A British mum-of-three could face 50 years in prison after being charged with the theft of six bottles of wine while on holiday.
Despite there being pints of wine freely available at a low price here in the UK, Natali Ray is accused of conspiring to steal six bottles of fine vintage wine while travelling.
She allegedly strolled into the L'Auberge Provencale winery under the guise of a successful Canadian businesswoman, while an accomplice made off with six bottles of pinot noir from Burgundy’s legendary Domaine de la Romanée-Conti estate.
If you're not a wine connoisseur and you're not familiar with this particular vintage, there are just 5,000 bottles produced each year, with people paying for the honour of simply owning one, let alone drinking it.
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While it's somewhat impressive that her associate was allegedly able to make off with six bottles thought to be worth more than £30,000, the restaurant in Virginia's Shenandoah Valley quickly realised that something was wrong, and the British mum was detained and arrested on the scene.
CCTV footage seemingly shows the mum telling the receptionist at the restaurant that she had 'heard of your reception' before demanding to talk to sommelier Christian Borel, claiming that she needed to see if the wine was 'climate controlled'.
After a brief exchange, Borel was then seen shouting after the pair, who had made a swift exit from the premises, but they were quickly caught, and she was charged this week at Clark County General District Court in Virginia with grand larceny, conspiracy to commit grand larceny and defrauding an innkeeper, something which could reportedly land her as long as 50 years in jail.
Although there are some countries where minor misdemeanours can land you a long time in prison, as we've seen particularly in Indonesia, where possessing weed can land you the death penalty, it's a surprise to see such a severe potential punishment in the US.
Of course, they still have the death penalty over in the States, and they certainly don't take too kindly to people from other countries there at the moment, but Natali was no doubt still shocked when she learnt that the punishment for her alleged crime could be as long as five decades.
The mother from Kent claims that the unnamed associate had abducted her and forced her into the crime after the two met on a cruise.
A neighbour back in the UK has insisted that the crime was totally 'out of character'.
They said: "I fear her good nature has been her downfall; she can too easily see the good in people. She often lives on a pink cloud where everything is perfect. But of course it is not.”
James Moorhouse