A regional court in Linz, Austria recently sentenced a 31-year-old man to four years in prison for breaking into lockers at local banks and stealing valuables.
The defendant, whose name is not disclosed, supposedly caused damage estimated at 1.11 million euros.
He is an Israeli-Canadian citizen who was living in Ukraine before his arrest.
The prosecution claimed that the defendant rented safety deposit boxes in the banks he targeted.
He then broke into other customers' deposit boxes during an unobserved period. The man then left the bank calmly and unsuspected.
Preparation for the Crime
The defendant reportedly explained that he learned how to loot bank lockers from instructional content on the dark web. He also watched a tutorial video on how to open the safes quickly.
From there, he formed a detailed plan on how he could steal a significant amount of cash from banks in Graz and Linz.
The defendant explained that once he succeeded in stealing the money, he was supposed to give a 25 percent share of the loot to his tipster.
The defendant started by ordering two fake passports on the dark web, paying 2,500 euros for each.
One had the name "Novak Cerny," a Czech citizen, while the second carried the name of a Danish citizen, "Keith Larsen."
He then used the fake Danish identity for his registration at the Linz Municipal Office in March 2018. He used the registration form to create a bank account and get a locker.
The accused made several appearances at the bank under the aforementioned fake identities to access his locker.
He had a key to the deposit box, but there was a second key which an employee used to unlock it.
How the Theft Took Place
The defendant reportedly spent two weeks in Linz until March 28, 2018, when he finally persuaded the employee assisting him that he needed more time with his locker.
The employee left him alone in the vault for seven minutes.
Within that time, the accused allegedly broke into seven lockers using two screwdrivers.
The surveillance footage showed the backpack that the man was carrying when he left the bank-observably, it appeared to be full, as compared to its appearance when he first came in.
The bank employees only discovered a few days later that there were some broken lockers. He reportedly made away with 1.2 million euros in cash, along with gold and jewelry.
In August 2017, the man broke into 11 lockers in a bank in Graz, only to find that they were all empty.
Investigations began after the incident in Linz. The authorities discovered that the accused used a fake passport.
They also checked his fingerprint on the registration form he had filled.
The investigators discovered that the man's fingerprints matched those of a drug offender in Ukraine in the international criminal database.
The authorities delivered the man to Austria, where he remained in custody.
The Defendant's Confession
Although the reported amount exceeded 1 million euros, the accused confessed to theft with damages below 300,000 euros.
Under the local law, this offense carries a penalty of one to three years. Over that limit, the accused could face up to 10 years in prison.
The defendant claimed that he needed to commit the crime.
He was trying to raise 220,750 euros to meet the cost of his brother's kidney transplant.
The accused further confessed to having broken into four lockers as opposed to the alleged seven.
He claimed that the other perpetrators might have been behind the other break-ins. They may have accessed the dark web for instructions.
The defendant stated that he did not steal the 28 kilograms of gold bars as per his charges.
He only received 80,000 euros from gold dealers in Budapest for the items he had looted. He reportedly squandered the money in expensive and lavish hotels.
The judge questioned him about his brother's kidney transplant.
The defendant then claimed that his brother was angry at him and that he was remorseful for his actions.
Furthermore, his defense attorney, Normann Hofstätter, argued that there was no way that his client could have carried 28 kilograms of gold in his backpack.
Hofstätter brought 24 kilograms of silver to demonstrate what the report against the defendant claimed.
Considering the differences between the confession by the accused and the charges against him, the defense said there is a need for a further investigation into the matter.
The accused, hence, may see his term change in the future.
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