The Hatton Chardonnay raiders: Gang drill into cellar to steal £50,000 worth of wine from a vault holding celebrities’ private collections
- A gang of thieves dug a tunnel through the wall of a property to steal wine
- They drilled through a cellar wall and took £50,000 worth from the collection
- A collection of vintage wine belonging to Whitney Houston went untouched
- Bottles stored in a secret underground vault were among those taken last month
Thieves drilled through a cellar wall to steal wine worth £50,000 from a vault housing private collections belonging to several celebrities.
The gang created a route through derelict buildings surrounding the city centre merchants
They then dug a tunnel through the wall of a neighbouring property. Bottles stored in a secret underground vault were among those taken in three separate burglaries last month.
A collection of vintage wine belonging to the late Whitney Houston remained untouched but the managing director of the Nottingham shop said several bottles belonging to celebrities were stolen from the secure cellar, which held hundreds of high value wines, whiskies and ports.
The stars have been contacted by police, who have made two arrests.
A collection of vintage wine belonging to the late Whitney Houston (pictured with Angela Bassett, right) remained untouched but the managing director of the Nottingham shop said several bottles belonging to celebrities were stolen from the secure cellar
The managing director – who did not wish to be named or have his shop identified – likened it to the 2015 Hatton Garden raid in London, in which six elderly thieves spent the Easter holiday weekend drilling through a 7ft-thick wall into a safe deposit vault and stole up to £35million in jewellery and cash.
The wine thieves struck twice on October 17 and again on October 23. ‘This is already being called the wine equivalent of the Hatton Garden heist,’ he said. ‘The intruders must have known what they were doing because they were very careful about where they dug the tunnel.
‘We are surrounded by derelict buildings due to a council redevelopment project. The thieves have used them to create a rat run into our vault. Some of the bottles we keep are privately owned, with some belonging to celebrities. Some of these were hit which is very embarrassing.
‘We have Whitney Houston’s wine collection in the vault but this was not targeted.’
Bottles stored in a secret underground vault were among those taken in three separate burglaries last month (file image shows vault at the Hatton Garden Safe Deposit company)
The gang created a route through derelict buildings surrounding the city centre merchants They then dug a tunnel (pictured) through the wall of a neighbouring property
A member of staff stumbled across the thieves as they ransacked the cellar one afternoon, he said.
‘The thieves have to operate in the day because when we are in the shop the security alarms are deactivated. One of our staff went down [to the cellar] and caught them.
‘It was quite scary because one of them had a hammer. Fortunately no one was hurt.
‘It appears they targeted whiskies, wines and port worth thousands of pounds each.’
Nicholas Lowe, 39, of Nottingham, has been charged with three counts of burglary and one of criminal damage. A 34-year-old man has been arrested on suspicion of burglary.
The burglaries in Nottingham follow a raid on a retailer in Paris at the start of October in which a gang stole 20 bottles of grand cru wine worth £45,000.
The thieves broke into the building next door to Les Caves de Taillevent, cut an 18in hole in the wall and used a rod to ‘fish’ for vintages. There is no suggestion the incidents are linked.