An employee of a Burgundy wine house is suspected of having stolen more than 7,000 bottles from his employers, for losses of at least half a million euros, and will be judged in the summer, he said. -we learned Thursday from the Dijon public prosecutor's office.
This 56-year-old man was arrested and placed under judicial supervision until his trial, scheduled for August 6, Dijon prosecutor Olivier Caracotch told AFP.
The man is suspected of the theft of
“
thousands of bottles
over several years”
from his employers, wine houses in the prestigious wine-growing region of Beaune (Côte d'Or), according to the same source.
Nearly 7,000 bottles were found at his home, for damage estimated at more than 500,000 euros, the prosecutor said.
The thief filmed by a surveillance camera
According to the
Journal de Saône-et-Loire
, which revealed the affair, the employee was filmed by a surveillance camera stealing four bottles.
After a complaint from his employer, he was arrested and his house was searched.
The investigators then discovered several cellars and thousands of bottles, among which the employee's boss found his own, as well as those of other wine houses where the accused worked.
The latter would have accumulated his loot over around fifteen years, also lining the walls of another cellar at his mother's house.
The prices of bottles, sometimes great wines like the prestigious Vosne-Romanée, can exceed 1,000 euros, according to the local daily.
However,
“no element indicates in the procedure that he resold the slightest bottle”
, indicates the prosecutor.