- A man has been sentenced to a year in prison for stealing hams in southern Spain, per The Guardian.
- The man reportedly stole 7,000 hams worth $532,200 and sold them on illegally.
- His wife was also convicted as an accomplice and the pair were ordered to pay back the man's employer.
A man has been sentenced to just under a year in prison for stealing 7,000 hams in southern Spain.
The Guardian reported the news.
The unnamed man was found guilty of defrauding his employers after stealing the hams from a curing warehouse he worked in, according to the publication.
According to The Guardian, he reportedly sold them on and used a messenger service to deliver them to customers, making around €520,000 ($532,200) in the process.
The man stole the hams over the course of six years, from 2007 to 2013, per The Guardian.
The warehouse was based in the southern Spanish region of Huelva, which produces jamón de jabugo, a variety of Iberico ham that can sell for more than $512, per The Guardian. More than 100 of the stolen hams were the jamón de jabugo variety, it added.
The man's sentence was reduced to 11 months and 29 days from a potential six-year sentence due to the length of time the case took to come to trial, per The Guardian.
His wife was also convicted as an accomplice and the two were ordered to repay the $532,200 to the man's former employer.
CNBC reported in 2020 that the most expensive ham in the world was the "prestigious" jamon Iberico de bellota.
Insider's Mikala Jones-Fielder and Sydney Kramer previously interviewed a chef at the Viale dei Romani restaurant in Los Angeles to discuss the popularity of Iberico ham.
The chef said the restaurant sold the ham for $30 an ounce, though the price could fluctuate up and down all year long. The specific diet of the pigs gave the ham a nutty flavor, as well as its fat profile, he added.