Rickshaw driver spared jail after stealing £31,000 worth of wine and champagne from restaurants

A rickshaw driver who stole £31,000 worth of fine wine and champagne from upmarket restaurants has been spared jail after returning some of the stolen goods.

Iuliu Kubola, 61, admitted six burglaries at the three eateries in Mayfair, Belgravia, and the City of London.

He was sentenced to 20 months in custody, suspended for two years.

Judge Mark Lucraft KC had previously delayed sentencing, giving Kubola two weeks to fulfil his commitment to assist police in recovering some of the stolen wine.

During sentencing on Monday, Judge Lucraft told the court: “To cut a lengthy story short, some wine has been recovered, and there are a total of 32 unopened bottles of wine. They are valued at approximately £6,687.”

Judge Lucraft said that by helping police, the defendant had demonstrated remorse and that the recovery process would continue.

However, the judge noted that one of the restaurants, Piazza Italiana, had suffered “significant loss and damage” when 73 bottles were stolen in a single raid.

Some of the wine was recovered when Kubola was arrested while riding a pedicab in the City of London in June.

‘The wine is to drink, no?’

When asked what he planned to do with the stolen items, he told police: “The wine is to drink, no?”

Prosecutor Matthew Jolliffe told the court that Kubola broke into Comptoir Cafe and Wine in Mayfair in the early hours of 1 May, stealing several bottles of wine worth £6,000 along with £200 in cash.

On 13 May and 8 June, he snatched several bottles of wine and cash from the Oliveto and Olivo restaurant on Elizabeth Street in Belgravia.

In the first incident, Kubola damaged an external door and its locks, resulting in £1,000 to replace the locks and £425 in repair costs.

Mr Jolliffe said: “The defendant used a pedicab to cycle out of the City of London. He returned on the same pedicab at 3.35am, loaded a wheelie bin into the back, and left at 3.57am, cycling out of the City of London.”

About £100 was taken from the till, along with 73 bottles of wine worth a total of £23,801, the court heard.

In the early hours of 15 June, CCTV footage captured him returning to the restaurant, where he stole three more bottles valued at £680 and £55 in cash.

Four days later, he broke in again but fled empty-handed after triggering the alarm.

‘Reckless and stupid decision’

Kubola was arrested on 22 June while riding the cycle rickshaw on Cornhill in the City of London.

He was found with bottles of Villa Bucci wine, Laurent-Perrier champagne, Jack Daniel’s, a half-empty Shaw and Smith chardonnay, and vodka.

Police also seized a spanner, pliers, screwdrivers, three crowbars, and an angle grinder.

Kubola told police he was not contesting the allegations and claimed that the wine he stole was not worth much.

“It was not that much. I have had a restaurant in Italy for 20 years. It did not add up to that much,” he said.

Defence lawyer Daisy Kell-Jones said her client had a drinking problem and had previously worked at Oliveto and Piazza Italiana restaurants.

“He was effectively not paid, and he made the reckless and stupid decision, rather than confronting the owners of these restaurants and asking for his salary, to go in and take the salary for himself,” she told the court.

“Mr Kubola recognises he should not have done what he did, recognises the loss caused to those two restaurants, and wants to pay them back somehow.”

Speaking outside court, Detective Chief Inspector Kev Ives of the City of London Police said officers had found no evidence to support the defendant’s claim that he had worked at two of the restaurants he targeted.

Kubola has previous convictions for shoplifting and driving while disqualified and without a licence.