Olomouc, North Moravia, April 14 (CTK) – The Olomouc High Court has upheld a nine-year prison term for a woman, 52, who sent over 110 million crowns to a man she never saw and who promised happy life and marriage to her online, while she stole the money from her firm.
The woman, who worked as chief accountant in the firm, has confessed to the crime.
The court also upheld a ten-year professional ban to her and she must pay the damages of over 101 million crowns to the firm.
“The defendant crossed 22 times the large-scale damage of five million crowns,” judge Jaroslav Holubec said.
“The sum is astronomic, due to which she cannot be sentenced to a lower punishment,” he added.
“In addition, she was doing the crime for a long time of 13 months,” Holubec said.
The woman worked as a chief accountant in an engineering firm in Kurim, South Moravia.
She made friends with the cheat on an Internet social network in 2014.
He claimed he was a retired U.S. serviceman, writing that he loved her and promising a happy family life to her.
“I tremendously trusted him,” the woman said.
The man started asking for money, for his return from Afghanistan where he was allegedly working and later for the purchase of a house or air tickets.
The woman created in her firm dozens of fictitious payment orders for the goods from suppliers, but they never delivered anything to the firm, as well as advance payments for employees’ social and health insurance schemes.
The woman’s mother and sister warned her that the man was a cheat.
The money was disappearing at foreign accounts and the man’s identity was never found. In fact, an organised group may be behind the crime, the police say.
The police managed to seize in time some eight million crowns, thanks to which the amount the firm demands as damages is somewhat lower than the really stolen sum.
