Odesa resident's case on land seizure for recreation center sent to court

Police have sent to court an indictment against a resident of Odesa who is suspected of having illegally built a recreation center on community land.

According to the press service of the Main Directorate of the National Police in Odesa Oblast, during the pre-trial investigation, law enforcement officers found that the head of the recreation center in the Pivdenivska amalgamated community illegally used the adjacent recreational land plot, which is communally owned by the community, to expand his business.

Without permits, he hired workers and erected a 157.4-square-meter building. The constructed premises were used as a recreation center to serve vacationers.

The police charged the man with unauthorized construction of buildings on an illegally occupied land plot. Under current law, the maximum penalty for this offense is up to three years in prison.

In January, police also served a notice of suspicion to a 44-year-old resident of Odesa who had illegally expanded his possessions on a land plot belonging to the community. Having owned an apartment, the man decided to illegally occupy the land plot next to it and carry out unauthorized construction there without permits. He organized the reconstruction of his apartment, in particular, expanded its living space by adding a pantry, a room and a corridor, and built a separate outbuilding nearby. In this way, the Odesa resident illegally occupied a 74.4 square meter land plot belonging to the city's territorial community for capital construction.

Earlier, the Odesa Regional Prosecutor's Office served a notice of suspicion to a man and two women of fraud on a large scale, legalization of property obtained by criminal means, and forgery of documents. According to the investigation, in 2022-2024, the criminals repeatedly implemented a criminal scheme aimed at illegally registering land plots in Odesa as private property. Under the leadership of a 55-year-old organizer, two women were looking for undeveloped land plots without official owners. They produced forged land titles.

Кирило Бойко