Two foreigners – a Briton and an Italian – were found guilty by a local court of robbing and assaulting an Italian couple in a villa in Seminyak.
The Denpasar District Court sentenced UK national Gregory Lee Simpson, 37, to 5 years’ imprisonment and Italian national Nicola Di Santo, 34, to 5-and-a-half-years’ imprisonment for having held Principe Nerini and his wife, Camilla Guadagnuolo, in captivity at their villa on in the early hours of Nov. 11 last year.
The court heard that Simpson and Di Santo, assisted by their two friends, MMM and BSS, who are now on the police’s wanted list, broke into the villa located on Nakula Street while the victims were asleep.
Nerini and Guadagnuolo woke and were shocked to find four masked men surrounding them. The criminals then punched both victims in the face, subdued them, and tied them up before demanding them to reveal their safety box’s password.
The victims, who were described as trading moguls, reported losses of around IDR5.8 billion (US$405,440). Di Santo actually worked for Nerini, and came up with the robbery plan because his former boss had offended him in the past.
“The defendants have been proven guilty of having committed theft and assault,” Presiding Judge I Wayan Yasa said in the verdict hearing yesterday.
The court gave both Simpson and Di Santo a week to consider lodging an appeal.
