On 7 October 2026 the High Court finally reduced to five years in prison the sentence of a businessman who kept 13.9 million crowns sent by mistake by a Prague hospital in Vinohrady.
On 7 October 2026 the High Court, acting as the appeal instance, finally reduced the sentence of a businessman who kept 13.9 million crowns sent by mistake by Královské Vinohrady University Hospital. Instead of the earlier six years, the businessman is to serve five years in prison.[1][2][3]
The verdict also includes a three-year ban on managing companies, a fine of 200,000 crowns and an obligation to compensate the hospital for the larger part of the damage. The hospital recovered the remaining money through enforcement. The courts also punished the businessman's company with a sum of 1.1 million crowns and ordered the judgment to be published.[3]
The offence
In the winter of 2021 the businessman's company supplied the hospital with one tonne of road salt for 13,915 crowns. Through an administrative error the hospital added three zeros to the amount and in March 2021 sent 13.9 million crowns to the company's account. According to the judgment, the businessman noticed the error the same day but, instead of returning the money, spent or withdrew almost the entire sum: he first transferred half a million crowns to his own account and then gradually withdrew cash from the company's account. He continued after the hospital discovered the error and, from July 2021, called on him to return the money. He did not return it even after a final judgment in civil proceedings ordered him to pay the hospital 13.9 million crowns including interest.[1][2][3]
Reasoning of the appeal panel
The presiding judge of the appeal panel, Petr Hovorka, called the matter a case that, in his words, "falls outside the usual framework of tax or economic fraud". In his view, everything the businessman did served to conceal the origin of the money and to prevent the hospital from getting it back.[1][3]
The businessman faced five to ten years in prison; as a mitigating circumstance the court took into account only that he had not been convicted before. The panel reduced the sentence by one year and the ban on activity by two years on the basis of a comparison with sentences for other, larger frauds. The judge added that the businessman's approach gave the panel no opportunity to go below the statutory range, and recalled that he could have used a declaration of guilt or a plea agreement.[1][3]
The businessman's position
The businessman denied guilt and sought either acquittal or a suspended sentence for concealing another person's property. The day before the appeal hearing he sent the hospital 200,000 crowns. His lawyer admitted that the client's conduct may look unusual in retrospect and argued that he had no intention of harming anyone.[1][3]
Chronology
- — The High Court finally reduced the sentence for businessman Jiří Benáčan to five years in prison for keeping 14 million korunas that a Prague hospital on Vinohradská street had mistakenly transferred to him. Pražský deník iDNES.cz
Sources
- Pražský deník — 7 October 2026
- iDNES.cz — 7 October 2026
- Pražská Drbna — 7 October 2026