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The defendant in court: chips melted into bars in a garden shed
Photo: Bernd Weissbrod / dpa
During sawing work in a jewelry factory in Pforzheim, gold shavings kept falling.
A 50-year-old employee at the factory saw this as an opportunity for enrichment - and stole at least 20 kilograms of the valuable waste over an extended period of time.
As a result, he has now been sentenced to three years and eight months in prison.
The criminal division of the Pforzheim branch of the Karlsruhe regional court saw it as proven that the accused smuggled the shavings of the precious metal over a long period of time.
According to the indictment, the man took the shavings to a garden shed, where he melted down the gold and later sold it.
Jacuzzi and conservatory built
The accused confessed to the 27 cases of commercial theft that have now been judged.
The public prosecutor's office gave the damage for this at 960,000 euros.
The prosecutor said the accused had created an ongoing source of income with the theft.
The money from the sale was put into the family home, among other things.
A whirlpool was installed or a conservatory was added.
An unusual amount of cash was also found during the search.
"He had high six-figure sums at home."
Originally there were more than 60 individual cases and gold worth 1.7 million euros.
However, the other cases were separated into a different procedure.
In these cases, the man claimed to have received the gold filings from someone.
In order to understand this, chat logs should now be evaluated.
The judge pointed out to the man in his very brief verdict that he might face another trial.
"Half of the allegations have not been settled."
The defense had asked for a sentence of no more than three years in prison.
Not an isolated case
The man's attorney said the theft was made easy for the defendant.
There had already been a loss of gold filings in the past.
However, nothing was done about it by the company.
The now convicted want to make up for the damage.
The verdict is not yet legally binding.
It's not the first time gold filings have become the prey of criminals.
In 2018, an employee at Osram in Regensburg was noticed who is said to have smuggled a total of 68.4 kilograms of gold filings out of the company over the years.
There was damage in the millions.
In order to prevent such cases, at least refineries protect themselves with pocket and body scanners, among other things, there is a strict four-eyes principle.
Some companies also have special shoe brushes for possible production leftovers or sticky floor coverings, said York Tetzlaff, managing director of the Fachvereinigung Edelmetalle (FVEM).
In addition, the quantities of precious metals running through the plant would be continuously measured.
apr/dpa
