After confessing to money laundering, Erik Horváth, a 43-year-old guy, has been sentenced to two years and four months in jail. Leicester-based Hungarian Horváth was embroiled in a case involving a man named Laszlo Czegledi, who was defrauded out of more than fifteen thousand euros.
The inquiry started in August 2016 with Czegledi filing a police report. He claimed that Red and Wine Limited, his Malta-based firm, had been tricked in a commercial arrangement. The business intended to sell olives in Hungary that it was buying from a Greek company called Olivellas. Directly to Hungary, the olives were meant for delivery.
Czegledi was first instructed to pay using a bank account number indicated on an invoice. He was subsequently advised, nevertheless, that his number was inaccurate and received a second one. He was then given a third bank account number and told that the second one was likewise wrong. Based in the United Kingdom, this final report
Czegledi made the payment despite finding it odd that a Greek business would utilize a British bank. He accepted the argument. He never got the olives, though. Olivellas informed him upon contacting them that they had never been paid and had not sent any goods. Czegledi paid again and told the police about the fraud.
To look into it, the Maltese police started collaborating with British authorities. Horváth was discovered to be the owner of the bank account receiving the funds. On the day the payment was made, the funds had been sent to him. Horváth withdrew the money from the account in three distinct transactions the next day.
Horváth first refuted the allegations. Later on, however, the court heard from the prosecution and defense that he had accepted a plea deal. Horváth formally confessed to the crime on July 25.
The court observed that Horváth had carried out the scam by accessing the email correspondence between the victim and the seller. The court accepted the plea bargain and sentenced him to two years and four months in jail after carefully considering the case. The court also instructed the recovery of the fifteen thousand three hundred fifty-six euros snatched.
The case’s presiding judge was Magistrate Leonard Caruana.
