€208,000 fine for self-serve checkout theft
February 20, 2018
A 58-year-old man has been given a record-breaking fine for theft at a Munich supermarket, the Munich District Court has reported.
Police arrested the man in December after he was caught taking calf liver and repackaging it as lower-cost fruit. He used the self-checkout line to purchase the meat for a fraction of its cost, estimated at being between €13 to €47 ($16 to $58). It was the fourth time in a month he had taken liver and re-packaged it as fruit, the court reported on its website on Monday.
The man had been remanded in custody in December after failing to prove he had a permanent address in Germany. At his trial he gave a full confession but was unable to give a motive for his actions.
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High-income earner
The court fined the man €208,000 ($258,000), citing his exorbitant monthly income and previous offenses. The fine was calculated on the basis of 260 days at €800 per day. The man was released from custody.
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The man, who can not be named under German reporting restrictions for legal cases, was given a 2-year suspended sentence in 2013 for concealing foreign bank accounts and fined €440,000. He was given a further 21-month sentence after giving a false foreign address in a tax assessment case in 2015. He was only released in 2017, just a few months before being caught taking the calf liver in the Munich-Haidhausen store in December 2017.
Calf liver is commonly found on menus in Munich.DW's editors send out a selection of the day's hard news and quality feature journalism. You can sign up to receive it directly here.
ls,rm/aw (dpa, AP)