I didn’t notice the scams on the Lithuanian Post for a year and a half – I confessed it, because “there must have been an end someday”

And the responsible employees of the Lithuanian Post Service, who constantly inspect the post offices of this matter, did not realize it for a year and a half, until one day Jelena K. decided to confess.

“I couldn’t suffer anymore, because someday it had to end,” the woman, who had misappropriated almost 50,000 euros, later told police.

A long-term employee of Lietuvos paštas was prosecuted for falsifying royal documents and wasting high-value foreign property that had been entrusted to her. After examining the data collected during the preliminary investigation, the Vilnius Regional Court declared that Jelena K.’s claims had been confirmed, although the former postal employees faced a sentence of up to ten years in prison, Judge Vitalija Norkūnaitė decided not to imprison the woman taking into account the circumstances of the case.

According to the judge, imposing a custodial sentence on Jelena K. would clearly be contrary to the principle of justice.

Even the imposition of a minimum custodial sentence on Ms. K. would negatively affect the accused herself and the members of her family, as well as the interests of the civil plaintiff, society and the State, since the imposition of a Legal punishment would weaken the positive social relationships of the accused. it creates preconditions to guarantee more effective compensation for the damage caused by a crime, ”the court said in the ruling, which can still be appealed.

The judge who examined the criminal case with an abbreviated probation order noted in the conviction that Jelena K. had not been convicted before, but was sanctioned for serious administrative misconduct, the new job is positively damaging.

“The criminal law for the squandering of foreign property establishes the one and only severe prison sentence of up to ten years; According to the court, the imposition of the penalty provided for in the sanction by Jelena K., considering the data that characterize her, the circumstances of the crime (the crime was caused by a difficult economic situation, the accused was left alone after her divorce 2008, he had many arrears, his salary is not high – 500 Eur monthly and irregular bonuses, depending on the credit agreements concluded, he admitted that they partially covered the lack of funds from his own money), the fact that the defendant collaborated with law enforcement officials, criticizes their criminal actions and sincerely regrets, seeks compensation for damages caused by the crime, it would clearly contradict the principle of justice ”, emphasized Judge V. Norkūnaitė.

The court decided to apply the legal exemption and imposed a sentence less than the sanction: “In this case, the objectives of the sentence can be achieved by imposing a custodial sentence on the accused: Jelena K. will be sentenced to a maximum sentence of two years “.

It is true that this sentence was further reduced by a third, since the criminal case of the convicted defendant was processed through an accelerated procedure, which resulted in a final sentence of one year and four months in prison.

By imposing a custodial sentence, the court ordered the convicts to reimburse at least 3,000 LTL to Lietuvos Paštas during the period of the custodial sentence. Eur (said amount is determined after estimating the income received by the defendant and deductions from his salary) material damage caused by the crime, as well as to continue working or registering with the Employment Service. He also received compensation for damages, almost 48 thousand. EUR.

“The imposition of these obligations on the defendant would guarantee the interests of the defendant himself, the civil plaintiff and the public,” said the judge that if Jelena K. avoids serving a custodial sentence, this sentence could be replaced by a more severe detention.

“Such punishment, in the opinion of the court, complies with the principle of justice and is sufficient not only to punish Jelena K. for committing a crime, but also to dissuade her from committing new crimes, to influence her to comply with the law “said Judge V. Norkūnaitė.

According to the case data, it was established that from 2018. October to 2020 March, when Jelena K. was working as a sales manager in the customer service department of PayPost 407 of Lietuvos paštas, located on Architektų street, and during this period received more than 1 million available cash. 883 thousand EUR, allocated 48 thousand. EUR.

In an attempt to justify the misappropriation of this money, the woman falsified cash reports drawn up in the cash register system, which provided false information about the money allegedly collected that she actually took for her own needs, and then collected these amounts from regular income from the bank and partially repaid before. With money withdrawn from the register, he did not provide data on these cash collections that were actually made to the bank.

This employee issue became apparent during the inventory. But just because Jelena K. herself chose not to cover up her crimes further, she managed to avoid the impending inconvenience even during unexpected inspections.

Employees of the Prevention and Investigation Group of the Lithuanian Department of Mail Safety and Prevention reported the embezzlement to the police.

