Luxembourg wine merchant conned by fake footballer

A Luxembourg wine specialist is urging firms to be cautious after he was hoodwinked into sending fine wines worth 26,000 euros to a man posing as a famous footballer.

Gildas Royer, who owns In Vino Gildas in Belair, sent 30 bottles of expensive wines to a customer claiming to be Manchester City player Yaya Toure.

The man said that he wanted to hold a party in London for friends from his native country the Ivory Coast.

Gildas did not realise he had been scammed until after he had sent the wine to the UK and contacted the customers' bank. He is now using the incident, which happened in November last year, to warn other wine suppliers against making the same mistake.

He said: “I have chosen to talk about this experience with the press to help protect other companies, to warn them to be more careful. My advice to other wine sellers is never never never send before receiving the money. I've been doing this for 15 years and I've always adapted this rule for customers. But, in this case I was manipulated by professionals and the golden rule is don't send the goods before you get the money.”

The scam began in November last year when the sommelier was contacted over the phone by a man claiming to be Yaya Toure. He asked to buy some Bordeaux wines for a large party to take place the following Saturday, which would welcome guests such as Chelsea forward Didier Drogba.

As an extra sweetener, the man also invited Gildas to London for a Champions League match. The footballer's supposed agent then placed an email order for 30 bottles, saying that the money would be transferred to Gildas' account. Men posing as private bankers for a British financial institution then sent faked documents certifying that the money had been transferred.

Despite this Gildas could see no money had been sent to his firm's bank account. He raised the issue with the private bankers who asked him to be patient. In the meantime, faced with time constraints of his customer who was holding a party in a matter of days, Gildas sent the wines to London but never received payment.

Since the scam, Gildas was able to recover six bottles of stolen wine when a dealer in London who had bought the goods saw his label on the box.

Gildas believes that he was targeted by the con artists because of his comprehensive website, listing his wine cellar stock.

“Companies and collectors shouldn't boast about their cellars by putting their contents online. I'm sure that I was targeted because of my website. I'm a specialist firm and I know now to be discreet,”

he concluded.