From the court

Fortune teller sentenced to prison for foul magic

The 57-year-old offered her victims various rituals in return for huge sums of money. She has now been sentenced to four years in prison at Feldkirch Regional Court.

(Bild: Krone KREATIV)

A 57-year-old woman from Vorarlberg had promised healing to people seeking help through obscure rituals. She extracted almost 500,000 euros from the victims' pockets. On Tuesday, she was presented with the bill for her deeds at Feldkirch Regional Court. 

"I never wanted to enrich myself, only to help," the social welfare recipient defended herself in the Feldkirch regional court, referring to allegedly numerous letters from satisfied "patients". If you listen to their statements, however, they were ripped off through the teeth. Over the course of eleven years, the self-proclaimed "witch" scammed almost half a million euros, for example by promising sick patients healing through rituals.

The 57-year-old took over 350,000 euros from a desperate Swiss woman. "I wanted to save my marriage. She said she could get my husband off alcohol." And so the woman dutifully paid the proud sum of 5,000 euros for a love ritual with a few consecrated candles, among other things. The marriage still failed. But in order not to lose the good customer, the fraudster diagnosed life-threatening illnesses in her, her sister and her father. "She said that if I didn't keep paying, I would have open magic and everyone would die."

Four years in prison for the charlatan
Another witness gave a similar account. The charlatan extorted around 30,000 euros from her for nothing. She offered to let her ex die for 2,000 euros to a woman from Vorarlberg who had just separated from her husband. The shocked woman refused. Public prosecutor Konstanze Manhart had clear words. She described the accused not only as an unscrupulous fraudster who capitalized on the suffering of others, but also as a social parasite, as she not only concealed her additional income from the tax office, but had also received welfare benefits. The final sentence: four years in prison and restitution."