Wine thieves - 8th May 2023

A court in Spain has put a couple in jail for stealing wine. They stole over 1.6 million euros worth of wine from the Atrio restaurant in Spain. They took 45 bottles of wine from the cellar. One of the bottles was very expensive. It's worth 350 thousand euros because it was 217 years old.

The robbers visited the restaurant many times before. This time, the woman, Priscila Lara Guevara made a reservation with a fake Swiss passport. The couple had dinner at the restaurant and toured the wine cellar. Then at 2am, Priscila rang room service. When the receptionist left the front desk, her partner, Constantín Dumitru, stole the keycard.

But, Constantín stole the wrong keycard. Priscila called for room service again. Constantín went back for the right key. They took the wines and escaped before sunrise.

After nine months, the couple was caught at the border of Montenegro and Croatia. During the court case, Constantín said he was innocent. But the court found both of them guilty.

The couple has been sentenced to four and a half years in prison. They also have to pay 750 thousand euros for damages. But, they can ask for this ruling to be changed.