A winner of one of Mexico’s oldest beauty pageant and her partner they enjoyed a 14-course dinner at the Michelin-starred Atrio hotel restaurant in western Spain, after a tour of its wine cellar.

When they left the hotel before dawn the next morning, they grabbed 45 bottles from some of the world’s best wines, overall worth about $1.7 million.

However, in the end, they did not escape the authorities.

A court in the city of Careres announced today that the woman was sentenced to four years in prison and Her Romanian-Dutch accomplice in four and a half years after finding them guilty of aggravated robbery.

They were also ordered to pay compensation to insurers worth more than 750,000 euros, the court said in a statement. He gave their names as Tatiana and Estanislao.

According to the court, the 29-year-old Mexican woman checked into the hotel in October 2021 using a fake Swiss passport and carrying only a backpack. A hotel employee who picked up the bag noticed that it weighed very little.

The woman, who according to the newspaper El Pais had taken part in a beauty contest in her homeland, was later found by her 47-year-old accomplice.

They dined enjoying 14 courses in the hotel’s restaurant and were then given a tour of the cellar.

Shortly after 2 a.m., the woman ordered a salad in her room, distracting the sole employee working the night shift and allowing her accomplice to grab an electronic key from the front desk.

After failing to gain access to the cellar as she had taken the wrong key, the woman tried another distraction, ordering a dessert.

The man managed to get an anti-key and to sneak into the cellar, where he put 45 bottles – including a unique 19th-century vintage valued at €350,000 – in his rucksack and two towel bags to muffle the sound of the bottles clinking.

The pair left the hotel before dawn and quickly left Spain, but after a nine-month manhunt across Europe, they were caught by border guards while crossing from Montenegro to Croatia.