Odesa resident who lured a ransom from a pensioner as if for a shopping mall was left in jail

The Supreme Court, by a panel of judges of the Third Judicial Chamber of the Criminal Court of Cassation, upheld the court's verdict that sentenced an Odesa resident to five years in prison for fraud.

This was reported by the Court Reporter publication with reference to the court ruling.

In 2024, two Odesa residents called a Kyiv woman born in 1936. Introducing themselves as employees of the territorial center for recruitment and social support, they said that her brother, born in 1941, was allegedly detained by the TCC and that in order to be released, she had to pay 80 thousand hryvnias. The woman agreed, and the offenders came to her place of residence.

The victim handed over 60 thousand hryvnias, 200 US dollars, and 200 euros to the scammers. But she was told that this was not enough. In the end, the grandmother gave away her jewelry - five gold rings with stones, two gold watches, one gold chain, and two pairs of gold earrings. The value of this jewelry is estimated at over 145 thousand hryvnias.

The men were detained and tried. They pleaded guilty and the court of first instance sentenced them to five years in prison, but released them from serving their sentences with a probationary period. However, the appellate court later overturned this decision and imposed actual imprisonment.

One of the convicts had already committed a similar crime: in September 2024, he forced a Kyiv resident to buy out his grandson's TCC for UAH 50,000. At that time, the defendant acted alone, did not deny his guilt, and got off with a fine of UAH 34 thousand.

It was this man who later appealed the verdict for fraud against his grandmother to the Supreme Court, insisting on a suspended sentence. He claimed that the appellate court had failed to take into account the fact that he was HIV-positive and had a group II disability, and assured that he had rethought his actions and sincerely repented during the almost six months of detention.

In its verdict, the Court of Appeal noted the increased gravity of such a crime under martial law against an elderly person who is unable to seriously resist the perpetrator. The defendants developed a criminal plan and, under false pretenses, entered the apartment of the victim, born in 1936, and fraudulently seized her savings and precious jewelry worth more than UAH 200,000. The Supreme Court agreed with the arguments of the Court of Appeal and upheld the sentence. According to the court decision, the money and jewelry were returned to the grandmother.

Кирило Бойко