Mayor of Horní Bělá embezzled from municipality for over a decade, causing damage exceeding five million crowns
Radek Pešík, former mayor of Horní Bělá in the Plzeň region, concluded a plea agreement. According to the prosecutor, he forged invoices and redirected payments to his own accounts.
Former mayor forged invoices and siphoned municipal funds to personal accounts
Radek Pešík (54), who led the municipality of Horní Bělá in northern Plzeň from 2010, concluded a plea agreement last month with state prosecutor Lenka Kocurová. As reported by Novinky.cz, the agreement must be approved by the Plzeň-North District Court within the coming weeks.
The prosecutor recommends a five-year suspended sentence for the crimes of embezzlement and abuse of authority by a public official, along with a five-year ban from holding the office of elected council member, mayor and deputy mayor. The proposed sentence also includes an obligation to compensate the municipality for the damage caused, which exceeded five million crowns.
"The accused created duplicates of supplier invoices for the municipality by placing bank details and QR codes for payment to his personal bank accounts on them. He then inserted these forgeries into the municipality's accounting records and personally processed payment from the municipality's account to his own accounts via online banking," Kocurová explained.
According to the document, Pešík began forging invoices gradually from 2015. The prosecutor identified over 80 fraudulent invoices ranging from 4,300 crowns to nearly half a million crowns. The fraud was uncovered last year when inspectors from the regional office discovered it. Pešík subsequently resigned from his position as mayor.
The motive of the accused does not emerge from the plea agreement. Novinky.cz was unable to reach him for comment. Horní Bělá, where fewer than six hundred permanent residents live, operates with an annual budget of approximately 20 million crowns.
Before entering local politics in the 1990s, Pešík worked as a customs officer.
Source: Novinky.cz