Crown To Appeal Sentence Given To Bulgarians

April 29, 2016

Following the sentencing today of two Bulgarian nationals who pleaded guilty to theft and money laundering, Director of Public Prosecutions Larry Mussenden said the Crown will “immediately file an appeal” against the four month sentence as it is “manifestly inadequate.”

Mr Mussenden said, “The defendants Chavdar Bachev and Georgi Todorov, Bulgarian nationals, were sentenced in the Supreme Court today.

“They pleaded guilty to 3 counts of Theft, one for each bank HSBC, Butterfield and Clarien. They used counterfeit cards to withdraw cash from several ATMs totaling $19,900.00 over the course of 3 days.

“They also pleaded guilty to Money Laundering for transferring money out of Bermuda. They transferred $1800.00 overseas to the another individual.

“They attempted to leave the country and were held at the airport with over $19,000.00 cash between them.

“The Crown requested 3 to 4 years for the Theft and 1 to 2 years for the Money Laundering, this was due to the several transactions that were effected and the impact on the financial sector and customer confidence.

“The Court rejected the ranges suggested by the Crown and started with a range of 12 months for the Theft. The Court then rejected all of the aggravating factors suggested by the Crown and relied only on the mitigating factors suggested by the defence.

“The sentence given was 4 months concurrent on the Theft offences and 3 months concurrent on the Money Laundering offences.

“The Crown will immediately file an appeal in this matter as we will seek an increase in sentence as the current sentences are manifestly inadequate in all the circumstances. ”

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