Odesa woman detained on suspicion of forcing her elderly mother to beg

Police detained an Odesa woman on suspicion of forcing her elderly mother to beg and trying to bribe a police officer.

This was reported by the press service of the Main Directorate of the National Police in Odesa Oblast.

According to the police, a 58-year-old resident of Odesa exploited her 89-year-old mother, taking advantage of her advanced age. The woman would take the old woman to the city and force her to beg. In order to make the pensioner feel sorry for people and earn more money, the daughter bought a wheelchair for her, and to prevent the victim from leaving the designated place, she chained the wheelchair to a post. The offender controlled the process of begging and the amount of money received, which she took and used to finance expenses related to criminal activity and for her own needs.

The woman's illegal actions were detected by a district police officer. He warned the offender about the responsibility for human exploitation. She offered the officer 15 thousand hryvnias to ignore the offense.

The police officer reported the matter to his superiors, and investigators began documenting the woman's illegal actions. She was detained in accordance with the procedural procedure immediately after handing over the bribe to the police officer. The money was seized as material evidence.

Investigators served the suspect a notice of suspicion of human trafficking committed for the purpose of exploitation, taking advantage of the victim's material or other dependence, her vulnerable state, as well as of giving an official an undue advantage for the official's taking any action in the interests of the person providing such advantage using his or her official position.

These crimes are qualified under Article 149(1) and Article 369(1) of the Criminal Code of Ukraine. The maximum penalty for these crimes is imprisonment for up to eight years. The court imposed on the suspect a custodial detention with the right to be released on bail.

Кирило Бойко