Housewife sentenced

Ukraine donations should end up in her own pocket

A total of 900,000 euros in donations were never intended to help in Ukraine.(Bild: luzitanija - stock.adobe.com)

She promised to help women and children in the war zone to arrange appropriate funerals for the deceased. The 900,000 euros were to end up in the account of the now accused 35-year-old. "An absolutely brazen act," said the public prosecutor. The mother of four could face up to ten years in prison.

100,000 euros to get women and children out of the Ukrainian war zones. 500,000 euros for dignified funerals in Ukraine. 300,000 euros to convert her house to make it handicapped accessible for her son. A 35-year-old woman launched three appeals for donations last March. However, without the good cause in the foreground: "She exploited the willingness of potential donors to help."

Donations collected for basement renovations instead of war victims
Because she wanted to put the money collected in her own pocket. The mother of four was planning to buy a detached house in Lower Austria - even though money was already tight. She wanted to use the donations to extend the basement: "All my money was stolen by internet fraudsters on an online credit platform. I really believed that I would get the money if I made the advance payment. All I cared about was getting the 60,000 euros together for the cellar conversion."

Interns Gabriel and Laura accompanied the "Krone" to court.(Bild: Sophie Pratschner)

She wouldn't have expected the utopian sum of 900,000 euros anyway. "I never assumed that I would receive such a high amount," the housewife - who did not receive a single cent in donations - confessed to the judge in Vienna. In her verdict, she said: "It is enough that you seriously thought it was possible." - 18 months conditional imprisonment for attempted aggravated fraud.

§ Section 147 StGB Serious fraud

(1) Anyone who commits fraud by, for the purpose of deception

1. a false or falsified document, a false, falsified or alienated non-cash means of payment, spied out data of a non-cash means of payment, false or falsified data, another such means of evidence or an incorrect measuring device,

shall be punished with imprisonment for up to three years.

(3) Anyone who causes damage exceeding EUR 300,000 through the offense shall be punished with imprisonment of one to ten years.

For the time being, the public prosecutor's office is not making any statement on this "absolutely brazen act", as the prosecutor describes it. At the end of her trial, the Viennese woman promised: "My goal is to be there for my children and not to commit any more crimes."