Man sentenced to 18 months in prison for 143 frauds on Tori.fi in Rovaniemi

A 50-year-old man from Rovaniemi has been sentenced to 18 months in prison for a total of 143 frauds committed on the Finnish marketplace platform, Tori.fi. The Lapland District Court issued the ruling last September, which the Rovaniemi Court of Appeal upheld on Friday, rejecting the prosecutor’s request for a harsher punishment.

The prosecutor argued that the original sentence was too lenient given the extensive nature of the fraud scheme. However, the Court of Appeal found no grounds to modify the district court’s decision.

Between 2021 and 2023, the man perpetrated the frauds by posting numerous advertisements for non-existent items such as a worksite radio, a gaming console, baby monitors, and various home appliances on the online marketplace. Buyers transferred payments to his account, but he never intended to deliver any of the items. Individual victims lost between 25 and 160 euros, leading him to earn roughly 10,000 euros overall from the scams.

In court, the man confessed to all charges. He explained that he resorted to these fraudulent activities to finance his living expenses and mandatory costs, given his poor financial situation at the time of the crimes. The district court took into account that he had been sentenced to community service for fraud earlier in 2023, which softened his prison sentence. The man also has a history of previous convictions for similar offenses. In addition to his prison term, he is required to pay damages to his victims.