By Anne Losensky
Always worked a lot, never earned enough … So he reached into the state treasury and donated around 6,000 euros a month in addition to the civil servant’s salary. The penalty: two and a half years in prison.
Sven Q. (45) sat as an official at the desk in the social welfare office in Tempelhof-Schoeneberg, approved aid for people with disabilities. He had a free hand up to 5,000 euros.
For two and a half years he simply transferred funds intended for the weakest in society to himself – and no one noticed! On average around 6000 euros a month, plus his official salary (A9). So he came to around 8600 euros.
At the end of 2020, he was caught during an inspection and immediately thrown out. Until then he had allowed himself many beautiful trips, good food and luxury goods. The world in shards, the civil servant’s job gone for life, the bailiff unemployed.
“I only did it to make ends meet,” he now brazenly justifies himself in front of the Tiergarten district court: “I had days when I only worked in the district office!”
The prosecutor: “They acted without economic need, just to enrich themselves.”
The defense attorney demands a suspended sentence: “What does society get out of it if he’s in jail?” The verdict on behalf of the people: two and a half years in prison (103 acts of embezzlement in particularly serious cases).
Judge Wolfgang Konecny: “The state must be able to rely on the reliability of its employees.”
Exactly 175,092.25 euros are collected. That means: The state can pawn that much for 30 years from the Schöneberger.