The regional court opened a case of embezzlement of more than 14.5 million crowns from the account of one of Olomouc elementary schools, February 9, 2023, Olomouc. Helena Vávrová (right), the school's former accountant, is accused of the crime.
Olomouc – Today, the Olomouc Regional Court sentenced former school accountant Helena Vávrová to four years in prison for embezzling 14.6 million crowns from the account of one of Olomouc's primary schools. She must also pay for all the damage she caused. The court thus approved the agreement on guilt and punishment, which the defendant concluded with the public prosecutor during the meeting. According to the indictment, the 57-year-old woman sent the money to a virtual foreign friend who pretended to be an American doctor. Her actions brought the school into financial problems, and the city had to help her in the end. The judgment is final. According to the prosecutor, this is an unfortunate and at the same time frightening case of careless behavior of people on the Internet.
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“A total of four years in prison” />
The woman faced five to ten years in prison for embezzlement. She accepted her guilt, as well as the amount of damage she caused. The court thus did not have to carry out any evidence. “The collected evidence incriminates the defendant, if it were carried out, it can be assumed that the conclusion of guilt would be the same. The sentence cannot be considered unreasonably mild, it is only one year below the threshold of the criminal rate and is accompanied by the penalty of forfeiture of the property and the penalty of forfeiture of the substitute value, ” said judge Eduard Ondrášek. He also pointed out that the woman had not yet been prosecuted.
According to the defense attorney, there was not much room for the amount of punishment, even considering the amount of damage the woman caused. The imposed sentence includes the confiscation of all the defendant's finances and the forfeiture of property in the form of a co-ownership share in the land and the house, the estimated value of which is around 3.5 million crowns.
According to the plaintiff, Jan Beránek, last year from April to June, as the accountant of Holečkov Primary and Kindergarten, the woman transferred the school's money to her account via internet banking without the permission and knowledge of her employer. In turn, she exchanged them for euros, which she transferred to several foreign accounts, believing she was sending them to cover fees associated with the delivery of a valuable package from a virtual foreign friend posing as an American doctor on a mission in Yemen, detectives previously said. In total, it was 14.61 million crowns, it is a large-scale damage.
According to the plaintiff, this is an unfortunate and at the same time a frightening case, to what extent the careless behavior of people on the Internet can go. “It's not nice how it turned out with the defendant, she herself practically did not benefit from it, she lost all the money she embezzled. From my point of view, it is a tragic human story, but on the other hand, the defendant knowingly handled money that did not belong to her ,” added the public prosecutor.
The matter came to light after the bank alerted the school management that there were no funds in the accounts for payments. In the end, the city had to help the school financially. The accountant, who had worked at the school for many years, was dismissed. In the end, the event also cost the school director his job, who resigned. The embezzled funds have not yet been traced. “Of course, money is being sought, although the hope for this criminal activity is relatively small. However, there are ongoing criminal proceedings and a number of acts abroad, for example in Poland and Great Britain,” added Jan Beránek.
