Russia: five and a half years on fourteen counts, for a woman who sought ways into the homes of elderly people living alone

Proceedings

1. 2019-06-05 · conviction and sentence at first instance

   Avtozavodsky District Court of Nizhny Novgorod, Nizhny Novgorod Oblast, Russia (Автозаводский районный суд г. Нижний Новгород). The defendant, anonymised in the published judgment as ФИО2, was convicted on fourteen counts of fraud by deception — thirteen under part 2 of article 159 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation and one under part 3 — and sentenced under part 3 of article 69, by partial addition of the individual penalties, to five years six months' deprivation of liberty in a general-regime correctional colony. The court found she 'committed thefts of the property of others by deceiving elderly citizens' over a period, and that with a view to 'ensuring conditions for entering the dwellings of lonely elderly people for the subsequent theft of property by deception' she approached victims she did not know, 'using the advanced age' of the person concerned. Individual losses recorded include 91,010 roubles and 120,000 roubles. The judgment records fifteen numbered victims. The court expressly declined to defer the sentence under article 82, notwithstanding a personal circumstance that could have permitted it.

Documented coercion mechanisms

• a sustained campaign against elderly residents of one area over a period
• the deliberate seeking of conditions for entering the homes of elderly people living alone
• exploitation of the victims' advanced age, as found by the court
• false statements made to obtain money and gold items