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Defendant in court: fraud allegation incomprehensible
Photo: Mohssen Assanimoghaddam / dpa
He is said to have offered fake gold bars and Krugerrand coins between April 2020 and January 2021, earning more than 40,000 euros: For the second time, a man is on trial for a suspected fraud involving fake gold.
The 27-year-old is accused of five acts at the regional court in Oldenburg, Lower Saxony.
During the trial, the prosecutor accused the defendant of having fooled the buyers into believing that the goods were real gold.
However, the pieces were practically worthless.
Defendant sees responsibility in buyers
The accused denied having deliberately deceived the buyers.
He understood that people were upset, but could not understand the prosecutor's allegation of fraud.
Accordingly, he always used the English term »plated« - metal-coated - to indicate that the bars were not made entirely of gold, but only covered with a layer of gold.
This is a common expression.
"It cannot be a serious task of a German court to criminalize the seller and to protect frivolous buyers who are not familiar with the matter," said the defendant.
This is not the first time the man has been on trial.
The Jever district court sentenced him to three years in prison for a similar charge in November 2019.
Since the judgment was not yet final because of an appeal, the man was initially at large.
When the court realized that the accused appeared to have committed new offenses, it issued an arrest warrant in late September 2020.
The defendant went into hiding and the investigative authorities were looking for him.
He surrendered in mid-January 2021.
ptz / dpa