Conmen pose as Arsenal stars

14 April 2012

Conmen posing as Arsenal stars Thierry Henry and William Gallas have tricked five-star French hotels out of thousands of pounds of fine wines and champagne.

The London-based fraudsters book hotels rooms on credit cards before asking the hotels to send them wines they cannot get in England.

These are then followed up with faxed order confirmation forms and money transfer documents on fake bank letterheaded paper.

On one occasion a director at the Royal Riviera hotel in Saint-Jean Cap Ferrat on the French Riviera was asked to send 12 bottles of wine worth £90,000 back to England, including a vintage Petrus '82.

The director said the conmen then faxed through an order confirmation and fake funds transfer on Royal Bank of Scotland-headed notepaper.

But the staff were wise to the trick. He added that the documents are very well done and other hotels had been contacted by people posing as Chelsea striker Didier Drogba and Manchester United's Louis Saha.

So far 15 hotels across France have complained to police.

Henry's and Gallas's agents said their clients were aware of the racket.

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