My sister got caught Shoplifting in Germany, please help?

[ricard83]

Hi, i really need help on some legal questions i'm concerned about. my sister is in germany on a student visa, she has been there a month, she is planning to stay there about up to 6 months or so. this is her first time in germany. she has already registered with germany for long term residency.....but just a few days ago she got into a big problem. she was caught shoplifting at a department store and the store call the police and the police came and took her to the police station....there, they asked her to confess to the shoplifting and made her paid 50 euro and then let her go. she made a statement and confessed that she stole a blouse at that store in the amount of 19 euro. this was her first offense. they said she will get a letter from the court soon and there will be a fine in that letter for her to pay. but the thing is she doesn't have a job and very little money. do you know about german law on shoplifting punishment/procedures? what should she do? are they going to deport her? if they don't deport her can she come back and forth from US to Germany within this year or even in the future? what happens if she leaves germany before permanently before she even gets the letter? and when she comes back to the US, will this be on her US records? please, please help me with this matters...she is very scared over there and she doesn't have much friends or any family there. she is much by herself and is desperate. she doesn't even speak or understand the german language. so she didn't even know what the store made her signed of the police made her done. she doesn't if confessing to stealing the shirt was the right thing to do, but they said that it would be much easier if she confessed, then the judge would be more likely to reduce the punishment...but she is scared that they tricked her like the store tricked her into signing the papers and paying them a compensation amount of 25 euro and they wouldn't call the police, but once she did that, they called the police anyway, they lied to her to have her signed the papers...what rights does she have over there? thank you so much in advance for your help. i'm so worried for her over there.

any answers would be greatly appreciated, thank you.

[ned]

This will only be on her record if she's sentenced to paying a fine in court. I've never heard of anything like a letter from court stating that there will be a fine to pay - maybe because I don't shoplift.

Anyway, as long as there's no trial, I'd say she's fine. She should just pay whatever fine there is, and at the first sign of a trial, get a good lawyer - to avoid that this stupid mistake appears on her record.

Leaving Germany before the letter even reaches would be an overreaction - I think the letter will be relatively harmless, since she's a first-time offender, she confessed and the item in question was of low value. But if she leaves now, she won't get that letter, and then there might be more trouble. (It's a bit like not opening a letter because you know it contains a bill. It's not such a good idea, because the bill won't go away, but if it can't reach you, there will be surcharges for not paying.)

If she doesn't speak German, I'd get a good translation of that letter. You can find a qualified translator on http://www.proz.com Now is not the time to be stingy. Clear up that matter and be done with it.

[deangelo51]

The store hasn´t tricked her.
Many stores have extra fines for shoplifters.
(If she could read german she would have known this because it´s displayed in the stores).
If she leaves germany before she gets a letter from the court they will send it to her adress in the
USA.
IF she has luck and it´s just a fine without a court date (she won´t go to jail for this anyway) it´s up to her if she pays it or not (when
she is back in the US).
Of course not paying it means that she can never come back to germany (she could also get serious problems "when she trys to enter other EU countries") because sooner or later germany
will issue an arrest warrant for her.
And Yes it´s possible that she will lose her student visa anyway because of her shoplifting.

[napayshni65]

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[lawly1]

It'll be on her record, and if she applied for permanent residence, that doesn't look good. Why did she get to the idea of shoplifting in the first place? She should have known she'd be caught, and without a job, no money and a criminal record, I'm almost sure her long-term stay visa will be denied.

She also even misunderstood the thing about the 50 euros. That's the usual fee shoplifters have to pay to the shop to compensate for the work they're doing (some shops even charge 100), but that won't keep you from being reported to the police.

They are not going to deport her on the spot as long as her current visa is valid, and she might even be able to get a long-term stay visa all the same if she confesses and excuses. But running away now will look like she gave up trying on her visa and tries to escape punishment, and that's not a good thing to do if she wants to return to Germany or even to the EU.

Most probably, there will be no trial and no judge; she will simply receive a letter telling her which fine she'll have to pay, if any.

The rights she has in Germany are basically the same she'd have in the US, that is, the right to make a telephone call, the right to have a lawyer, and also, if she obviously isn't fluent enough in German, the right to an interpreter (paid for by the state). If there wasn't an interpreter present while she was talking to the police, all she said is basically worthless even if she signed it, because it could always have been a misunderstanding.

Tell her she shouldn't be afraid; she's committed a minor offense which will be punished, but not severely. As to the effects on her visa, she should just wait and see.

To not commit any further offense, she should keep in mind that shoplifters are usually ordered to stay away from the shop where they were caught (and sometimes from the whole mall) for one year, so if she enters that shop again, that will be unlawful entry and an offense on its own.

[AmrElgamal]

can you please tell me what happened to her?/ ,, I had the same problem today and don't know what will they do. I still didnt get my residence permit yet !! I only have my 3 month student visa now .. :/