The appeals court reviewed the sentence of a fraudster who posed as a carrier and promised to evacuate people from the occupied territory

The Khmelnytskyi Court of Appeals upheld the legality of the verdict of a local court in the case on charges of fraud against a convicted person who posed as a carrier and extorted money for the evacuation of people from the temporarily occupied territory of Ukraine. This was reported by the court's press service. 

According to the court's verdict, a convict serving his sentence in a penal colony in the Khmelnytskyi region posted fake ads on Facebook in April-May 2022 about providing services for transporting people across the territory of Ukraine, indicating his two phone numbers.

On April 30, 2022, a man called him who wanted to take his wife's mother out of the city of Energodar, Zaporizhia region, due to Russian military aggression. Having agreed on a time and place, he transferred 1,200 hryvnias to the «carrier» card. Later, he said to add another 1,300 hryvnias, and after receiving the money, he stopped contacting him.  

On May 3, 2022, a resident of Energodar fell for the scammer. She paid him 2,750 hryvnias for her evacuation from the city. When no one came to pick her up, she instead asked for more money by phone, and she realized that she had come across scammers.

The Khmelnytskyi City District Court found the accused guilty of fraud, committed repeatedly (Part 2 of Article 190 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine) and imposed a final sentence – 2 years and 1 month of imprisonment.

He filed an appeal – requesting to cancel the sentence and close the proceedings. He argued his demands, in particular, by the decriminalization of the acts of which he is accused, the lack of evidence of the authenticity of his telephone conversations with the victims, and the video recording of the search and seizure of his mobile phone in the colony.

The panel of judges of the Court of Appeal rejected all the arguments of the appellant. It noted that under the Criminal Code of Ukraine, the colony administration has the right, if there are grounds, to conduct an inspection of citizens, their belongings and to seize documents, objects, substances, the storage and use of which is prohibited for convicts. At the same time, a video recording of the search of a convict when detecting prohibited items in places of deprivation of liberty was not mandatory.

It was during the search that the colony employees seized a mobile phone with two SIM cards from the accused, through which, during the investigative experiment, he logged into his Facebook accounts using logins and passwords known only to him, where he posted information about the provision of services for transporting people. In addition, according to the telephone operator, repeated telephone connections were established between his numbers and the numbers of the victims.

Regarding the decriminalization of the acts, the panel of judges noted the subsistence minimum for able-bodied persons, which at the time of the fraud was UAH 2,481. While the amount of funds that the accused seized amounted to UAH 2,500 and UAH 2,750, which is more than the minimum amount from which criminal liability arises.

Therefore, the appellate court left the verdict of the local court unchanged, and the appeal of the accused – without satisfaction.

The decision of the Court of Appeal in case No. 686/21439/22 can be found in the EDRSR.