For years they were hidden under tons of firewood
With the apology of the 68-year-old accused, the trial for the theft of 4,600 pounds from the paternal businessman, in a town of Trikala, the value of which reaches 2 million euros, will continue on December 15 at the Five-member Court of Criminal Appeals of Larisa, as was reported to the Court on Thursday.
The 68-year-old sister-in-law of the 76-year-old businessman is sitting in the defendant’s dock, accused of aggravated theft (use) of an object worth more than 120,000 euros by profession, by habit and by continuation, as well as for money laundering.
Pounds which, the court was told, were obtained from the 76-year-old’s trading activities until 1973 and were hidden in a barrel in the firewood from 1987 until March 8, 2011, when they were stolen. Thus, the family case came to be pending for more than 11 years, with the two sides now confronting each other in the Courts, as happened yesterday in the Five-Member Court of Appeal, where there were no shortage of moments of tension between relatives.
A case concerning the story of the two sisters – children of a family from the mountain villages of Trikala, with psychopathic children (as was the case due to poverty after the Civil War) in well-to-do families or with other younger siblings in orphanages “to to live”, with the love of poor commercial employees – as mentioned in the Court – which started in Trikala and Larissa, so that the 76-year-old businessman today has developed business activity in Greece and abroad and is among the richest in the country.
The reason for the breakdown of the once good family relations was an oil container with 4600 pounds that the 76-year-old businessman hid under tons of firewood in his father’s house, “in a place I was sure you wouldn’t imagine”, as he characteristically noted yesterday in his testimony .
He also testified with intensity referring to his sister-in-law that “we could never have imagined that it was done by our own person. To tell you my sin, our mind went to someone else. We had them in our work, we married them, we raised them. He turned out to be a big devil…”, he emphasized referring to his sister-in-law, recounting the whole affair.
“Paleokostas told me”
He also added that in order to mislead them, his sister-in-law attributed the theft to a person wanted by EL.AS, “she was telling me about Paleokostas”. He also noted his surprise when the Trikala Police investigated the case and that the perpetrator of the theft is his sister-in-law.
“There he confessed to taking the pounds, my wife was shocked to find out it was her sister. We provided them with everything… It hurts my soul to say that I have done them so well and they are stealing from me…”.
He also added that they assured him that “we will give you the money” clarifying that such a thing has never happened until today. A particularly large amount of money was found in the 68-year-old’s account, an amount that was seized as part of the police investigation.
Asked by the president of the Court why he chose, instead of a bank safe, to hide so many pounds under the firewood and even in his father’s house, I mean he lived in Athens, the 76-year-old emphasized that “I didn’t want the bank employees in Larissa to know”, where was living at the time, adding that he chose to have them outside of banks, feeling more secure.
For safekeeping by the priest
As part of the hearing yesterday, several witnesses testified, including a priest from Trikala, who, among other things, noted that the 68-year-old woman handed him 42,000 euros in cash and 50 pounds, because “he had nowhere to leave her.” According to the 76-year-old, the pounds found in the priest’s possession come from the stolen ones, just as the sums of money found in third party accounts come from the sale of the stolen pounds.
It should be noted that despite what the 76-year-old businessman testified yesterday regarding the confession of the theft to EL.AS., his 68-year-old sister-in-law – as in the first instance – claims that the pounds come from her father’s property and that they do not belong to her son-in-law. The family confrontation focused, at several points in the trial, on how poor or not the two brothers’ families were.
The trial will continue on December 15 with the apology of the accused, who is reminded that at first instance, by the Three-member Court of Criminal Appeals of Larissa, in 2019, she was found guilty, imposing a multi-year prison sentence (13 years), a sentence that was imposed on her with suspensive force.
Eleftheria newspaper
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