Kosovo cleaner sentenced in Switzerland after stealing nearly 40 CHF from nursing home residents, escapes deportation
Express newspaper
19/09/2025 20:20
The 54-year-old Kosovar woman worked as a cleaner at a retirement home in the city of Winterthur and is suspected of committing a total of 19 thefts between January 2020 and June 2022.
According to the indictment, she stole jewelry, cash and gold coins from residents’ safes, wallets, drawers and chests, thus embezzling over 40,000 Swiss francs.
Of the 19 victims of the robbery, ten were already dead at the time of the indictment in December 2024, albinfo.ch reports. Fifteen pieces of jewelry and 800 Swiss francs in cash were found on her.
The accused refused to testify in the trial before the Winterthur District Court. During the investigation, she denied the thefts. The married mother had come to Switzerland with her family as asylum seekers more than twenty years ago. She had been working as a cleaner in a nursing home since 2017. After the case came to light, she was dismissed without notice in the summer of 2022.
The public prosecutor has charged the woman with massive theft. This is because the proceeds of crime averaged 1,350 francs per month over a period of approximately two and a half years and represented a significant contribution to her livelihood, 20minuten.ch reported.
The prosecution has therefore requested a suspended prison sentence of one year and a fine of 2,000 francs for the woman. Since (commercial) theft is a so-called catalogue crime, the woman would have to be deported from the country for five years. “There is no case of hardship here that would save her from deportation; she is neither professionally nor socially integrated in the country,” the prosecutor said.
The accused was involved in numerous contradictions and made incredible statements. For example, the cleaner claimed that she had initially received a gold necklace with a pendant from a nursing home resident, later claiming that she had purchased the jewelry at a flea market. The explanation that she had found individual pieces of jewelry at the nursing home’s cardboard collection point was also incredible.
The public prosecutor described her behavior as shameless and unscrupulous. “The acts are all the more reprehensible because some elderly people were confused and believed they had lost their jewelry,” he said.
Her lawyer asked for her acquittal. “My client denies all charges.” There is no evidence of theft. He criticized the testimony of the employees, who were biased because they still work at the nursing home. In addition, the proceeds from the crime were significantly lower than the prosecutor stated, as half of the proceeds were jewelry, which is difficult to turn into money, reports albinfo.ch. Deportation from the country would be unreasonable for the woman, who has lived in Switzerland for more than twenty years. Her entire family lives here.
He therefore further requested compensation of 3,000 francs for his client. “After her dismissal, she was unable to regain her professional balance and was unable to find work,” he explained. Furthermore, the two days in detention and the house search had placed a considerable burden on his client.
The circumstantial evidence was insufficient for the court.
The court sentenced the woman to a suspended fine for only two thefts and did not order her deportation from the country. “For the remaining thefts, the prosecutor’s chain of evidence was insufficient,” the judge said. Doubts about her guilt could not be ruled out.