(TDB) - In the wake of the theft of £80,000 worth of wine from a Côte-Rôtie estate, we have rounded up 10 of the most jaw-dropping wine thefts.

Lighter than gold and less protected than art, if one was to pursue a life of high glamour crime then wine theft would be the way to go.

But while you may think that it would be easy to walk out of shop with a $20,000 bottle tucked in your trousers – be warned. As our line-up shows, it is not all high stakes rewards, from the perils of celebrity shoplifting to the consequences of drinking Prince Charles’ cheap wine

$2.7m stolen from a Californian wine bank

George Osumi, an employee at Legend Cellar,stole almost $3m of customer’s wine that was in storage at the company. From 2008 to 2012, he replaced the valuable wine with budget Two Buck Chuck, taking over 1,400 bottles from one customer. Not only was Osumi an employee at the company but he was also the father of the owner Scott, whom he had been embezzling.

Celebrity chef Worrall Thompson caught shoplifting at Tesco

Antony Worrall Thompson was caught stealing wine and cheese from Tesco in 2012. Staff at the Oxfordshire branch set up a security camera and found that the Food and Drink presenter regularly bagged items which had not been paid for at the self-checkout. On one occasion he paid £180 for three cases of Champagne and then stole £4 worth of goods. Worrall Thompson received a police caution.

Trotter auction wine stolen in transit

As the entire wine world anticipated the sale of Chicago restaurateur Charlie Trotter’s four legendary cellars, 60 cases of the wine went missing en route to Christie’s. Trotter estimated that 10% of the stolen wine was “top-end”, listing “some pristine older Bordeaux, some red Burgundies”. Although the missing wines were not recovered, the rest of Trotter’s collection went on to raise almost $1m.

Plumbers steal $650K of wine

Two plumbers broke into a wine shop in Seattle on Thanksgiving in 2013, spending 13 hours emptying the shop of 200 cases of wine before attempting to burn it down. The thieves were caught when one of them was recognised on the security camera because he had bought wine at the store. It is not like they had not given the crime enough thought – the police found documents belonging to them called “Is it Accidental Fire or Arson?”, “How to Commit the Perfect Crime” and, most cunningly of all, “The Plan”.