by Laerke Christensen

A 61-year-old Norwegian woman known on a Danish podcast as “The Woman with the Heavy Suitcase” was sentenced to 1 year and 6 months prison for fraud north of Copenhagen, Denmark today.

 

The woman, who has been known under more than 20 fake identities, pleaded guilty to ten of the 22 charges against her but denied the rest.

 

Appearing in court with red lips, well combed hair and shiny earrings, few would suspect that this woman was who the Swedish newspaper Aftenposten named “The worst fraudster in the North”

 

A judge and two jurors in Lyngby Court north of Copenhagen sentenced the woman to a year and six months in prison with no possibility of parole or early release. She will also be sent out of Denmark and barred from travelling into the country for 12 years.

 

The charges against her may are comparatively minor but numerous. The woman was charged with 22 counts of fraud and two counts of theft, all committed between 2014 and 2018. She was first convicted in 1992 and carries eight previous convictions for fraud in Sweden and Norway.

 

The 61-year-old is no stranger to the Danish public either, as podcasters Third Ear made her the centre of their podcast “The Woman with the Heavy Suitcase”, published in 2016. They documented how she carried out fraud after fraud all over the country – usually targeting people with connections to the church such as ushers, priests and undertakers.

 

She has been in custody since this July, when a woman in Holte north of Copenhagen lent her 1600 Danish kroner (£190) which she didn’t get back. She was able to track the 61-year-old to a hotel in Holte where she paid some of the money back and offered to leave a cell phone as collateral – but the woman alerted the police who arrested the 61-year-old at the hotel.

 

Other cases typical of her modus operandi include “borrowing” and never repaying 1200 DKK (£145) from an undertaker, and running off after racking up a 3500 DKK (£420) accommodation bill at Ørslev Kloster, a retreat run by a local priest. Lyngby Court heard 22 witnesses on Monday who had all been swindled by the woman.

 

The 61-year-old has not wished to comment on her sentence or case to the press, but her defense attorney Ulla Wolff has said that the woman will appeal her sentence in order to be found not guilty on the charges she denied and be granted a more lenient sentence on those she was found guilty of.