Dutch wine thief robs Spanish hotel and gets 4.5 years in prison

The man stole the bottles of wine with his Mexican girlfriend, herself sentenced to four years in prison.

Prison and compensation

After nine months of searches, the two suspects were arrested in Croatia last summer.

A Spanish judge yesterday ruled the couple guilty of the robbery, which police say had been prepared in detail, and imposed joint and several compensation of more than 750,000 euros in addition to the prison sentences which must be paid to the ‘hotel.

While the woman was distracting the restaurant clerk by ordering a salad at 2am, the man snuck into the wine cellar with a key he had stolen from the now unstaffed reception.

However, the man had brought the wrong key, so his accomplice also ordered dessert after the salad, which the clerk then prepared. This gave the man the chance to take the correct key and retrieve his loot from the wine cellar.

The thief eventually took 45 bottles of wine, one of which was an 1806 Château D’Yquem, a Bordeaux wine worth an estimated 350,000 euros.

Bottles never found

The two thieves had visited El Atrio three times before and, like many guests, had toured the wine cellar, which probably gave them the right knowledge to take the right and valuable bottles of wine.

The arrest of the two at the border between Montenegro and Croatia follows an international search involving Dutch, Croatian and Romanian police. The stolen wine bottles were never found.