Former beauty queen ‘stole wine worth £1.25m’ from hotel
A MEXICAN former beauty queen helped pull off a record heist of vintage wine in Spain, police there claim.
Priscila Lara Guevara, a 28-year-old onetime “Miss Earth” contestant, and Constantin Dumitru, a Romanian-born Dutch citizen with a record of wine theft, allegedly made off with bottles worth £1.25million from a restaurant.
The pair were caught this week crossing from Montenegro into Croatia, ending a nine-month hunt for them.
But police have told the Atrio restaurant and hotel in the medieval quarter of Cáceres there is no sign of any of their 45 bottles stolen in October, including an irreplaceable Château d’yquem sweet white 1806 worth £300,000.
Ms Guevara arrived at the bijou hotel on Oct 27 wearing a wig, sunglasses and a face mask, according to El País, and used a fake Swiss passport under the name of Mirka Golubic to check in. She made a dinner reservation for two.
“They did not seem familiar with this type of dining,” said Carmina Márquez, manager of the two Michelin-starred restaurant. They later took a courtesy tour of Atrio’s wine cellar, accessed by an electronically controlled entrance, before retiring to Ms Guevara’s room.
Ms Guevara called reception and asked for something to eat, a distraction that Mr Dumitru used to sneak into the cellar “either with a copy of the key card or by stealing a card”, police sources said. The couple wrapped the bottles in towels and placed them inside rucksacks, managing to leave the premises at 5am without arousing suspicion.
“They spoke in English and were very polite,” said José Polo, Atrio’s joint owner. They will be extradited from Croatia to Spain.