Image: HERBERT PFARRHOFER (APA)
The judgment is not final. Petzner, on the other hand, lodged a “full appeal”, as he stated after the reasoning of the judgement. The prosecutor did not provide any explanation for the time being.
At the beginning of the hearing, the accused declared: “I understandably plead not guilty.” The public prosecutor accused him of having wrongly received unemployment benefits and emergency assistance in 2019 and of having stolen almost 7,600 euros. “I was convinced that everything was fine,” said the accused. He had “filled out everything correctly at my discretion”.
“There was no intent to cheat anyone”
“There was no intention of cheating on anyone. There was a mistake,” said the 42-year-old. In 2019 he founded his company – petzner communications e. U. – suspended due to health problems and applied for social benefits on the advice of his father: “I was really embarrassed to go to the AMS. I took 15 minutes to dare to go in. I felt that as a personal defeat.” He did not see it as a problem that he received income as a self-employed person on the basis of a total of three orders during this period: “It was around 5,000 euros. It wasn’t 100,000 euros like with Karmasin (meaning: the former ÖVP family minister Sophie Karmasin, note .)”. He was “a bit of a mess” and “not a number person, not a math person. The math teacher said at school that Petzner would definitely not make it to the Matura. I did it anyway.”
His defender Meinhard Novak had sought a diversionary settlement, but did not get through to single judge Sonja Weis. His client had no bad intentions, Novak assured: “He has a political killing instinct. He can do that, but he’s not a businessman.” In this context, Novak quoted the Udo Jürgens song “Traumtänzer” – Petzner is known as Udo Jürgens-Verkehrer – and stated: “He (Petzner, note) is just this dream dancer.”
A representative of the AMS had stated on the witness stand that Petzner had been registered as a compulsorily insured self-employed person in 2019. A reclaim procedure has been initiated with regard to the social benefits in question because Petzner received income beyond the marginal income limit in the period in question. According to his income tax assessment, Petzner had received fees of around 30,000 euros from his professional activity while he was submitting his AMS applications.
The former spokesman and confidante of Carinthian governor Jörg Haider, who died in October 2008, sat for the BZÖ in the National Council from 2008 to October 2013 and then ran a PR consulting agency, with which he recently slid into bankruptcy. The insolvency proceedings have since been lifted, a restructuring plan has been approved and Petzner’s creditors have been granted a quota of 25 percent.
Source: Nachrichten
