Crime tourist

“Yes, I’ll pay everything”: But victims don’t see any money

In Linz, the 36-year-old Romanian willingly told all about his deeds as a member of a ram gang and criminal tourist

(Bild: Einöder Horst/Horst Einöder/Flashpictures)

"Yes, I'll pay everything and I'll ask God for forgiveness" - a Romanian criminal tourist (36) who had plundered four cell phone stores as a member of a gang of battering rams was rarely insightful, talkative and generous. Although this earned him extra points towards his sentence, the victims are left to pay for their losses.

"The prison sentence has obviously had little effect on you" - the judge just shook her head at the 36-year-old Romanian, who was sitting in front of her fully confessing, sometimes in tears. He openly admitted that he had only been released from prison in France for three months when he and four accomplices first forced open the front door of a mobile phone company in Linz with a stolen car and stole 134 cell phones and other items for 85,000 euros.

Idea came because "there are stores here"
They came up with the idea by chance when they visited the daughter of an accomplice in Austria and realized that "there are stores here". The father of five, who had no professional training, took part because he needed money for his family and especially for his parents, who live in England and had had an accident.

Return with the intention of "stealing"
Two weeks after the first crime, they returned to Austria in November 2023, but with the intention of "going stealing", as he confessed. In one night, they raided a total of three stores in Kirchdorf and Enns, again using a stolen car from Rammbock. "The total haul exceeds 180,000 euros," reports the prosecutor. The loot was sold in Romania, and the criminal tourist received 8,200 euros as his share.

Recidivism increased the sentence
As the Romanian had already been convicted in his home country, in Spain and in France for "the same things we did here" and his DNA was therefore also known and he was tracked down, the sentence for recidivism was increased from five years to seven and a half years in prison.

"Request for less punishment"
The judge and the lay assessors were then merciful with two years and nine months in prison because the Romanian named all his accomplices and "helped to clear up the case extensively". "Please ask for less punishment," said the father of five in tears, but then accepted the sentence and also acknowledged the approximately 2,000 euros in damages to a female academic whose car had been used as a battering ram, as well as the approximately 70,000 euros that an insurance company wants from him. However, both of them are effectively stuck with the damages, as the Romanian is penniless and there is little chance of him getting any money legally.

"You can't help the family in prison either"
"You must see to it that you break the cycle, otherwise you will spend the rest of your life in prison and won't be able to help your family either," the judge told the convicted man - the sentence is not yet final because the public prosecutor has not yet made a statement.