Wine stolen

Cheers! Gambler must serve four years

The defendant didn't quite trust his left ear during the trial.(Bild: HS, Krone KREATIV)

A German with a gambling addiction stole bottles of wine worth more than 200,000 euros and wanted to sell them on the Internet. 

He had an inordinate amount of criminal energy, said Karin Lückl, the chairwoman of the lay assessor's court at Eisenstadt Regional Court. And due to his previous convictions and the disproportionately long duration of the offense, he should be sentenced to four years in prison. Shaking heads in the dock, the verdict is not yet final.

Only the finest drops
Several times between December 2021 and March 2022, the man gained access to the wine cellar of a man from Burgenland, for whom he sometimes helped with harvesting and bottling. He opened the lock to the door and stole a total of 258 of the approximately 7000 bottles. And only the finest wines that the winegrower had collected to taste with friends. The most expensive wine is said to have been a Bordeaux from 2003. Market value: more than 1000 euros.

Accomplice already convicted
The perpetrator must have researched the value on the internet, he only took the high-priced bottles and offered them online on willhaben or ebay. A friend and an acquaintance who had provided him with technical support had already been convicted in October. The pattern was always the same: he picked out the valuable bottles from the bottom of the crates and loaded them into the car. It would be months before the owner discovered the damage. "He was clearly concerned with the value," said the injured party at the trial,

And the German? "I'm sorry." He had wanted to use the proceeds to cover at least part of his gambling debts. Within a few months, around 170,000 euros had accumulated in various betting shops.

He now has 14 days to pay back the more than 200,000 euros. Where to get it from? The man has been in custody since January 2023. Quite a long time to think about it.