Mild sentence

Record haul: Pensioner hands over two million

The 73-year-old woman was defrauded of her jewelry worth two million euros. The accused 19-year-old was the collector.

(Bild: Krone KREATIV/Anja Richter, stock.adobe.com)

Fearing a "Romanian gang", a 73-year-old woman from Lower Austria entrusted her expensive jewelry to a fake police officer. The 19-year-old Viennese handed the suitcase over to his clients. They presumably took the record amount of loot to Turkey. The pick-up man faced up to ten years in prison in the Vienna countryside, but he got off lightly.

"She brought the suitcase to the door. My client didn't know what was in it and how much it was worth," says lawyer Zaid Rauf in the depressing trial about a criminal organization that robs elderly people of their belongings. "Can you expect to throw two million euros at the feet of a stranger? Of course not," he adds. His client, a 19-year-old Austrian, is completing an apprenticeship as a car mechanic in Vienna.

To finance drug use
Because he could no longer afford the drugs he was addicted to, he had made the "big mistake" and got involved with the criminals. The collectors were promised a small percentage of the loot: "I pretended to be a policeman, took the suitcase and handed it over to the clients," confessed the young man, who immediately blurted out everything he knew during his interrogation.

She brought the suitcase to the door. My client didn't know what was inside or how much it was worth.

Zaid Rauf über die Rekordbeute.

Unfortunately, it's not very much because, according to Rauf, the apprentice is "the smallest cog of all" in the mass fraud model. The criminal bosses are based in Izmir, Turkey, where victims are "wedged" in a professional manner from a call center. According to the public prosecutor, "massive psychological pressure is exerted" on the victims.

The jewelry was immensely valuable
This was also the case for Ms. H. from Lower Austria. She is persuaded in a highly credible manner that she could fall victim to a Romanian gang. Which is why she was told to hand over her assets to the police as security. The jewelry was worth two million euros, which the frightened pensioner handed over in a suitcase to the motor vehicle apprentice, who pretended to be Inspector Sebastian Wimmer.

Partial prison sentence for motor vehicle apprentice
The young man received a lenient 15 months in prison, 10 of which were conditional. Four other pick-up men are accused in the trial. Three of them get off with partially conditional sentences. The first defendant, who has several previous convictions, has to serve two years in prison. Not legally binding.