08 March 2023 , 12:23
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A beauty queen and her partner have been jailed after stealing £1.4million worth of wine in Spain and going on the run for nine months.
Priscila Lara Guevara, 29, a former Mexican beauty queen, and Constantín Dumitru, 47, her Romanian-Dutch partner pulled off the heist at the triple Michelin-starred Atrio hotel in Caceres, western Spain.
Spanish officials said at the time that the heist appeared to have been planned with “millimetric” detail and a hunt spanning several months ensued before they were caught, arrested and then sentenced to four and a half years in prison.
They stole millions of pounds worth of fine and rare bottles, including a famous 1806 Château d’Yquem, with a menu price of £311,000.
Guevara checked into the hotel using a forged Swiss passport and carrying an empty backpack.
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Guevara and Constantin Gabriel Dumitru during sentencing (SOLARPIX.COM)The pair had dined at the hotel's restaurant, eating a 14-course tasting menu and then took a tour of the wine cellar, which holds 40,000 bottles, before retiring to bed.
Then they called down to reception at 2.10am for a salad, which reportedly made the staff suspicious.
The court heard that Guevara asked repeatedly about “the time it would take to be served”.
The duty concierge eventually agreed to make the salad, stepping away for about 20 minutes, which is when Dumitru stole what he believed was a key that opened the wine warehouse. But he got the wrong key.
The owner of Atrio, Jose Polo, gives statements to the media (Europa Press via Getty Images)Guevara then ordered a pudding and Dumitru returned to the cellar with another key and put 45 bottles of wine in three bags, the court was told.
“The defendants left the hotel at around 5am, with him carrying the backpack and the two bags with the bottles, in which he had inserted four towels from the bathroom of the hotel room to avoid tinkling between them,” prosecutors said.
The duo were arrested in Croatia, having been identified while attempting to cross the border into Montenegro. They were then extradited back to Madrid.
The court also ordered them to pay damages to insurers of more than £667,000 to compensate them for the stolen wines.
Guevara and her accomplice at Madrid airport (SOLARPIX.COM)The missing wine has not been recovered and some details, such as how the bottles left the hotel and their whereabouts, remain a mystery.
At the time of the theft José Polo and his business partner Toni Peréz, co-owners of Atrio, said in a statement: "They have stolen part of our legacy. They have stolen part of our history which we have made with a lot of effort.
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"More than a robbery, it is as if they had forced us, gagged us and beaten us. We feel immense sadness. The worst thing is that they have not stolen money, not even objects, they have ripped apart our history from our hearts."