Duo convicted

Wine worth 1 million stolen from luxury hotel in Tyrol

The wine cellar (symbolic image) was filled with the finest wines.

(Bild: Archiv-L.G-Archäologie)

A German restaurateur and a friend with a criminal record "lifted" the liquid treasure from the cellar of a luxury hotel in Tyrol. They were sentenced to prison at the regional court. The background caused astonishment in the courtroom.

A bottle of "Domaine de la Romanée-Conti Montrachet" worth a whopping 10,000 euros - a Tyrolean hotelier had stashed this and many other wine rarities in his cellar. In total, no less than 14,000 bottles were stored in the tourism business in the Innsbruck-Land district!

Information from guests who were in the cellar
This knowledge reached a previously blameless restaurateur (54) from the German Ruhr area. He was apparently looking for alternative sources of income during the Corona period and admitted to having acquaintances from the milieu. "Yes, the idea came from me. I know people who were in that cellar," the giant admitted at the trial. He introduced a fitter with a criminal record (52), who was in constant financial difficulties due to cocaine addiction and lived with him after his wife kicked him out.

The men were brought before the regional court from custody.

(Bild: Christof Birbaumer)

Escape to Italy in a fully loaded car
Together they traveled to Tyrol and "lifted" the liquid treasure using crowbars. The duo grabbed 400 bottles of the finest drops, worth more than 1 million euros in total! They fled to Italy with the fully loaded van and later sold the loot to a fence in Serbia. "In the end, I was only left with 120,000 euros," said the first accused restaurateur. He paid off his accomplice with 10,000 euros and 5,000 euros in debt relief. Figures that could not be refuted.

The sale was not so easy. In the end, I was left with only 120,000 euros.

Der Erstangeklagte beim Prozess

Chat histories were treacherous
The coup from May 2021 was unsolved for a long time, but then chat histories in the course of drug investigations put the German police on the right track. The panel of lay judges in Tyrol found that a criminal organization had been established, but the commercial nature of the crime was denied due to a lack of other acts.

The defendants were each sentenced to two and a half years in prison, which they accepted after a short pause for reflection. Each had to pay 300,000 euros to the hotelier's insurance company, which paid 1 million euros.