Under the pretext of a phone call, he stole an iPhone and nearly 27 thousand: how the story ended in the Mykolaiv region

Berezansky District Court of Mykolaiv Oblast found a man guilty who, under the pretext of a phone call, seized a friend’s iPhone and then used his online banking to transfer almost 27,000 hryvnias to his own account. Despite being sentenced to 5 years’ imprisonment, the court released him from serving the sentence on probation.

As established by the court, the events took place in 2024. On 23 August 2024 around midnight the man was in his apartment when an acquaintance came to see him. The accused asked him for an Apple iPhone 14 Pro, saying he wanted to make a call. After receiving the phone, the man went to another room. There he accessed the “Privat24” banking app and made several transfers to his own account. In total, 26,925 hryvnias were transferred from the victim’s account. The story did not end there. At about 07:10 the same day the man also stole the Apple iPhone 14 Pro itself. The victim valued it at 31,266 hryvnias.

A separate episode occurred on 23 September 2024. Then the man asked another victim for a mobile phone. At that time he did not make any transfers from her bank account.

In court the accused fully admitted his guilt and confirmed the circumstances of the criminal offenses. When imposing the punishment, the court took into account a number of circumstances in favor of the accused. In particular, the man had no prior convictions, is positively characterized at his place of residence, has a young child to support, sincerely repented and actively assisted in uncovering the criminal offenses. In addition, he voluntarily reimbursed the damages caused to the victim.

Taking the totality of the criminal offenses into account, the court determined the final punishment as 5 years’ imprisonment. However, he will not actually have to serve this term behind bars. Pursuant to Art. 75 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine, the court released him from serving the sentence on probation and set a probationary period of 3 years. During this period the convicted person must comply with the duties imposed by the court, in particular periodically report to the probation authority and notify of any change of residence, employment or study. The court also ordered the man to pay 1,989.75 hryvnias in procedural costs related to conducting a commodity expert examination.

Previously we wrote:

• Asked to check “Privat24” — lost 6,400 hryvnias: in Mykolaiv a man received a sentence for fraud
• Knew the “Privat24” password and had someone else’s SIM card: in Mykolaiv region a serviceman stole nearly 55,000 hryvnias
• Fraudsters swindled 22,000 hryvnias under the guise of rent and increasing the card limit
• “Bank” by phone and fake ads: Mykolaiv residents were scammed out of nearly 100,000 hryvnias
• A pair of thieves robbed a supermarket in Korablenyi of over 3,000 hryvnias