Madrid/Mérida (EFE).- The Provincial Court of Cáceres judges this Wednesday the two accused of the theft of 45 bottles of high-value wine at the Atrio restaurant, in Cáceres, for whom the Prosecutor’s Office requests a sentence of four years and six months in prison.
This is a 48-year-old man with dual nationality (Romanian and Dutch), and a 29-year-old woman from Mexico, who are accused of robbery with force, aggravated by the high value of the wines. allegedly stolen.
In fact, just one of those bottles, a “Chateau d’Yquem” could reach a price of 350,000 euros; In addition, among others, 38 “Romanée Conti”, whose average price is 12,000 euros on the Atrio menu, and a “Montrachet Grand Cru 1999 Magnum”, for around 25,500 euros,
The Public Ministry requests four years and six months in prison for both defendants, in pretrial detention since August 4, fifteen days after they were arrested at the Croatian border post of Karasovici Sutorina, coming from Montenegro.
Meanwhile, the private prosecution, which represents the insurance company for Atrio bottles and which has already compensated the owners of the restaurant in Cáceres, requests five years and compensation of 800,000 euros.
For his part, the defense requests free acquittal, understanding that the fundamental rights of his clients were violated and, therefore, urges the nullity of the procedure.
Staying at the hotel
According to the provisional conclusions of the Public Ministry, the couple, “by mutual agreement” and guided by a “profit motive”, stayed on October 26, 2021 at the Hotel Atrio “with the intention of being able to access their winery and become with wines of high value”.
After dining at the hotel restaurant, which last year achieved its third Michelin star, the couple took a guided tour of the winery. Already at dawn, the defendant called the reception and asked for a salad, at the same time that she was interested in the time it would take to be served. The front desk clerk informed her that she was alone and that it would take about 10 minutes.
The man took advantage of that moment to go to the reception and get an electronic key “with which he went to the cellar”, but he could not open it because it was not “the right key”, so he returned to the reception after bringing up the salad to the woman, and minutes later she called back to ask for dessert.
Then, his companion went back to the reception where he seized the master key, with which he opened the cellar and accessed the tasting room where he stole the bottles of wine.
Hours later, the couple left the hotel with the bottles, which still do not appear, as the defendants deny the facts. The value of the 45 bottles was set at 1.6 million euros.
