Ukraine: a woman travelling a village on the pretext of buying produce offered to tell fortunes and remove a curse, and took 2,000 hryvnia inside the household she was invited into

Proceedings

1. 2010-01-20 · conviction and sentence at first instance

   Andrushivka District Court, Zhytomyr Oblast, Ukraine (Андрушівський районний суд Житомирської області). The defendant, anonymised in the published judgment as ОСОБА_1, was convicted of fraud under part 2 of article 190 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine and fined one hundred tax-free minimum incomes, being 1,700 hryvnia. The court found that on 18 March 2009 she entered a house on Sadova Street in the village of Horodkivka, Andrushivka District, 'under the pretext of divination and the removal of a curse', gained the occupant's confidence and, by deception and abuse of that confidence, took 2,000 hryvnia which she kept and spent. The judgment records her own account, accepted in evidence: that she had travelled to the village by hired car with another person to buy pumpkin seed, nuts and beans from residents, and that after a short conversation at one household she offered to tell fortunes and remove a curse, whereupon the householder invited them inside. She admitted the charge in full.

Documented coercion mechanisms

• arrival in a village under the ordinary pretext of buying pumpkin seed, nuts and beans
• an offer of divination and curse removal made on the doorstep
• entry to the household after that offer was accepted
• abuse of the confidence gained once inside