Aggravated fraud for civil servant who eats lunch at home without stamping his badge

An aggravated fraud is triggered for the public employee who leaves work for a coffee break and sometimes even to pop home for lunch, without punching a badge. If in 2021 the Cassazione had 'turned a blind eye' on the coffee break, demonstrating a certain tolerance (judgement 29674/2021) for the 'practice' followed in the office, applying the rule on the particular tenuity of the fact, this time it does not use the same yardstick with the director of a municipal market who claimed the right to a meal at home. The Supreme Court, in its judgment 33015/2024, confirms the crime, which is in any case time-barred, committed by the director of a wholesale fruit and vegetable market, for having deceived the public administration as to the actual duration of his work performance. A time from which sorties to the bar for coffee and 'visits to the house' for lunch had to be subtracted. In addition, the defendant was even accused of travelling abroad while on duty. Circumstances played down by the defence. The trips to the café lasted the time of an espresso, the lunch at home lasted only a short time because he lived close to the office, as for having expatriated, the border with Slovenia was only a stone's throw away and could have been crossed on foot, even without realising it, because his city was Trieste.

The defendant also complains that the Court of Appeal, in convicting him, had not taken into account that "the conduct complained of not only constitutes an established practice, but even represents a real contractual right for the employee, allowing the National Collective Labour Agreement 'short refreshments to employees'". This is not exactly how the Supreme Court sees it. The ermines point out that, as shown by wiretaps and testimonies, the manager went to the bar and, with not short outings, went to feed himself at home, without punching his timecard and also using the service car. The Supreme Court recalls that altering the attendance data entails aggravated fraud, for remuneration received in the absence of a work performance, even when it is only a few hundred euro. Specifically, the damage, quantified by the Court of Auditors at EUR 900, had been considered appreciable.