Spain wine heist: Couple jailed for stealing 45 alcohol bottles value $1.7 mn | World Information

A Spanish court docket on Monday jailed a pair for stealing 45 bottles of wine value over 1.6 million euros from a resort restaurant in what police referred to as a “meticulously deliberate” theft.

A bottle of Chateau D’Yquem 1806 value 350,000 euros was among the many wines stolen from the Atrio resort in Caceres in southwest Spain in October 2021 within the heist which made world headlines.

A court docket in Caceres sentenced the girl to 4 years in jail and the person to 4 and a half years, after discovering them responsible of housebreaking with pressured entry.

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The court docket additionally ordered the pair — who had been arrested in July 2022 in Croatia — to pay compensation of 753,454 euros to the resort.

The lady, who based on Spanish press stories is a former Mexican magnificence queen, checked into the resort utilizing a faux Swiss passport, the court docket mentioned.

After eating within the Michelin three-star restaurant of the resort, the pair got a tour of the Atrio’s famend wine cellar earlier than they retired to their room.

At 2 am the girl referred to as the reception and requested the “sole worker” who was working on the time to make her a salad, based on the court docket ruling.

The worker at first denied the request as a result of he was alone and since the couple had eaten a 14-course tasting menu however he ended up agreeing as a result of she stored insisting.

Whereas the worker was getting ready the salad, the person slipped into reception and stole an digital key which he thought would acquire entry to the wine cellar however it was the mistaken one.

From exterior the wine cellar the person referred to as his companion and instructed her as soon as once more to distract the receptionist, so she requested a dessert.

“The accused returned to the reception and from a field he took grasp key quantity 27, which he used to open the wine cellar from the place he took 45 bottles of wine,” the court docket mentioned.

The person, who reportedly has Romanian and Dutch citizenship, carried the bottles to his room in a rucksack and two giant luggage earlier than the receptionist returned to his publish.

The couple had “meticulously deliberate” the heist, visiting the restaurant 3 times to organize the raid, Spain’s Nationwide Police mentioned in a press release when the pair had been arrested.