From the court

Two years in prison for gold bar thief

The verdict against the Unterländer is not yet final. The reason for this is that the public prosecutor lodged an appeal against the defendant on Wednesday.

(Bild: Dorn Chantall/Krone KREATIV)

A brand new tractor, a big Audi and a gaming PC. The public prosecutor and the senate of lay assessors did not believe any of the defendant's stories about how he got his money.

The senate considered it proven that the accused had stolen gold bars and coins worth at least 250,000 euros from a 68-year-old farmer in Lauterach. A further 140,000 euros were declared forfeited. The 56-year-old was also found guilty of incitement to make false statements.

Gold hidden under the sofa
The case was started by an eager policewoman. She had followed up the statement of an elderly gentleman who had not found the gold worth 600,000 euros hidden under his sofa. During the officer's inquiries, the accused, who had worked on the farmer's farm at the time, eventually became the focus of the investigation. What immediately stood out: although the suspect apparently didn't have a cent, he suddenly bought a tractor for 90,000 euros, a fancy Audi or a gaming PC. This was confirmed by invoices for 150,000 euros found during a house search. 
When the suspicions were confirmed, the suspect was remanded in custody. An analysis of his cell phone revealed that the man had repeatedly checked the price of gold. He had also googled how to delete data on his cell phone. However, the accused had not done this very carefully. A message from a gold dealer in Dornbirn, who recognized the accused, was found on the cell phone: The 56-year-old had apparently used the victim's car while he was in hospital to sell the gold.

Suddenly acquired wealth
During the trial, the accused repeatedly gave new versions of his suddenly acquired wealth. One time it was his mother who had favored him with an inheritance, another time it was a lottery win. In any case, he was not the only one who had known about the gold, emphasized the 56-year-old and accused the 68-year-old of bragging about his wealth to the cleaning lady or his partner at the time. He did not convince the public prosecutor. He persisted and followed up, so that in the end the accused confessed to having incited the mother to make a false statement. The woman, who wanted to help her son with the version of the inheritance, is now also facing a trial.