It is not uncommon for negotiations before a criminal court to offer deep insights into the weaknesses of the human soul. This is also the case in the present case, in which a student who broke off his law degree after six semesters, later pretended to be a lawyer and earned a lot of money – it would be the material for a novella.
Now the 35-year-old has been sentenced to a suspended sentence of two years in 22 cases before a lay judge at the Munich district court, among other things for falsifying documents. However, the defendant should have to nibble at the fact that the court also ordered that he must repay his crooked income. 325 642 euros.
After dropping out of his studies, the man first started a job in a Munich notary’s office. From November 2015 he falsified legal state examination certificates and gave himself distinctive marks for the first and second exams. He then presented the forgeries to the bar in order to obtain admission as a lawyer. That worked.
As the first stop in his career, the defendant chose a respected large law firm, where he received a gross salary of around 193,000 euros between April 2016 and March 2018. Since his performance in the large law firm was critically assessed, the wrong lawyer quit without further ado and looked for a new job. He was quite picky about it. He confidently turned down two offers with an initial salary of 75,000 and 100,000 euros respectively. Eventually he signed with a large insurance company. There he earned 132,600 euros gross as in-house counsel in the area of corporate law between April 2018 and September 2019.
“I would describe myself as an arrogant cocky employee”
Incidentally, the employer was completely satisfied with the achievements of the supposed lawyer – but not with the development opportunities offered to him. The fraudulent lawyer was looking for a new job and started on January 1 of this year at a law firm that paid him an annual starting salary of 120,000 euros.
When falsifying the exams, however, the dropout made a serious mistake. After a while, his new employer noticed that the exams had been issued on Whit Monday 2015, a public holiday. Since that could be bad, the law firm inquired at the judicial examination office. Now the brazen dizziness was exposed.
In the trial before the jury, the 35-year-old cleared the table. “I would describe myself as an arrogant cocky employee,” he freely admitted and assured that the money was not the mainspring of his actions. Rather, “the incomprehensibility that I made so good progress despite my lack of legal training.” In his last word before the verdict was announced, the 35-year-old announced: “I will repent for the rest of my life.” In its verdict, the jury held the accused in favor of having “fully confessed” from the start of the investigation.
It also took into account a mental illness in the 35-year-old, which “already has its basis in family circumstances.” The judge in charge assessed the high damage caused by the salary payments. The 35-year-old now works as a trainee in the trade. And that supposedly also has golden ground. The judgment (Az. 823 Ls 231 Js 185686/19) is not yet final.
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