Senior citizens robbed

Fake policeman and convicted bail trickster

The defendant made 244,900 euros in just three months with the police trick.

(Bild: P. Huber)

In Germany, the 39-year-old escaped from prison, in Austria he simply continued to trick people as a fake police officer while on the run. This is how he conned senior citizens out of a whopping 244,900 euros. He is tight-lipped in the Vienna provincial court. One floor below, a bail fraudster is sitting in the dock, having been framed by a 65-year-old woman from Burgenland.

The sentence that was probably uttered the most in room 13 of the Vienna Regional Court this afternoon: "I don't know." It caused the judge, the lay assessors and the public prosecutor to shake their heads. What exactly the defendant doesn't want to remember: between January and March 2019, he ripped off old people using the well-known police trick - "That's what's particularly reprehensible about this case," said the public prosecutor. 

Memory lapses due to drugs?
She describes the 39-year-old as an unscrupulous fraudster who stole valuables and cash amounting to 244,900 euros from eight elderly ladies and gentlemen by pretending to be a police officer and thus gaining their trust. In six other cases, it was only an attempt. Both the public prosecutor and the judge want to know exactly how the whole thing went down and who his two accomplices were - "I don't know."

After 14 previous convictions, you have to find your way slowly.

Richterin im Wiener Landesgericht

The stateless man's defense lawyer explains the gaps in his memory: "He was severely addicted to gambling and drugs. So much so that it was already a disease." However, he does not receive much sympathy from the parties involved in the proceedings. Frau Rat reproaches him: "After 14 previous convictions, you should just find your way slowly."

Prison break in a neighboring country
He also pulled this trick in Germany for many years. "The high point is that you committed the crimes during an escape," said the judge, stunned. In March 2018, he escaped from prison in Germany, fled to Austria and simply continued to steal from senior citizens here. "I'm sorry for what I did to these elderly people," the defendant said.

The jury sentenced him to three years and four months in prison for commercial fraud - in addition to a conviction from Germany, where he served two years and eight months. Due to the numerous previous convictions and the rapid relapse, the 39-year-old's sentence is increased. The sentence is not final. 

Burgenland woman convicted of bail fraud
Meanwhile, a 49-year-old man with eight previous convictions is sitting in the large jury courtroom in Vienna. He too - together with unknown accomplices - used a similar trick: the bail trick. On November 21, a 65-year-old woman from Burgenland was called by an alleged policewoman and told that her daughter had been in an accident. However, the senior citizen only has a son - but the older woman played along. 

"An intelligent, cool lady", praised the senior public prosecutor in court. Because when the 49-year-old defendant arrived at the door to collect 86,000 euros in bail money for the fictitious daughter, the real police were already waiting for him. In the background, however, is a complex international group of perpetrators: "They use their own call centers with very good German-speaking, rhetorically trained people who call the victims and pretend to be police officers, public prosecutors and judges. The damage caused in Austria amounts to more than twelve million euros," reports the prosecutor. The sentence: 30 months in prison!