I wonder if wine theft on this scale has always been a problem, or if the advent of Internet sales has led to its intensification…
I have worked at a winery where the bookkeeper stole 150K over 4 years. Balancing the bank account and doing inventory is a pain but necessary if you have employees. I know wineries want to be more romantic than security cameras are but I have been seeing more of them in wineries and tasting rooms.
The lack of security features and proper accounting is just naive for any business. Mistakes, intentional or unintentional, ought to be immediately addressed.
I definitely learned how not to do many things while I was there. At that winery where the story I mentioned they were so independently wealthy that the winery was just another of their hobbies, like art collecting, travel, dinning, and golf. Im sure they have been fooled out of money many times that was legal and many that were not as big and no one got caught.
Here is another case
http://m.independent.com/news/2015/nov/06/local-winemaker-arrested-embezzlement-and-tax-frau/?templates=mobile
150 k … He should have a great collection of wines now …
ah the Joys of having employees!