From January 2009 to November 2017, the accused allegedly declared salable beer as broken and sold it on secretly. According to the prosecutor, the brewery suffered damage of 1.7 million euros.
The accused, like the lawyers, were each divided into four rows of seats, and name tags provided a good overview of the jury courtroom. Judge Andreas Rom quickly checked the personal details, and the process could start after just 25 minutes of preparatory work. In addition to commercial theft as part of a criminal organization, the accused were accused of embezzlement, receiving stolen goods and gang tax evasion.
The years of theft of drinks were exposed by anonymous reports in which three employees were accused of having stolen beer and non-alcoholic drinks for years. The brewery then investigated with the help of a detective and cameras and discovered the large-scale and widespread machinations. 51 suspects were identified, 24 of whom were eventually charged. The main participants were two cellar masters, hall managers and employees in the self-service shop, who brought the goods from the company premises and sold them.
The thefts went through the so-called “broken goods”, which had to be checked and confirmed by the cellar master. The suspects are said to have come up with the idea of declaring lots of perfect beer as broken goods. Since it was soon no longer a question of a few boxes, but of whole pallets, the cooperation of several people was necessary. Forklift drivers, cellar masters, hall managers and self-service shop employees had to participate so that the goods could be sold outside the home, the prosecutor explained.
“There were enormous fractional numbers during the period of the crime,” said the prosecutor. Initially only a few employees were involved, but over time more and more wanted to get involved. One of the main perpetrators, who worked as an “organizational hub” and, according to the prosecutor, “had to look the other way”, is said to have embezzled around 50,000 euros. He was the only one who confessed from the start.
Source: Nachrichten
