Sworn advocate charged over obtaining free asbestos slate disposal by deception in Dobele municipality

Latvian prosecutors have referred a criminal case to the Zemgale District Court against a sworn advocate, who is accused of using deception in September 2023 to gain the right to hand over 2,720 kilograms of asbestos-containing slate roofing sheets free of charge at a waste sorting site in Dobele. According to prosecutors, this caused Dobele municipality a financial loss of 1,197 euros. The first court hearing is scheduled for 9 November at 1 p.m. at the Zemgale District Court in Dobele.

Background

In August 2023, a storm hit Dobele municipality, tearing off roofs and damaging buildings. To support affected residents and speed up recovery, local people whose household roofs were damaged were offered free disposal of construction waste and slate.

The allegations

The prosecutor's office says the accused did not live in Dobele municipality and owned no storm-damaged property there. To avoid paying for the disposal, he allegedly acted out of greed and deliberately misled the person in charge at the sorting site, giving false information about the origin of the slate in the storm-waste collection form. This gave him the right to dispose of it free, avoiding a payment of 1,197.90 euros.

Failure to appear

At the end of the pre-trial process, the accused twice failed to show up at the prosecutor's office at the times stated in summonses, where he was due to complete steps linked to finishing the criminal proceedings, and gave no valid reason. As these procedural steps could not be carried out, the prosecutor decided to order his compulsory appearance.

According to information in the court calendar, the accused is Pēteris Kušners.