The case in the Plovdiv District Court was considered according to the order of the summary trial, with the 40-year-old Atanasov fully admitting his guilt and receiving a 1/3 reduction of the sentence
The recidivist Nikolay Atanasov, who stole the disability pension of 29-year-old Encho Stoyanov, goes to prison for 4 years. He will serve his sentence under an initial strict regime, reports trafficnews.bg.
The case in the Plovdiv District Court was examined according to the order of the summary trial, with the 40-year-old Atanasov fully admitting his guilt and receiving a 1/3 reduction in his sentence.
This is the repeat offender’s ninth conviction and he is back behind bars just a year after his release. Atanasov came into the courtroom with a smile and was visibly pleased with his sentence as he left.
“I made a mistake, yes. Sometimes I don’t know what I’m doing. I cannot recover money, but I want the smallest sentence”, the thief told judge Veselina Semkova.
She, in turn, told him that the court was kind of bowing to him by giving him an almost minimum sentence of 6 years, which after the reduction became 4 years.
“We hope you’ll get better this time,” she added.
For a similar type of crime, the law stipulates a penalty of 5 to 15 years of imprisonment, and the state prosecution, presented by prosecutor Todor Pavlov, asked the court for a sentence oriented around the average.
Atanasov’s official defender – lawyer Dimitar Kolev said that his client leads a bum lifestyle and is uneducated, with a low level of intelligence and given his situation – he does not represent a high degree of public danger and a minimum sentence would also fulfill its goals.
The crime was committed on October 7, 2022 in Plovdiv. Then Encho Stoyanov went to the post office in “Izgrev” to collect his pension. He used a wheelchair. Atanasov was also at the place, who went around people and asked for money.
When Stoyanov received his pension, the thief went with him and offered to push the wheelchair to his home, since they knew each other.
He had seen where the money was placed. On the way he stopped and asked the sick man to give him his pension. Encho Stoyanov refused, but Atanasov forcibly took the money from his pocket – 345 BGN. He left him 5 leva from them and ran away. A report was made on tel. 112.
The recidivist spent the money and went to his acquaintances in a nearby village. There he transformed himself by shaving and cutting his hair. Five days later he was detained by police officers.
The time Atanasov spent in custody will be deducted from his sentence.
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