The manager’s stunt with the COVID-19 test resulted in serious inconvenience for the employee – he won a counterfeiting case

Saulius S., who works as an electrician in a Lithuanian company, made a business trip to Sweden in mid-January this year. Before the trip, the man underwent a coronavirus test, which came back negative.

However, the assignment, which would last until March, ended much earlier than planned, as the client turned down the services of a worker and his boss, AA, had to urgently organize a commuter trip home.

As law enforcement subsequently taught AA, he found ferry tickets, but realized that Saul would not be able to take the coronavirus test that was necessary to return home before the trip, so he decided to outwit him.

“I scanned his proof before the trip and changed the first number, date and time of the test certificate number with Paint. Then I sent that proof to Saul over the phone,” he said.

This trick burned out: Saul managed to successfully return to Lithuania with a fake test. He then decided to use the test to avoid self-isolation. Under current procedure, isolation upon return from abroad was not necessary after submitting a negative test to the National Public Health Center (NVSC).

The man who uploaded the document to the online information system was waiting for news from the NVSC. However, specialists from the Marijampolė department had a suspicion that the man allegedly presented the results of the test carried out in Lithuania on February 4, but returned to the country from Sweden only on February 6.

After studying the situation, the specialists discovered that Saulius had not even undergone any examination, and the document delivered was forged.

They immediately forwarded this information to the Marijampolė Prosecutor’s Office, where a pre-trial investigation was initiated for document falsification. This crime is punishable by a fine, arrest or imprisonment of up to 3 years.

Upon receiving suspicions, Saul immediately confessed his guilt. therefore, the prosecutor asked the court to conclude the entire process by criminal order.

After examining this request in the Marijampolė District Court, it was decided to convict the man, who had previously been convicted three times, in accordance with article 300 of the Penal Code. They assigned him 3,000. A fine of 2,000 euros, but since the man pleaded guilty, it was reduced by a third and he would have to pay 2,000 euros for using a forged document. euros.

At the time, officials detached the investigation of Saúl’s AA chief’s actions and are continuing it, and he, too, faces criminal liability.

Falsification of evidence is a problem across Europe

Counterfeit COVID-19 tests are found throughout Europe. At the beginning of the year, even Europol warned that there had been a large increase in scam groups selling negative test results for as little as € 300.

“As long as travel restrictions are in place due to the pandemic, it is highly likely that criminals will seize the opportunity to produce and sell counterfeit COVID-19 negative test certificates,” Europol said.

“Given the widespread use of technological tools – good quality printers and software – scammers can produce counterfeit, counterfeit or high-quality documents,” the Hague-based agency said in a statement.

Delfi has previously written about the threat of counterfeiting in Lithuania, as some labs issue negative tests on a plain sheet without watermarks or QR codes.

According to the doctor, director of the Svajūnas Barakauskas Laboratory of Practical Medicine, the laboratory he runs had received calls from foreign officials about the authenticity of the company’s certificates and forgeries had already been detected.

“We received inquiries from four different Norwegian police stations and confirmed to three that the tests had been carried out in our laboratory, but one of them was shamefully faked. We reacted to this case as force majeure and we hastened to find a printing company that could help resolve the issue of the security of the certificates as soon as possible, because otherwise we will look very bad ”, said Delfi, doctor.

Well-known traveler Dan Pankevičius has said that unprotected certificates of laboratory test results can pose a threat not only to the good name of the laboratory, but also to the safety of other travelers.

“I have not seen all the certificates issued by the Lithuanian laboratories, I cannot speak for all of them. I only saw some of them. All documents, without the slightest security measures, are extremely easy to forge. It only takes a couple of minutes. enter the last name or the desired date. I think that the prices of the tests in Lithuania make people falsify them. There are definitely those who think of paying a family of 5 people almost 500 euros, if they can do it themselves in an instant. Yes You think that is not happening, you are very wrong, – said the traveler, emphasizing that he is categorically opposed to such things, because he wants to be sure that the plane is sitting next to a healthy person. In the world, each laboratory has its own forms of test results. You can imagine how many different forms travelers present to the managers of the world’s airports. There is no way to verify them if only phone numbers are listed, no QR codes and other security measures. Even if they called, the question was whether the lab representatives would provide the necessary information to an unidentified person at the other end of the wire. “