Shock caller in Munich sentenced to nine and a half years imprisonment
Munich Regional Court I sentenced a 42-year-old man to nine years and six months imprisonment for fraud committed by a criminal gang in 20 cases.
Fake police officer: Munich court imposes lengthy prison sentence on shock caller
Munich Regional Court I has sentenced a 42-year-old man to nine years and six months imprisonment for commercial and organised fraud. According to the Süddeutsche Zeitung, Carsten M. made a total of 20 shock calls as a so-called "fake police officer" and defrauded four victims of a combined total of €79,000.
The 9th Large Criminal Senate, presided over by Judge Christian Daimer, found the defendant guilty of fraud in four completed cases, attempted fraud in 16 cases, and usurpation of authority. The victims came from Munich, Dachau, Baden-Württemberg and North Rhine-Westphalia – according to the court, most of them were elderly people.
According to the Senate's findings, Carsten M. made calls from both Turkey and Lebanon, posing as a police officer to his victims. When the affected individuals became sufficiently frightened, they handed over their savings at their front door to so-called "collectors" – members of the same criminal gang.
Judge Daimer emphasised that the 42-year-old's role in relation to these collectors was significantly more substantial. M. worked in various functions at specially set up call centres and was thus part of a machinery geared towards mass fraud. His contribution to the crimes was therefore significant and "valuable". The defendant had confessed.
In determining the sentence, the court regarded the crimes against elderly people as particularly reprehensible. Daimer stated that he wished to send a clear message with the lengthy sentence. According to the court, word has since spread in criminal circles that Bavaria and Baden-Württemberg are not conducive to organised fraud offences. His numerous prior convictions also aggravated the sentence – as did the fact that such crimes undermine public trust in the police.
Before being transferred to Germany, Carsten M. spent approximately two years in prison and extradition detention in Lebanon. The Foreign Office confirmed to the court that inhumane detention conditions prevailed there. The court therefore credited this time to him at a ratio of 1 to 2.5 against the sentence to be served in Germany. Additionally, the court ordered the confiscation of €3,100 – the amount M. had received from the gang for his crimes.
Shock callers repeatedly succeed in frightening their victims through invented stories over the telephone and compelling them to hand over their savings. Collectors are regularly apprehended by the police; however, the actual callers, who typically operate from abroad, rarely appear before a German court. In the case of Carsten M., investigators exceptionally succeeded in apprehending and extraditing this type of perpetrator. The verdict is not yet final.
Source: Süddeutsche Zeitung