Three and a half years in prison for Lagzi Lajcsi, who played tricks with utility bills
The Budapest District Court sentenced Lajos Galambos, i.e. musician and performer Lajcsi Lajcsi, to 3.5 years in prison.
The Budapest District Court did not name the well-known musician in its statement issued to MTI on Wednesday, but at the time of the suspicion and the announcement of the first-degree verdict, it appeared in the press several times that it was the criminal case of Lajos Galambos – stage name Lajcsi Lajcsi – and that the musician was the main accused .
He bribed the inspectors
The prosecutor’s office accused Lajos Galambos of paying unmetered electricity, water and gas for years in a residential building in Mocsa and an apartment park in Tata, as well as bribing the inspectors. According to the indictment filed in 2017, he stole electricity worth at least HUF 30 million, natural gas worth HUF 4.7 million, and piped water worth HUF 16 million.
At first instance, in September 2021, the Budaörs District Court sentenced Lajos Galambos to 2 years and 10 months in prison, and five other defendants to 1 year to 2 years and 4 months in prison. The first-instance court acquitted the two defendants in the case – one of them the ex-wife of Lajos Galambos – and sentenced one defendant to a fine.
The Budapest District Court acted in the second instance in the criminal case, and the court rendered a verdict in the case on Wednesday.
In the statement of the court on Wednesday, it was written that since the 1990s, the first accused musician and entrepreneur has been involved in the management of the companies listed in the indictment as a member, majority owner, managing director, and sole owner in several business companies, family members and acquaintances of several businesses are registered representatives.
They added: in the early 2000s, the first defendant and his companions decided that at the defendant’s residence in Mocsa, and around 2010 in the Boglárka Residential Park in Tata, which is part of his ownership
“he solves the public utility supply of residential and other buildings, as well as individual apartments of the residential complex and common consumers, by irregularly purchasing electricity, water and gas.”
In order to do this, he connected the utilities and then built illegal connections by bypassing the meters.
Among the defendants in the lawsuit were those who assisted in the illegal connection, others made minimum payments based on the close-to-zero readings indicated by the consumption meter, and there were those who prevented the inspection of the estate in Mocsa. The ninth and tenth defendants in the case were the energy inspectors of the electricity supplier E.ON, who each received half a million forints in order to keep the illegal electricity consumption discovered on the Tata property a secret.
A more serious sentence
According to the point of view of the court of second instance, the Budaörs District Court, acting at first instance, determined the facts decisively correctly, the evidentiary procedure was carried out extensively, its reasoning was detailed, comprehensive and thorough, however, according to the tribunal, the first-order defendant’s punishment was too light and did not reflect sufficiently the leading role played by the accused in the crime, therefore the internal proportionality of the sentence was distorted. The court therefore aggravated the prison sentence imposed on Lajos Galambos by the first-instance court to 3 years and 6 months.
The accomplices are also responsible for document forgery
The court also found the inspectors guilty of the offense of using a false private document, as accomplices, but did not increase their punishment.
In the case of the energy inspectors, the prosecutor filed an appeal against the decision, at the expense of the defendants, due to the severity of the imposed penalty. The defender of the defendants reserved three working days for making the legal remedy statement. The verdict is final for the other defendants.
The featured image is an illustration.