Trial in Feldkirch

Brazen invalid pensioner goes on vacation at state expense

The man had wrongly received compensation payments and care allowance.

(Bild: Dorn Chantall)

A 50-year-old early retiree was found guilty of serious fraud at Feldkirch Regional Court on Monday. During his vacations in Turkey, Bulgaria and Georgia, he collected compensation payments and care allowance from the PVA. 

Walking with a walking stick and with a pained expression, the defendant takes his seat in courtroom 108. When public prosecutor Claudia Buss-Gerstgrasser confronts him with the accusations that he wrongfully collected compensation payments and care allowance amounting to 18,500 euros from the pension insurance institution for 13 years, he plays the unsuspecting and consequently pleads not guilty.

The judge tries to help the early retiree out several times: "Is it true that you were abroad several times between August 2013 and November 2024 and went on vacation without informing the PVA? In addition, did you submit several applications for compensation payments and care allowance during this time?"

Lots of excuses
The delinquent again feigns ignorance. He doesn't speak German. Sometimes his daughter's friend helped him fill out the form, sometimes someone else. No one had ever told him that stays abroad exceeding 60 days a year had to be reported to the PVA. However, the judge considers this to be a purely protective assertion.

The social parasite is also not ashamed to mention his months-long vacations in Serbia, Turkey, Bulgaria and Georgia. "Do you really believe that the Austrian state has to pay for your vacation? Does that also apply to me in your country?" the Frau Rat then wants to know from the accused. He does not provide an answer.

The fact is that the 50-year-old would not have been entitled to care allowance and compensation payments during the vacations. The previously blameless man receives a four-month suspended sentence for serious fraud. He must also pay a fine of 1,200 euros.