On September 8, 2022, the Debrecen Court of Appeal, as a second-instance court, issued a final decision at a council meeting in the case of the defendant who fraudulently caused damage to her employer, the spa in Hajdúszoboszló, in several million forints.
The tribunal changed the verdict of the first-instance court, according to which the defendant’s prison sentence of 2 years and 6 months was reduced to 2 years, its execution was suspended for 4 years, and the ban from public affairs was waived. The court ordered the defendant to pay more than HUF 4.5 million (approx 11338.75 €) to the injured private party.
In other respects, she upheld the first-instance verdict – which found the defendant guilty of the crime of business-like fraud that caused significant damage through the use of an information system.
According to the facts legally established by the court, the accused was the subject of the charge during the period
she worked as a financial administrator in the spa in Hajdúszoboszló, where, among other things, her task was to record supplier invoices in the so-called corporate management system operated by the injured company.
In addition, the woman performed the task of recording electronic transfer orders for the payment of goods and services to individual suppliers through the electronic banking channels belonging to the bank accounts of the injured company at two banks. After approval, she sent these to the bank for fulfillment.
Between April 23, 2019, and February 19, 2020, the defendant used a computer at her workplace
she initiated a transfer order a total of 97 times in such a way that the amount requested to be transferred arrived at her bank account in her own name.
During the transactions, the woman also deceived the financial directors of the company. The woman manually changed the items for the fictitious payment obligations and recorded them in such a way that she entered a fictitious name as the beneficiary’s name, while she recorded her own bank account as the beneficiary’s account number. The amount to be transferred and other data were left unchanged by the defendant, so the total amount of the totalizers checked by the financial directors did not change.
With this method, the defendant caused more than HUF 47.5 million (approx 119686.82 €) in damage to the company.
Her act was later detected on February 25, 2020, through the controlling processes introduced at the affected legal entity. After that, the defendant remitted a total of HUF 1,410,000 (approx 3552.81 €) to the injured company in two installments on the same day. During the procedure, the investigating authority seized more than half a million forints in cash from the accused, as well as nearly 41 million forints from her bank account, and released them to the injured legal entity, so nearly 43 million forints were recovered from the damage caused.
The criminal council of Dr. Péter Kovács reviewed the first-instance verdict in the framework of a limited review, which the prosecution took note of in the first instance, only the accused and her defense appealed in order to mitigate the verdict. It is emphasized in the case that the damage was almost fully compensated, approximately 10% of the damage amount was not. The defendant also voluntarily paid certain sums until the second instance procedure, which she confirmed with a document. The judge emphasized that it is a serious crime, however, the personal circumstances of the accused provide a basis for the fact that the punishment goals can be met even with a suspended sentence of probation, which is close to the legal maximum. It was an important aspect that the accused had no criminal record and that she not only expressed her intention but also compensated for the damage on a voluntary basis, the court’s announcement reads.
debreceninap.hu
