Local Court (AG) - Ingolstadt, Judgment as of 5/10/2005
File number 1 Ds 12 Js 6059/05

Summary

The court sentenced the accused to a term of imprisonment of eight months. The enforcement of the sentence was suspended and the person put on probation.
In July and August 2004 and from December 2004 to February 2005, the accused employed persons in his Indian restaurant without registering them with the social security authorities and without paying the requisite contributions although he had been obliged to do so. Instead, he kept several thousand euros for himself knowing that he had no claim to it. The responsible social security authority suffered a loss in an equivalent amount. The court considered this fraud and a retention and misappropriation of wage-based social security contributions.

In March 2005, the accused again employed two people to work in his Indian restaurant without registering them with the social security authorities. The injured parties worked seven days per week and up to 15 hours per day and received EUR 2.44 or EUR 2.88 per hour, a mere quarter of the hourly wage customary in that locality. Although no written employment contracts existed, the court still presumed the existence of employment relationships. The men spoke very little German. The accused threatened them with deportation and beatings if they did not continue working or if they went to the police.
In the court’s opinion, these facts amounted to a "striking incongruity" with the working conditions of other employees within the meaning of section 233 of the German Criminal Code (StGB).
The requirement of a "foreign-country-connected-vulnerability" had been satisfied in the eyes of the court by the accused’s withholding of the passports of the injured parties.

Decision in full text: