Trial in Bavaria
Starnberg District Court sentenced Jens Lehmann to a hefty fine
Former national soccer goalkeeper Jens Lehmann has to pay a total of 420,000 euros in fines.
© Peter Kneffel / DPA
Former national soccer goalkeeper Jens Lehmann has been sentenced to a fine. The Starnberg district court found him guilty of property damage, insult and attempted fraud.
The former national soccer goalkeeper Jens Lehmann is been sentenced to a fine. The Starnberg district court imposed 210 daily rates of 2,000 euros each for damage to property, insults and attempted fraud.
At the center of the allegations against the 54-year-old was a bizarre neighborhood dispute. The public prosecutor accused him of breaking into his neighbor’s newly built garage with a chainsaw and sawing into a roof beam.
On the first day of the trial, Lehmann admitted that he had entered the garage with a chainsaw in his hand, but denied having sawed into the roof beam. A surveillance camera, the recordings of which were shown in the courtroom, recorded Lehmann using the chainsaw.
Jens Lehmann is also accused of attempted fraud
There was also another accusation: Lehmann is said to have driven out of a parking garage at the airport without paying the parking fee – bumper to bumper with a car in front.
The hero of the 2006 World Cup, who triumphed over the Argentinians in the quarter-finals with the help of his famous penalty cheat sheet, was charged with trespassing and criminal damage as a result of the chainsaw episode. There was also the accusation of insulting him because he was said to have been abusive towards police officers who wanted to take away his driver’s license.
On the first day of the trial, the public prosecutor said “that you, Mr. Lehmann, are a person who, at the lower end of criminal liability, does not adhere to the law, but rather wants to ignore it.” Lehmann, on the other hand, feels misunderstood and sees himself as a victim of false suspicion and character assassination.