Among other things, she claimed that a malignant tumor had lodged behind her left eye and that she needed money for a cancer operation. The judgment is not final.
In truth, the banker suffered from shopping addiction, which she could no longer satisfy with her salary alone – more than 3,000 euros net. When she could no longer get loans from her employer and other banks, she turned to two colleagues for help. In addition to cancer, she claimed another serious illness and expensive therapies, once she asked for bail for a place in a retirement home that her mother was supposed to be moving to. In front of an aldermen’s senate (chair: Julia Matiasch), the 51-year-old now confessed that none of it was true: “I didn’t dare to say what situation I was in.” She “went shopping uncontrollably.” Debts of 400,000 euros had accumulated because she bought clothes and shoes without restraint.
The banker used collateral to fool the two helpful colleagues, who gave her a total of three or four loans and trusted in getting the money back, that they owned a condominium and half a part of the house. That was also a lie. One employee left her 48,000 euros “because I personally didn’t need the money at that time,” as he explained to the court. The other took out a loan himself because he felt sorry for the supposedly cancer patient. Except for a few thousand euros – the malversations were blown in October 2020 – no damage compensation has been given.
The defendant confessed comprehensively: “It was all like that. I cannot say today when I lost control. There is nothing to be said. I cannot undo it.” In itself she lived in modest circumstances: “I am in a small apartment that costs almost nothing. I have no car, no expensive hobbies.” The need to buy clothes and shoes stressed her for years: “I made sure that I keep my job, that I perform, that I somehow get ahead.” After the complaint, she collapsed mentally and was temporarily admitted to a clinic to get her addiction under control. Since then she has been in therapeutic treatment.
The banker lost her job. Personal bankruptcy was initiated through them, and a debt settlement process is in progress. The 51-year-old is currently retraining to become a nurse. After the instruction on the right to appeal, the previously innocent period of reflection requested, the public prosecutor initially made no statement on the judgment.
Source: Nachrichten
