As of: February 7, 2024, 5:13 a.m
By: Rudi Stallein
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A father travels to visit his seriously ill son but forgets to deregister at the job center.
Now he is on trial for fraud.
How could that happen?
Wolfratshausen
- Because he had traveled to his home country for a long time without deregistering as required, an unemployed person living in Wolfratshausen at the time received around 13,900 euros from the job center, to which he was not entitled.
Now the 56-year-old, who now earns his living as a chauffeur in Munich, has been sentenced by the Wolfratshausen district court to a fine of 180 daily rates of 40 euros each for fraud.
The court also ordered the confiscation of the unlawfully received unemployment benefits.
Wrongfully collected unemployment benefits: That's why a Wolfratshauser had to answer to the judiciary.
© IMAGO/Christian Ohde
Attempts to inform the job center failed
It wasn't planned to stay away for so long.
His then five-year-old son was seriously ill, which is why he had to travel very quickly to his home country of Algeria, the man explained in court why he had rushed to leave the Federal Republic in October 2019.
Attempts to inform the job center by telephone failed on the answering machine.
When he then wanted to return to Germany, this was made more difficult because of the corona pandemic.
Fraud went unnoticed because of Corona
The exceptional situation was a key reason why the fraud was not noticed.
“There was an instruction: Payments must be guaranteed, even without verification,” is how a job center employee described the situation in spring 2020. The accused only came to attention when he submitted a new application at the beginning of February 2021 and “as proof that he was back and had submitted a return ticket.
“We then asked ourselves that he must have flown there at some point,” explained the witness.
A stay abroad is also possible for unemployed people.
“The agent decides on that, but you can only go away for a maximum of three weeks.” The judge considered the fact that it had been made easy for him because of Corona as a mitigating factor, but also made it clear: “If I don’t have a permit, I can’t go or I have to leave give up the money.”
With the fine of 180 daily rates of 40 euros each, a total of 7,200 euros, the court fell short of the prosecutor's request, which had demanded 210 daily rates.
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