Woman who posed as Germanwings relative convicted of fraud


Save Story
Leer en español

Estimated read time: Less than a minute

This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.

BERLIN (AP) — A German court has convicted of fraud a woman accused of posing as a cousin of a victim of last year's Germanwings crash and flying to France twice at parent company Lufthansa's expense.

The Cologne district court was notified shortly before the woman's trial was to start Wednesday that she was in a hospital, news agency dpa reported. The court decided to issue an order of punishment giving her a one-year suspended sentence.

In Germany, defendants have two weeks to decide whether to accept such orders. If they don't, the case goes to trial.

Lufthansa flew victims' relatives to the crash site after Germanwings Flight 9525 smashed into a French mountainside. Prosecutors say the 35-year-old defendant took two trips at a cost to the company of 16,000 euros ($17,400), staying at an upscale hotel and traveling with an acquaintance — as well as, on one trip, her two children.

Copyright © The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Most recent World stories

Related topics

World
The Associated Press

    STAY IN THE KNOW

    Get informative articles and interesting stories delivered to your inbox weekly. Subscribe to the KSL.com Trending 5.
    By subscribing, you acknowledge and agree to KSL.com's Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.

    KSL Weather Forecast