Prison for Polish women

Mother-daughter duo sentenced for bail trick

The Polish mother-daughter duo are brought out of custody at the Vienna Regional Court.

(Bild: Pratschner Sophie, Krone KREATIV)

A mother and her daughter share the dock in Vienna's provincial court: "My mother asked me for help," explains the 20-year-old - who accompanied her mother when she handed over money after bail tricks. Now they are both serving prison sentences.

Both wearing white, both with dark blonde hair - as the two Polish women take their seats next to each other in the dock at Vienna's regional court, you can see how similar they really look. They are mother and daughter and have to face a fraud trial together. They worked as pick-up girls for a bail fraud gang in their home country.

"Attorney Dr. Fischer" and "public prosecutor Dr. König"
In his opening statement against the two women, the senior public prosecutor no longer has to go into great detail, as most people in Austria are familiar with the police and bail scam from media reports. In the case of the accused 42-year-old woman and her 20-year-old daughter, it was mainly elderly pensioners who were called from a Polish call center and informed that a relative had allegedly had an accident - bail would have to be paid.

With all due respect, you're exposing your daughter to a massive crime just because you don't want to drive alone?

Richter Andreas Hautz hat wenig Verständnis für die angeklagte Mutter.

Using the false names "Attorney Dr. Fischer" and "Public Prosecutor Dr. König", the callers convinced the victims to have cash and jewelry ready to hand over. And that's where the mother-daughter team came in. "But why are you taking your daughter with you?" the judge reproaches the 42-year-old. "I didn't want to drive alone, that's why I took her with me," the mother cries during her testimony - and the 20-year-old is also in tears. Judge Andreas Hautz has little sympathy for this: "With all due respect, you exposed your daughter to a serious crime just because you didn't want to drive alone?"

Defense lawyer Philipp Winkler

(Bild: Gerhard Bartel)

The two Polish women leave the decision on guilt to the jury. "Yes, that's right. They came to Austria because they had money problems. They plead guilty," their defense lawyer Philipp Winkler anticipates at the beginning of the trial. The defendants collected 210,200 euros in cash and jewelry from pensioners, but only received a small fraction of it. Further attacks were only attempted.

Prison sentences for mother and daughter
The mother-daughter duo finally received prison sentences for commercial fraud and membership of a criminal organization: The 42-year-old was sentenced to three years in prison, her daughter was sentenced to two years - eight months of which were fixed. In court, she emphasized her completely subordinate role: "My mother asked me for help. I didn't think anything of it. I just wanted to help her."