was only caught up in the police raid because she was staying overnight with her son and Mr Mino, from whom she has separated, at his flat last Thursday, adding: ‘The search warrant was for her ex-boyfriend, not her.’
She also said that officers broke down the door of the property at 5am and pointed guns at Miss Wawman as she slept beside her son.
Police said Miss Wawman, who has been released pending further investigations, remains a key suspect. In a Facebook post just days before her arrest, Miss Wawman wrote: ‘This year is gonna to be a good one (sic).’
Her father Richard, who has directed dozens of documentaries, said yesterday that he did not want to comment on her arrest.
Gary Roberts, a friend of Mr Wawman, said: ‘She had a perfectly normal childhood and was never involved in anything like this. She was not a wild child or anything like that. I’ve always known her as a sweet girl who is very nice.’
Mr Mino’s family said the allegations against him and Miss Wawman were ‘completely wrong’.