“It was found to be able to hide for the first time in 2017. Jelena K. entered fictitious data about the actual cash balance in the cash register system, indicating that it was lower than it actually was, and with information about the effective at the end of the year, Jelena K. entered the daily and monthly cash reports into the cash register system, indicating that it was lower than it actually was. During inventory and unscheduled inspections, the cash register system, by compiling the daily cash report, entered data on the fictitious cash collections made for the missing amount at that time, ”the postal representatives said in a statement.

The prosecuted postal administrator pleaded guilty both during the pre-trial investigation and during the trial. She said that she had been working at the post office for about 30 years, previously her workplace was in the very center of Vilnius – Gedimino Ave., but when the branch here was closed, she was transferred to work in the Lazdynai district.

“For obligations, he was responsible for collecting taxes from clients, granting loans and loans, as well as taking care of pension funds, providing insurance services; the work was related to money and the earnings depended on credit sales,” he said .

“For the year 2008 after the divorce, I lived very hard: I had no real estate left, I had many obligations under the loan agreements previously concluded because I worked and the man did not, – said the woman. – Initial arrears in 2012 was around 35 -40 thousand. LTL, debts increase every year, the bailiffs have recently deducted about 500 euros from my salary. Or 2017 the bailiffs also started deducting money from my salary to support my daughter, so I thought I could take advantage of this situation when working with cash. At least 10,000 people pass through my hands a day. Euro in cash, and in winter – and double. Realizing that this was the only way out, I decided to try to take about 8 thousand. Eur from the box office It was 2017. At the end of the year. “

The woman said an annual inventory was conducted shortly after, so she “had to make sure the balance on the cash report form matched the actual cash balance.”

“To match things on the documents, at the end of a business day, although the collection was not called by email the next day, I scanned the barcode on the receipt, not the cash collection report, the barcode , but rather the barcode of the collection bag. data that 8 thousand. Eur was collected by collection, entered in the cash report form, in which the cash balance thus coincided with the actual cash balance “, Jelena K. admitted that he had made a mistake of 8 thousand Euro collection from the cash register.

According to her, the collection and postal data were not verified until the end of the month, so no one noticed this machination: the Accounting Department did not find out if the collection or the bank did not receive data on the lack of cash in the collection company and discrepancies between collection data and the company’s cash report.

“In fact, every time I sent cash in those days, there was a cash shortage at my workplace,” he said.

He also explained how he avoided the inconvenience of unexpected checks: “Whenever I knew that cash inventory could be done, I made the cash collection by scanning the bag at the cash entrance instead of sending an email invitation. Charging by email was requested only when cash actually had to be delivered. There was another case where unplanned, without my knowledge, the postal audit or quality department staff came and started checking – they started counting cash and I knew that according to the documents from the cash register they would definitely find one cash shortage, so I decided to try to scan the collection before a couple. the BAR code of the receipt confirming the weekly collection. The amount collected during that collection and indicated on the receipt coincided with the amount of cash that was missing in the box at that time. By re-including the receipt, the system accepted it, did not reject it, and included the actual cash collection on the cash report, and the amount of money in the cash register was reduced to match the actual cash balance. “

The woman did not hide the fact that she did it every time unscheduled inspections were carried out.

“In all other cases, I scanned the empty bag,” said Jelena K.

He also admitted that he had noticed that when data from a collection bag was entered into the cash register system and another bag was handed out for collection, no one noticed: “No discrepancies were noted in the dates or numbers of the bags. . The most important thing was to match the amounts of money. “

The postal clerk assured that he has not made any other illegal transactions or misappropriated the money received from customers.

And to admit that she had wasted money belonging to the post office, the woman decided when a postal worker asked to send a weekly cashier report form in the mail.

“So I stopped charging with an empty bag, because I couldn’t; I realized that someday there must be an end,” said Jelena K. “I submitted the cashier report form and then I got a call,” they asked me why he had not charged such a large amount. And then I admitted there is no money because I took it. “

The woman said that before “contributing” she had withdrawn another 600 euros from the cash register, which she deposited into her bank account and passed on to the bailiffs to cover the debts.