Tuk-tuk driver Iuliu Kubola, 61, has pleaded responsible to a few counts of housebreaking after stealing an estimated £24,000 of wine from a restaurant within the UK capital earlier this summer season, Metropolis of London police mentioned.
CCTV footage launched by police confirmed Kubola, of Richie Road in Islington, choosing wines off a shelf within the restaurant’s cellar earlier than putting bottles in a wheelie bin.
He wheeled the stolen wine exterior and loaded the bin onto the again of a pedicab on the road, confirmed the footage, which was posted to Fb backed by a soundtrack of UB40’s basic 1983 hit, ‘Pink Pink Wine’.
A nonetheless from CCTV footage launched by Metropolis of London police. Credit score: Metropolis of London police / Fb.
It’s the newest instance of high quality wine being focused by thieves. There have been a collection of high quality wine thefts throughout Europe in recent times, notably focusing on high quality eating eating places.
Police mentioned Kubola broke right into a restaurant on Threadneedle avenue, close to to the Financial institution of England, on 6 Could and stole 73 bottles of wine. He cycled away with the bottles on his pedicab, police mentioned.
He subsequently returned to the identical restaurant on 15 June and stole one other three bottles, price round £680, earlier than turning up as soon as once more just a few days later. On the third event, he left with out taking something, police mentioned.
The 61-year-old was arrested exterior a close-by bar on 22 June at round 12:30am after PC Jordan Felstead recognised him from a police briefing.
‘Because of the great work by our officers, who noticed him and rapidly made enquiries and the arrest, Iuliu Kubola will face the results of his criminality,’ mentioned detective constable Marcus Fairclough, within the Prison Investigation Division of the Metropolis of London Police.
‘Housebreaking has a big impression on companies and residential communities. We are going to all the time take this sort of criminality critically and completely examine all evidential leads, together with forensics, to deliver these perpetrators to justice.’
Police didn’t identify the restaurant and didn’t reveal the identification of the wines, however added Kubola might be sentenced in September.
Restaurant wine heists have taken place in a number of cities previously few years, from Oslo and Copenhagen to Paris and Madrid.
Perpetrators aren’t all the time caught, however one high-profile case in Spain noticed a pair imprisoned for stealing bottles price lots of of 1000’s of euros from Michelin-starred Atrio in Cáceres.
Their haul included a super-rare bottle of Château d’Yquem 1806.
