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 Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information.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 a 49-year-old woman of child abuse and fraud for claiming her children suffered from bogus medical conditions for years to receive additional social assistance.
News agency dpa reported the woman was sentenced to eight years in prison in Luebeck state court Wednesday.
The woman was convicted of claiming that four of her five children suffered from chronic illnesses. She was accused of having them use a wheelchair to convince school officials and doctors.
Her 27-year-old daughter testified the children were threatened if they didn’t go along. She said she moved out and didn’t participate. The others didn’t testify.
The mother was found to have caused the children psychological damage and to have defrauded social services of 135,000 euros ($149,000), plus 1 million euros in unnecessary medication.
Copyright © The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
