A 65-year-old man was found guilty yesterday by the Single-Member Criminal Appeal Court of Larisas, who was indicted for grand larceny committed consecutively and was sentenced to 3 years in prison (with 3 years suspended).

The 65-year-old nephew, until recently, was the trusted relative of the 87-year-old illegitimate OGA pensioner, who – not trusting banks-, entrusted him with two metal bullet boxes containing approximately 250,000 euros. Boxes that the 65-year-old, on the suggestion of the 87-year-old, hid at the bottom of a barrel – according to information from “E” – in a warehouse next to her house, as reported yesterday in Court.

Of the 250,000 euros within two years, 220,000 were partially lost, with the result that only 30,000 euros were left in the two boxes, a development that forced the 87-year-old to take refuge in the Farsala Police Department and sue her 65-year-old relative and… once her confidant .

The 65-year-old, apologizing yesterday, categorically denied his guilt, with his defense noting emphatically that after the theft “others’ financial situation changed, not the accused’s”. Earlier, however, the district attorney emphasized in his speech that “what the victim testified is true, it is fully proven” suggesting the 65-year-old’s guilt.

In two years, the theft

At the beginning of March 2021, the 87-year-old pensioner of the OGA addressed the A.T. Farsalon, naming in her lawsuit her 65-year-old relative as the man who, between October 2019 and February 2021, stole 220,000 euros from the two metal boxes. In 2019, when her brother passed away, the 87-year-old pensioner trusted the 65-year-old and placed the amount of 250,000 euros in two metal boxes which they jointly decided to hide in a barrel in a warehouse, next to her house. In the warehouse because, as the defense of the 65-year-old pointed out yesterday, there had been an attempted burglary at the house of the elderly woman, who did not trust banks because she had found “inexplicable” movement in her account.

In February 2021, when the 87-year-old asked to check the two boxes, she found that there were only 30,000 euros in them and that the remaining 220,000 euros had been stolen. In the context of the hearing yesterday, the 65-year-old in his apology categorically denied his guilt, while relatives of the 87-year-old, as well as her neighbors, testified, among others.

With the district attorney noting, among other things, that from the hearing “it emerged that the amount of money was there and it was hidden in a way that the accused knew”, “it turned out that the only one who knew and at the behest of the patient was the accused” . To add that “it was not proven that there was a forced opening” of the warehouse door so that “a third party could claim that there was a break-in”.

It is clarified that police officers of A.T. Farsalon, investigating the case at the time, found that neither the house of the 84-year-old woman, nor the warehouse where the barrel was located, showed signs of a break-in.

“What the patient testified is true, it is fully proven” the prosecutor concluded by suggesting the 65-year-old’s guilt. “Everything was done at the behest of the victim,” the defense emphasized, to add that “the accused was not the only one who knew” about the existence of the money. He also clarified that “witnesses reported that there were attempted burglaries and robberies, everyone knew there was money. The defendant suggested that the victim put the money in the bank, but she refused. They put the money in the stable because they broke into the house. The thief entered through the back door and left the 30,000 euros to incriminate the defendant. The financial situation of others changed and not the defendant’s defense concluded and stressing that the charge was not proven, it requested the 65-year-old’s discharge. The president of the Single-Member Court of Criminal Appeals of Larissa announced the decision on the guilt of the 65-year-old who, after the recognition of a mitigating factor, was sentenced to 3 years in prison with 3 years suspended.

Source: Eleftheria newspaper (Vangelis Kakaras)