Trial in Feldkirch

Witness: “He actually seemed serious”

The defendant denies that he owes his former acquaintance a five-figure sum.(Bild: Chantall Dorn)

A 59-year-old man is currently on trial for serious fraud at Feldkirch Regional Court. The man is accused of defrauding an internet acquaintance of a five-figure sum. 

When the 57-year-old witness enters the courtroom, the accused does not even look at her. Is it a guilty conscience towards the once so gullible acquaintance? If the woman is to be believed, the man, who has two previous convictions, still owes her around 13,400 euros. Money that she had lent him shortly after they met on Facebook in the summer of 2021. "Because his cell phone was broken, I paid 400 euros for a second-hand iPhone from the internet. I lent him another 2,000 euros to buy a car and he used the remaining 11,000 euros to buy himself a Goldwing," the horned-up woman says.

Despite several promises to repay the amount with her vacation and Christmas bonuses at the latest, the accused made no attempt to pay the debt. "Instead, he simply broke off contact with me after two months," the woman said indignantly. Requests for payment via WhatsApp also went unanswered.

Judge Silke Sandholzer adjourned the trial.(Bild: Chantall Dorn)

Loan granted out of pure good faith
It took a total of two years for the 57-year-old woman to report the man to the police for fraud. The woman justified the judge's question as to how a loan could be given to a more or less unknown person without a written contract with credulity. The defendant had seemed serious to her. "I also had the feeling that we had known each other forever." A fallacy, as it now turns out. Because the short-term boyfriend did not plead guilty to the charges. He claims to have paid back the money for the cell phone and the 2,000 euros for the car shortly afterwards. He doesn't want to know anything about buying a motorcycle. "I'm too small for a Goldwing. I couldn't ride one," he says. But the witness stands by her claim that the defendant even drove up to her house with the motorcycle. As further testimony was needed, the trial was adjourned.