Court rejects former minister’s testimony in Prienai mayor’s receipts case

An Alytus District Court judge found testimony by former minister Jūratė Zailskienė and other witnesses abstract and unreliable in the case against Prienai District Mayor Alvydas Vaicekauskas, LRT reported.

Zailskienė, her husband Rimvydas Zailskas and municipal employee Roma Sinkevičiūtė testified that they had given Vaicekauskas rides in their personal cars and that he reimbursed Zailskiene in cash for fuel. The fuel receipts, paid for using their bank cards, were later submitted by the mayor to the municipal administration to claim compensation.

Judge Inga Liubinienė said the witnesses could not recall specific trips, routes, distances or fuel use. They also said there had been no clear system for calculating or recording fuel costs, and their explanations for giving Vaicekauskas rides did not match his account, the judge wrote in the verdict.

Investigators found that between April 2019 and March 2023, fuel purchases totalled 8,500 euros when paid for with Vaicekauskas’s bank cards and a further 1,800 euros when paid in cash. The charge against him covered 1,113 euros in fuel expenses he had claimed for compensation using receipts paid for with cards belonging to his wife, the witnesses, another person or an unidentified individual, as well as cash payments made while he was using a municipal vehicle.

The court found Vaicekauskas guilty of falsifying documents, fraud and abuse of office, fined him 7,500 euros and barred him from working. He disputes the verdict and has said he will appeal to the Kaunas Regional Court.