The British woman nicknamed the 'Barbie Bandit' after being arrested in Argentina has been remembered as a 'troublemaker' by a former school friend.
They claimed Georgia Wawman, 26, who grew up in the affluent village of Great Bedwyn near Marlborough, Wiltshire, would steal sweets and had been banned from her school prom – but would 'bat her eyelashes' to get out of trouble.
'She would have fitted in well at St Trinian's,' they added.
But other friends leapt to the mother-of-one's defence, saying that she had never had any problems with the police and that she was 'sweet and innocent'.
Miss Wawman was arrested at gunpoint last week on suspicion of being part of a gang that carried out 16 robberies in the Argentinian capital Buenos Aires, tying up their wealthy victims before ransacking their mansions.
Last night officials in the country revealed that she is accused of hiding stolen goods for her alleged gang leader ex-boyfriend, who is thought to be from a respected polo-playing family.
Her family insist Miss Wawman is innocent and say she had been intimidated by Argentinian police who sang songs about the Falklands.
They also accused the police of making her stand for two hours in handcuffs with her face towards the wall and of denying her food and water during an interrogation that lasted for ten hours.
Police sources in Buenos Aires last night denied the claims of mistreatment made by Miss Wawman's stepmother Laura Pereira de Mello.
They said Miss Wawman has been charged with 'aggravated concealment' after police allegedly found a series of appliances at her home that they suspect were stolen.
Miss Wawman, whose father Richard is a documentary maker in Britain, is believed to have attended Kingsbury Hill House School in Marlborough - a private prep school where fees were around £3,000 a term before it shut down in 2004. She then went to St John's School in Marlborough.
One former school friend said yesterday: 'Georgia was probably the naughtiest girl at school.
'She always hung around with the bad girls and would get in trouble for smoking and talking back to teachers. She had lots of detentions but always got out of trouble by batting her lashes.
'She was an innocent public school girl when I first met her but she used to get in trouble at secondary school. She always used to nick sweets from the local shop.
'She would've been in trouble with the police before for drinking under age – we all were.
'She was banned from the prom for being naughty but her mum went to the school and demanded that they let her go.'
But Miss Wawman's friend Amy Jackson said she had been a 'very normal' girl.
She added: 'She wasn't a goodie two-shoes but she wasn't as bad as some [schoolchildren] could be. She didn't get in a lot of trouble at all in school.'
Another close friend, who became best friends with Miss Wawman after meeting her at 14, said: 'Georgia has never been a bad person, never got into trouble with the police. I cannot believe someone so sweet and innocent could be accused of something so horrendous.'
After school, Miss Wawman later moved from Marlborough to a luxurious rural property in Argentina with her Argentine stepmother.
Several months later she relocated to Buenos Aires with her then boyfriend Jose Mino, 32, who is the alleged leader of the gang and was also arrested in the raids.
On Facebook she describes herself as a 'full time mummy' after having a child with her ex-boyfriend, who has served a prison sentence for burglary, in 2013.
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