As of: February 15, 2024, 9:14 a.m
By: Ulrike Osman
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A 25-year-old tried to use a counterfeit 500 euro note to pay for two beers at a price of 2.14 euros.
He was sentenced to probation.
© Boris Roessler/dpa
Using a counterfeit 500-euro note, a 25-year-old man paid for two bottles of beer for 2.14 euros in a supermarket in Kaufering.
He left the store with the change.
That's why he was now standing before the Landsberg lay judges' court for counterfeiting and fraud.
Landsberg - The defendant claims to have found the note in the parking lot in front of the supermarket.
Defense attorney Joachim Feller told chairman Alexander Kessler and the lay judges that he could no longer say whether the mentally ill man thought the money was real.
Although the note superficially looked like a 500 euro note in terms of shape, size and print, it also had Chinese characters on it.
Second attempt with second 500 euro note
However, in the rush to check out, the employee at the supermarket checkout didn't notice this - a 16-year-old student at the time who had only been working in the store for a few weeks.
She testified in court that she did not know at the time that all banknotes of 50 euros or more had to be checked for authenticity using a special pen.
When she asked whether he had a smaller amount, the defendant is said to have replied that he had received this note when withdrawing it from the bank.
It wasn't until the 25-year-old man showed up at the checkout a few minutes later with another 500 euro note and just wanted to buy a little something that the cashier waved him away and explained that he couldn't change any more.
The man then paid with change and left.
Only then did the cashier call her supervisor - and when she saw the wrong 500, she immediately called the police.
The 25-year-old was identified using video recordings of the checkout area and DNA traces on the counterfeit money.
He himself had no memory of a second 500 euro note.
As became increasingly clear over the course of the trial, the man suffers from a serious mental illness.
An expert certified that he had paranoid psychosis, depression and a social behavior disorder.
The 25-year-old has now been hospitalized in a psychiatric hospital for months and is being treated with strong medication and electric shocks.
Speaking slowly and haltingly, the defendant was able to meaningfully answer individual questions in court.
But he also expressed obvious delusions - the “universe” wanted to give him millions of dollars, “Jesus” had promised him the fulfillment of all his dreams via video.
Loss of orientation
But was the man's condition at the time of the crime - January 2022 - already so bad and therefore incapable of guilt?
Yes, said defense attorney Feller, referring to a doctor's report prepared a few weeks earlier.
Accordingly, the man, who had smoked a lot of cannabis as a teenager, was already unable to follow conversations, lost his bearings outside his room and needed support in all matters.
At that time, the 25-year-old even got on a train to Vienna confused and was missing for three days.
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However, the public prosecutor, experts and court saw the matter differently.
The man seemed normal in the Kaufering supermarket at the time and had a suitable excuse ready when the cashier asked, said Judge Kessler.
“No one does that when they are having an acute psychotic episode.” The fact that the defendant paid a bill for 2.14 euros with the false 500 euro note also “stinks to high heaven.”
Kessler was convinced that he recognized the forgery as such and wanted to make money.
Just “kept” in prison
Nevertheless, the court did not follow the prosecutor's request, who wanted to send the man, who had been convicted several times, behind bars for one year and six months, especially since he had committed the crime under open probation.
But this case was different than that of a probation failure “who didn’t understand the warning shot,” said Kessler.
The question arises as to whether the man is even capable of being held liable.
He will not be treated in prison, just kept.
“If you go to prison, that will be the end for you,” feared the chairman.
However, a fine, as requested by the defense, was again not enough for the court.
And so the verdict was ultimately a one-year suspended prison sentence – with the condition that the man continued his treatment.
He could then be placed in a supervised facility.
The judgment is final.