9 truck drivers charged

Diesel siphoned off for 500,000 euros for private cars

Some of the fuel was filled into canisters. (symbolic image)(Bild: Markus Wenzel)

The diesel was intended for the company truck - but it flowed into canisters and private cars: nine truck drivers appeared before Innsbruck Regional Court on Monday for allegedly embezzling fuel from a local company, some of them for years. The damage charged is enormous.

"The financial situation in my family was difficult," said one accused Romanian as the motive for the fraud. Several defendants (somewhat strangely in agreement) stated that they would earn 500 euros in their home country. The per diems for trips abroad would only add a few hundred euros to this.

In any case, word of the trickery with the siphoning off of diesel seemed to have gotten around in the subcontractor of a Tyrolean company, as eight compatriots and Hungarian drivers sat in court with the Romanian. According to the indictment, the damage amounted to at least 500,000 euros.

Water poured into the tapped tank as a cover-up
Unfortunately, the refueling operations in Tyrol could be seen on surveillance videos. And thus also the scenes when diesel was poured directly into private cars or canisters. In unobserved places, the diesel is also said to have been fed out of the truck tank using a hose. In at least one case, a hose apparently used for this purpose was found on one of the men. Water is even said to have been poured into the tapped tank as a cover-up.

The trial took place at Innsbruck Regional Court.(Bild: APA/BARBARA GINDL, Krone KREATIV)

Partial confessions, but quantities doubted
Almost all of the defendants stated that their boss had allowed them to fill up their tanks at the company's expense for the long journey to their home country. 

Most of the drivers found the amounts charged to be too high. "It certainly wasn't 90,000 liters," explained the driver with the presumably largest sum. The defense lawyer emphasized that it was not possible to precisely allocate the damage to individual defendants - "the use of the trucks changed". The real diesel consumption could also vary greatly depending on the use of air conditioning or auxiliary heating or depending on the terrain. The lawyer requested an expert opinion in this regard. However, this was rejected because the alleged actions were well documented anyway (on-board computer, etc.).

A truck tank has a capacity of 1200 liters, but 1260 liters were allegedly filled up. That could not be true.

Ein Firmenvertreter als Zeuge

Company representative describes how it all came to light
A representative of the victim company described as a witness how he had become aware of the thefts from the video recordings of the filling station. At some point, a secretary pointed out to him that 1260 liters must have been filled up in a truck tank with a capacity of 1200 liters - which of course could not be true. 

Why didn't it all come to light sooner? "We never looked at the fuel bills, but blindly trusted the drivers." On the advice of the police, they then watched the thieving goings-on for another month and documented it before extensive investigations and now the trial.

In the end, the defendants received conditional prison sentences (nine months downwards), in one case they were fined. However, up to 117,000 euros in damages per person must be repaid. Not legally binding.