Andorra la VellaThe employee of an optician located on Carlemany Island had a short but intense career. On the first day he came to work, he took the credit card details of some of the establishment’s customers. Later, he used the data to make purchases for his own benefit over the internet, especially through Amazon. The overall damage of 2,340 euros, mostly by taking out insurance online or to rent vehicles for their use.
The prosecution requested that a sentence of six months’ imprisonment be imposed to be replaced by expulsion from the Principality of Andorra for a period of ten (10) years, as well as the procedural costs incurred. The customers did not claim because they had been compensated by the insurers of the cards belonging to different banks. The defense asked for acquittal because there were charges in the name of a third party and as there could be doubts the principle ‘in dubio pro reo’ had to be applied.
The ruling states that the employee obtained the data by copying it at the time when the true owners were using it to pay for the purchases made in the store. It is known that other payment attempts were made which were unsuccessful because the card had already been canceled by the real owner. With regard to the fact that there is a third beneficiary, the judgment makes it clear that it is the payment of an insurance where the defendant is listed as the policy holder and the beneficiary is a person of the same nationality and address. Even the accused had provided his own email for insurance purposes and his name appears as the designated driver in the various vehicle rental contracts.
The victims made it clear in the statements that “all of them had been dispatched by a new clerk, black and with glasses, and indeed, at the time of making the payment, he had performed strange maneuvers with his card, telling them that the POS device was not working”.
The worker has been expelled from Andorra for ten years in lieu of a prison sentence.
