
A metalworker (63), currently serving a 15-year prison sentence, was sentenced to an additional year and eight months by a non-final verdict for using a fake bank slip at a store in Kaštel Gomilica. He used the slip to "pay" for DeWalt power tools worth almost 800 euros, which he sold the next day at a pawnshop in Split.
On June 8, 2021, at around 11:20 a.m., a man entered a store on Franje Tuđmana Street in Kaštel Gomilica. He requested a quote for three cordless drills and said he was allegedly buying them on behalf of the company "Petercin" from Pregrada. Employees made him an offer of 6.023 kuna, which was 799 euros at the time.
After receiving the offer, he left the store and made a fake Zagrebačka banka payment slip for the same amount. He returned the same day with a forged payment receipt. The employees did not check the authenticity of the document and handed him the tools.
The next day, he sold them in a pawn shop in Split for HRK 3.400, which was almost half of the real value. The police quickly located the stolen items through video surveillance of the pawn shop and returned them to the owner.
The Split Municipal Court found that he had committed fraud and forged documents and sentenced him to a single sentence of one year and eight months in prison.
"I got caught by 'Corona', I lost my job," he said during the trial.
The court acknowledged his unemployment and the fact that the tools had been returned to their owners as mitigating circumstances. However, his criminal history significantly influenced the sentence. He has been convicted 35 times since 1990, almost exclusively for fraud and forgery. In a 2015 verdict, he was sentenced to 15 years in prison, which he is currently serving until 2027.
He was given a partial suspended sentence: he must serve six months in prison, while the remaining year and two months will not be served if he does not commit a new crime within five years. He must repay 451 euros to the State Budget and pay 400 euros in legal costs.