Romain Brunot, a brand manager at Moet-Hennessy in the UK, was sentenced to 15 months in prison this week for gradually stealing approximately £75,000 (or about $119,000) of booze from his employer, the Independent reports.
Brunot's loot came in the form of 400 bottles of Krug and 400 bottles of Belvedere, top-shelf champagne and vodka respectively. He slowly siphoned the bottles, a few at a time, off shipments of samples to restaurants and liquor stores, and stored them in a makeshift wine cellar in East London.
Brunot's downfall was hubris. His employers noticed his thieving ways only when he set up a fake wine store in the US, through which he ordered a large quantity of Krug and diverted it to his private cellar.
Police managed to recover about £50,000 of the booze. Brunot was fined £25,000 as part of his sentence to make up for the rest.
If you want to get into the wine heist business and are looking for tips, you might want to get in touch with Brunot on his LinkedIn account, which as of the publication of this article listed his current job as "Senioe Brand Manager" at Moet-Hennessy. Don't hold it against him, though, if it takes about a year and three months to get back to you. He's tied up at the moment.