A 22-year-old man from Emmen has been sentenced to 240 hours of community service for emptying the bank account of an elderly woman and theft of her bank details and passport from her home. His 56-year-old mother, the victim’s neighbor, helped him with this and has to perform a community service of 200 hours. The judge also imposed a four-month suspended prison sentence on both of them.
“I am sick of this on the spot,” said the public prosecutor about the working method of mother and son. She demanded ten months in prison, of which six months were suspended for both.
According to her, mother and son forged this ‘nauseous’ plan and carried it out together. Together they looted an elderly woman’s bank account to support the son’s gambling addiction. The judge could imagine that the accuser put a lot of effort into her sentence. “The trust that the victim had in you has been horribly abused,” the judge said to the mother. Both have stolen 54,000 euros and a prison sentence makes it difficult to repay this amount, the judge motivated the community service.
The victim’s daughter discovered in April 2021 that items were missing from her mother’s home. She was there because her mother had been rushed to the hospital. The daughter was missing her mother’s passport, bank card and a booklet with login codes. She also found a bank statement and read that 54,000 euros had been debited from the account.
The police found the 22-year-old son of the neighbor through the transfers. He confessed that he had used this money to pay off his debts for his gambling addiction. He got the login details through his mother, who had good contact with the older woman. The 56-year-old Emmense was the help and refuge of the older woman.
She had been pressured by her son, the woman told the judge. He also took the blame towards the judge and said that he had incited his mother to do so. He knew from his mother that the elderly neighbor had a well-filled bank account from the sale of her car.
While his mother lured the older woman to her yard, the son stole her phone and passport from the home. He then transferred large amounts to his own account and gave his mother another ten thousand euros. “You are cunning. You messed with my grief for the death of my husband,” said the victim through her daughter during her victim statement. “You play the caring neighbor. We sent you flowers because you took such good care of me. But in the meantime you had already stolen my money from my bank account. I had no idea you were behind this.”
The woman made her role smaller than it is, the judge said. In fact, she was the initiator by showing her son the full bank account of the neighbor. Instead of talking the plan out of her son’s mind, she went along with everything, the judge said. He felt that both should seek help for their problems and imposed a gambling ban on the 22-year-old man. Both have to pay back the stolen money, plus 1500 euros in damages.