Image: REUTERS/Fabrizio Bensch
A provincial court in Cáceres in the autonomous region of Extremadura on Monday sentenced the man to four and a half years in prison and four years to his accomplice – plus a compensation payment of 753,454 euros. The spectacular coup happened a year and a half ago in Cáceres near the border with Portugal and made headlines around the world for the “Atrio” restaurant, which was awarded two Michelin stars. On the wine list of the gourmet temple, the bottles were shown with a total price of 1.6 million euros, as the newspaper “El País” reported. There is no trace of them. Experts and the insurance company put the financial damage at around 750,000 euros.
According to the court, the couple – according to media reports, a former Mexican beauty queen and a man with Dutch-Romanian citizenship – had planned the crime well in advance and sounded out the situation at least three times. On October 26, 2021, the woman then checked into the hotel with a fake Swiss passport, and her accomplice later joined them unannounced for a 14-course meal in the hotel’s fine restaurant. Then both were given a tour of the wine cellar and then disappeared into the woman’s hotel room.
This is how the spectacular robbery went
Around 2:00 a.m. it was ready for film. According to the court, the pair distracted the only working receptionist by asking for a late-night snack in order to sneak into the tasting room. While the clerk made them a salad in the kitchen, they carried dozens of bottles of wine to their room in a backpack and two suitcases. They wrapped the bottles in four towels so as not to be thrown up by the clinking of the booty.
They checked out in the morning and fled with their stolen goods – including a bottle of “Château d’Yquem” from 1806, which according to the restaurant’s wine list would have cost 350,000 euros and comes from one of France’s most famous wineries in the Bordeaux region .
Source: Nachrichten
