Judge imposes prison sentence for fraud with 773 ‘free’ telephones at Vodafone subscription

The Gelderland court has sentenced two people to prison for fraud involving the resale of telephones. A 44-year-old woman took out a large number of subscriptions and thus obtained 773 telephones from Vodafone. She sold it to a shop owner.

The court reports that the woman took out the subscriptions in more than a year by using ‘always different names, addresses and identity numbers’. However, when ordering the corresponding telephones, she would have already known that she would not pay for them. She then sold the devices to a 28-year-old man who owns a telephone shop. He then sold the phones on and made a profit of 60,000 euros. He now has to pay this amount to the government. He was aware of the origin of the devices, according to the court.

The judge sentenced the woman to 8 months in prison, 4 of which were suspended. The man has also been sentenced to prison. In his case it is 12 months, 5 of which are conditional. The higher sentence motivated the judge by stating that it is a professional seller, ‘who is expected to conduct a fair trade’. The suspended portions of the sentences should ensure that the two do not recur. The ruling itself has not yet been published by the court.