A Limassol court on Friday gave a former community leader of Asomatos in Limassol district a two-year prison sentence, suspended for three years, for stealing 45,278 euros in water supply fees that he collected without issuing receipts.
The court suspended the sentence because of the long time that had passed and because he admitted the offences in court. Above all, it said, the case differed from others involving the organised embezzlement of large sums.
The thefts took place between 2011 and December 31, 2016, when his term ended. The court found that the money went to him instead of into the community’s coffers.
The man, now elderly and in poor health, faced seven charges in total, the most serious being theft by a public servant, abuse of power and money laundering. He acknowledged the missing money and offered to cooperate to repay it, but this has not proved possible to date.
In sentencing, the court took into account that he had held an elected public office, which rests on the trust of the local community and carries responsibility for managing the Community Council’s affairs and property. It said a property offence committed in that capacity went beyond the financial loss, because it also breached the special relationship of trust attached to the office. “This makes the conduct more reprehensible,” the court said, adding that the period covered by the charges essentially coincided with his entire term.
The shortfall came to light during the handover of the Community Council’s assets after his term ended, when his successor as council president requested an investigation. The cash handed over was well below the amount expected from the council’s financial statements and from a statement its accountant had submitted to the Audit Office.
A subsequent audit showed a shortfall of 45,000 euros and found that a receipt book for water fee collections was missing.
