Farmer sentenced: 600,000 euros fine after arson in the stable!

Farmer sentenced: 600,000 euros fine after arson in the stable!

A farmer from the Oldenburg area is facing a heavy financial burden after the Oldenburg Higher Regional Court (OLG) convicted him of insurance abuse in March 2025. The decision, which is now legally binding, obliges the farmer to repay almost 600,000 euros plus interest to his insurance company, which paid out the sum for a fire in a calf fattening stable. The insurance company had demanded repayment after it emerged that the fire may have been caused intentionally in order to collect damages agrarheute.com reported.

The legal dispute begins with a fire that broke out in the farmer's calf fattening stable in 2009. The insurance company then transferred 600,000 euros to the farmer's wife. There have been several other fires in the couple's buildings in previous years, most of which were attributed to either technical defects or, in the case of a 2006 fire, arson. The couple also received fire insurance compensation for the previous incidents, while two more fires occurred in 2010, for which the insurance company refused to pay because there was suspicion of insurance fraud.

Court rulings and legal assessments

In the civil proceedings, the insurance company sued for repayment of the 600,000 euros previously granted because it assumed that the fire in the calf fattening stable had been started on behalf of the farmer. While the Oldenburg Regional Court and the Higher Regional Court in previous proceedings considered the evidence to be insufficient and acquitted the defendants of the charges, this changed in the current decision of the Higher Regional Court. The 1st Civil Senate made it clear that the farmer's guilt in the fire could be determined with sufficient certainty. The farmer was assessed as an indirect perpetrator or accomplice and found guilty, which is due to Section 823 Paragraph 2 Sentence 1 BGB, Sections 265 Paragraph 1, 25 StGB and Section 826 BGB.

This decision is particularly valuable because it makes it clear that civil courts are not bound in their judgments by previous criminal court decisions, such as Niedersachsen.de elaborates further. The farmer now not only has to pay back the 600,000 euros, but also the accrued interest, which overall represents a significant financial burden.

This legal situation also raises questions about previous incidents in which the Oldenburg public prosecutor's office charged the defendants with fraud and arson, but they were acquitted. Nevertheless, it is now clear that the current civil judgments assign clear responsibility to the farmer and classify the actions as insurance abuse.