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crime
Opportunity turns scammers: Lucerne companies abuse crown loans
Many companies in the canton of Lucerne applied for crown loans last year, not always with good intentions. The prosecution assumes a total of 10 million francs.
It was an exceptional year. Prosecutor Daniel Burri highlighted this over and over again yesterday at the presentation of the 2020 annual report. The Lucerne Canton Prosecutor processed more than 1,000 criminal charges in direct relation to Corona. Violations of the ban on gathering people and violations of the mask requirement account for a large part.
And these are mainly the cases that could not be processed directly by the Lucerne police. For example, because a fine was not accepted. Official crime statistics will follow in the coming weeks. However, the prosecution’s figures give an idea of how the crown year affected crime.
65 reports with 58 suspects
There were some new opportunities. For example, crown bridge loans. Companies with liquidity bottlenecks were able to apply at their home bank last spring. In principle, only one loan application for emergency assistance could be submitted per company. And that for a maximum amount of 500,000 francs. However, Lucerne prosecutors had to investigate 65 reports involving 58 suspects.
That was what Lucerne prosecutors were worried about in 2020
The focus is on credit fraud. In at least 30 cases it is a misuse of the loan. “For example, designer clothes and bags were bought or private debts were paid off,” said Attorney General Daniel Burri. In other cases, companies have submitted applications to several banks at the same time. Or the sales figures were falsified to get more money.
The range of loans received fraudulently is wide: it ranges from 5,000 to 500,000 francs. The total alleged crime amounts to 9.8 million francs. At the end of last year, the Prosecutor’s Office was still pending 32 cases and was able to close 33. Of these, 13 were treated by order of sanction and, among other things, three cases were referred to the criminal court on charges. The alleged criminals are between 23 and 71 years old, 21 percent of the 58 people are women, 45 percent are Swiss.
4,800 protective masks and 29 plexiglass panels
(avd) The pandemic and how to combat it has also posed challenges for the Lucerne canton prosecutor. “Ultimately, it has to work in all circumstances, so it is systemically relevant,” Chief Prosecutor Daniel Burri told the media yesterday. Sending all prosecutors to headquarters is impossible in view of most written records. This also applies to questioning or accepting testimony. Therefore, the prosecutor developed a home office and work-on-site system at an early stage, either in individual offices or with the help of Plexiglas panels. Guido Emmenegger organized 29 of them.
The head of central services also appeared yesterday before the media. Emmenegger has also equipped the Public Prosecutor’s Office, which has 158 employees, with 4,800 protective masks, 100 hand gels and sprays, 70 liters of aerosol disinfectant and 35 liters of surface disinfectant. Meanwhile, Attorney General Daniel Burri has reviewed the instructions 24 times. This included, for example, the type of contact with the defendant’s lawyers.
According to Daniel Burri, the investigations were hampered by framework conditions that the federal government has repeatedly changed. This is evident in the crime against the prohibition of meetings of people. Police were able to impose fines here from March 21 to May 29. Then he had to file a complaint with the prosecutor. Or the case was transferred to the prosecution because an interested party protested against a fine. In 178 cases, the prosecutor was aware that there was a larger group than allowed in public places.
Multiple offenders are rare
And in 306 cases, the Public Ministry had to attend to people who did not maintain the minimum distance of two meters. Daniel Burri said of these crimes: “We don’t like to pursue this. But we do comply with the legal requirements. “After all: the attorney general is only aware of individual cases in which the same person is guilty of the same crime over and over again. No statistics are kept on this.
By ignoring the obligation to wear a mask, it is noted that the prosecutor mainly knows the cases from public transport. When the protective mask is used in closed vehicles (the Lucerne government took this measure on its own from the beginning), the prosecution is only aware of one violation in one case. In such cases, the fine is currently 100 Swiss francs. Whether wearing a mask or a ban on gathering: these new crimes alone speak of an exceptional year. It should be even more reassuring that the remaining stats look relatively unspectacular.
Fewer new cases, more facts
(avd) The Lucerne prosecutor’s office received 47,482 cases last year, about 2,000 fewer than in 2019. For the first time since 2015, prosecutors were able to reduce pending cases. The completion rate, that is, the proportion of cases processed and received, was 101 percent. Especially in mass business, crimes against the traffic law, there was a drop. Here 25,259 cases were registered, about 1,700 less than the previous year.
Attorney General Daniel Burri suspects there is a connection to last spring’s shutdown. At the time there were far fewer vehicles on the road than usual. Income from fines and fees has developed accordingly; both remained below budget, as well as below the previous year. In 2020, the prosecutor received almost 9.3 million francs in fines and around 8.2 million francs in fees.
Record number of cases going to criminal court
Unlike the simpler crimes, the more complex cases tend to increase. This can be seen in the transfers to the courts. 308 cases have been referred to the district courts; 14 more than last year. 207 cases have been referred to the criminal court; 24 more than the previous year “and a record”, as Daniel Burri pointed out. Responsible for this trend is an increase in property crimes by 26 percent, crimes against liberty by 22 percent, and drug crimes by 16 percent.
When it comes to crimes against property and liberty, they are often based on theft. “These were simply no longer perpetrated by criminal tourists last year,” Burri said. In turn, the Juvenile Prosecutor’s Office registered around 300 more cases than in 2019. According to Burri, this is still within the statistical framework, especially since the number of serious crimes has decreased. There was an increase in so-called violations such as littering, getting drunk or disturbing public order. Burri: “Young people let off steam without exaggeration.” (avd)
