Couple who won Come Dine With Me posed as customs officers to steal drugs as part of scam
A COUPLE who won the pro version of Channel 4’s Come Dine With Me posed as customs officers to steal drugs as part of a scam.
Nick Panayiotou and wife Eleanar Attard put on fake uniforms to confiscate suitcases stuffed with smuggled cannabis.
The couple’s co-conspirators in the double-cross had arranged for 58kgs of the drugs to be brought from California to Heathrow by two female couriers in January last year.
They pounced outside Terminal 3, saying they needed to take the luggage for inspection — and vanished.
The couple went to a hotel then back to their Greek restaurant the next day, where they filmed the drugs on kitchen work surfaces using Panayiotou’s phone.
But their plot fell apart when the ripped-off couriers unexpectedly reported the theft.
Police then found CCTV of the couple hauling the drugs to a car and ANPR cameras were used to track them down.
They were arrested in a raid on their home in Broxbourne, Herts, two days later.
The couple won the Channel 4 show in 2022 with their restaurant, Touch of Greek, in Chingford, North East London, which is now closed.
Yesterday, Panayiotou, 43, got four years’ jail at Isleworth crown court, West London, after being convicted of conspiracy to supply drugs and theft.
Attard, 45, got eight months suspended in March for theft.
Judge Laura Barrie said: “It was a theft that had the potential to undermine the integrity of airport security.”
Two other conspirators were jailed for seven years.
A third awaits sentencing.