Beaten, robbed of his phone, and forced into debt: a nightmarish ordeal in the Korabelnyi District

The Korabelnyi District Court of Mykolaiv sentenced a serviceman to 7 years in prison for beating an acquaintance, stealing his mobile phone and fraudulently taking out two loans totaling UAH 61,600 in the victim’s name. The man transferred the money to himself and spent it on personal needs. The victim was left with debt, suffered psychological pressure from creditors and sought compensation for moral damages.

The Korabelnyi District Court of Mykolaiv delivered the relevant judgment on July 29, 2026, in case No. 488/4600/25.

A late-night gathering ended in a beating

As established by the court, the crime took place on March 30, 2025, at approximately 4:00 a.m., at 255 Bohoyavlenskyi Avenue in Mykolaiv’s Korabelnyi District.

At the time, the defendant was a contract serviceman with the rank of senior soldier and served as a senior rifleman in one of the rifle units.

During the trial, the man said that at the end of March he was with his girlfriend and friends near an ATB store. There, the group ran into an old acquaintance of his. At the request of one of his friends, the serviceman agreed to invite the man to his home to spend time together.

The group drank alcohol at the house. According to the defendant, his acquaintance became very drunk and was lying on the floor in one of the rooms.

The serviceman said that it was then that he decided to take revenge on his guest. The alleged reason was false rumors the victim had spread about the defendant and his family members having a certain illness.

During the altercation, the serviceman used physical violence against his acquaintance and openly took his Xiaomi Redmi 5+ mobile phone.

In court, the defendant claimed that he might have hit the victim in the torso or pushed him, but could not remember for certain because he was under the influence of cannabis.

However, the forensic medical examination revealed a significantly greater number of injuries.

The victim had bruising of the soft tissues on the left side of the back of his head, bruises on the lower eyelid of his left eye, left shoulder and both thighs, as well as abrasions on his left shin.

The expert concluded that these injuries could have resulted from approximately 10 blows with blunt, hard objects, including hands or feet. It was considered unlikely that they had resulted from an ordinary fall from a standing position.

All the recorded injuries were classified as minor, but caused the victim physical pain and a short-term health impairment.

He watched the victim enter his password and took out loans in his name

After taking the phone, the serviceman decided to use his acquaintance’s access to banking services.

The defendant explained that he had previously seen the password the victim entered to log in to his banking app. When he tried that combination, he gained access to the financial services.

In addition, the victim already had accounts with two lending institutions, so no further identification was required to take out the loans.

On March 30, 2025, without the phone owner’s knowledge, the serviceman took out:

• A credit line from Ukr Kredit Finans LLC for UAH 21,600.
• A consumer loan from Lineura Ukraine LLC for UAH 40,000. The agreement was made at 4:09 a.m..

The total amount of the loan obligations was UAH 61,600.

The money was credited to the victim’s bank account with Universal Bank JSC.

The perpetrator then used his access to the banking system to gain the ability to manage the money in someone else’s account.

At 4:42 a.m. that same day, he transferred UAH 61,629 to his personal bank account. This is the amount of the unauthorized transfer stated in the court judgment.

The serviceman spent the money on personal needs.

After completing the financial transactions, he said, he tossed the phone beside the victim, who was still asleep on the floor.

Debt collectors, intimidation and panic attacks

The victim’s problems did not end there.

As a result of the loans being fraudulently taken out, the man had to explain to the financial institutions that he had not entered into the agreements or received the borrowed money.

In his civil claim, the victim described the psychological consequences of the crime in detail. In particular, he reported regular calls from creditors, intimidation and demands that he repay debts taken on by someone else.

The court judgment sets out the following circumstances described by the victim:

“Regular calls, intimidation, text messages and constant psychological pressure from microfinance organizations and debt-collection agencies created an atmosphere of unrelenting stress and harassment.”

According to the victim, realizing that he had loan obligations he had not voluntarily taken on caused a constant sense of hopelessness and fear for his future.

The man complained of insomnia, anxiety, panic attacks, disruption to his usual way of life and deep psychological distress.

He also emphasized the consequences of being unable to use his phone normally. He claimed that the device had been returned damaged, leaving him without his main means of communication and access to everyday services.

The victim had to spend time and effort contacting law enforcement, communicating with banks, creditors and debt-collection agencies, and participating in the criminal proceedings.

All of this, the man said, significantly disrupted his usual routine and deprived him of a sense of personal security.

He assessed the moral damages caused by the beating, the fraudulent loans and the distress that followed at UAH 50,000.

The serviceman admitted guilt but did not repay the losses

During the trial, the defendant fully admitted guilt for the crimes he was charged with.

He confirmed that he had used someone else’s phone, accessed financial services, taken out loans in his acquaintance’s name and transferred the money to his own account.

The man apologized to the victim and said he regretted what he had done.

However, he did not compensate the victim for the financial losses.

The defendant explained his inability to repay the money by saying that he did not have sufficient funds and needed to provide financial support to his grandmother, who had suffered a stroke.

The man also insisted that he had not damaged the mobile phone and had returned it in the same condition in which he took it.

He asked the court to take into account his sincere remorse, admission of guilt and active assistance in solving the crimes, and to impose a sentence below the statutory minimum.

The court established that the serviceman had no prior convictions and was not registered with a psychiatrist or addiction specialist. He was unmarried and had no children.

The court recognized sincere remorse, voluntary surrender to the authorities and active assistance in solving the criminal offenses as mitigating circumstances.

No circumstances aggravating the sentence under the Criminal Code of Ukraine were established.

However, the court refused to impose a sentence below the statutory minimum. The reasons included the seriousness of the crimes and the failure to compensate for the material damage caused.

7 years in prison and UAH 50,000 in compensation

The Korabelnyi District Court found the serviceman guilty under three articles of the Criminal Code of Ukraine:

• Part 4 of Article 186 — robbery committed under martial law. Sentence: 7 years in prison.
• Part 4 of Article 185 — theft committed under martial law. Sentence: 5 years in prison.
• Part 1 of Article 361 — unauthorized interference with the operation of information systems. Sentence: 1 year of restriction of liberty.

For the aggregate of criminal offenses, the court applied the principle of absorbing the lesser sentence into the more severe one.

The final sentence is 7 years in prison.

The court ordered that the convicted man remain in custody until the judgment enters into force.

Time spent in pretrial detention, starting from July 22, 2026, will count toward the sentence at a rate of 1 day of pretrial detention for 1 day in prison.

The court also considered the victim’s civil claim.

The claim for UAH 50,000 in moral damages was granted in full.

The court took into account the physical pain caused by the beating, emotional distress, disruption to the victim’s usual way of life and the need to contact law enforcement, banks and debt collectors as a result of the defendant’s actions.

However, the claim for UAH 4,587 in material damages for the mobile phone was denied.

The reason was that the victim had not provided evidence that the device was damaged after it was returned. In the absence of such evidence, the court found no grounds to compensate him for the phone’s value.

Thus, under the court’s judgment, the serviceman must serve 7 years in prison and pay the victim UAH 50,000 in moral damages.

The judgment of the court of first instance could be appealed to the Mykolaiv Court of Appeal within 30 days of its pronouncement.

We previously reported:

• Man held a knife to a street-food worker’s neck and robbed him in Mykolaiv
• Kicked a man in the face and took his phone: robbery in Mykolaiv Oblast
• Stole an iPhone and almost UAH 27,000 under the pretext of making a call: how the story in Mykolaiv Oblast ended
• Son hit his mother and took her phone in Mykolaiv
• Took a phone, pushed a passerby and fled: an attack in Mykolaiv Oblast