Investigation for administrative offense
December 1, 2009 | 20,00 EUR | answered by Dr. Dr. Danjel-Philippe Newerla
Hello,
I have the following problem. I was recently unemployed and started a new job on 1.04.09. Since I did not have the time to personally go to the employment office to deregister, I did so in writing.
Apparently, my deregistration did not arrive there or was lost internally. I also noticed that I still received benefits transferred to my account. I thought I would wait and as soon as I receive feedback from them, I will return the money. However, I only received feedback in August stating that I am newly employed and have violated my obligation to cooperate. I informed the employment agency that I had sent them a written deregistration. This was not confirmed to me. They said that there was no deregistration registered with them.
Now I am facing a procedure to determine the administrative offense and in this letter, I am threatened with a fine of up to 5000 euros. My question now is: How should I behave and what exactly can I expect? What will overall happen to me? Since I deregistered by post, I naturally want to avoid a fine. Unfortunately, I no longer have a proof of postage.
Do I now have to expect a 5000 euro fine, which I cannot afford at all? Should I stick to the information I provided to the employment agency?
I have to submit my information in writing within 14 days. What do you advise me?
Thank you in advance...
Best regards
Dear inquirer,
Thank you for your inquiry!
I would like to address your questions based on the situation you described as follows:
1.) How should I behave and what exactly can I expect? What is coming my way overall?
In principle, you should be cooperative. By that, I mean that you should try, if possible, not only to comply with the authority's requests but also to demonstrate or prove that the deregistration confirmation was indeed sent by you, and thus you have not violated your reporting obligation.
What exactly awaits you cannot be definitively assessed remotely without knowledge of all the facts and especially without knowledge of the information available to the relevant official at the authority. However, it is likely that an administrative offense proceeding could be initiated against you, as you have already mentioned.
2.) Since I deregistered by post, I naturally want to avoid a fine. Unfortunately, I no longer have a receipt from the post. Do I now have to expect a €5000 fine, which I cannot afford at all?
The €5,000 is the maximum fine for administrative offenses. You probably won't have to expect this. It is likely to be in the range of a few hundred euros, unless you have previously committed something in this range.
It is unfortunate that you do not have a receipt from the post. However, you could also prove in other ways that you sent the letter by post, such as a witness who can testify that you sealed the letter in an envelope and then put it in a mailbox or handed it in directly at the post office.
3.) Should I stick to the information I provided to the Employment Agency? I have to submit my information in writing within 14 days. What do you advise me?
If the information is correct, you should stick to it.
Ultimately, I strongly advise you to consult a colleague experienced in social law locally to definitively clarify the facts and legal situation and then to represent your legal interests to the authority.
I would like to finally point out the following:
The legal advice I have provided is based solely on the facts you have provided. My response is only a preliminary legal assessment of the situation and cannot replace a comprehensive assessment of the facts.
Adding or omitting relevant information can lead to a completely different legal assessment.
I hope my explanations have been helpful. Feel free to contact me through the follow-up option on this platform or via my email address if you have any further questions.
I wish you a pleasant Tuesday evening!
Kind regards,
Dipl.-Jur. Danjel-Philippe Newerla, Attorney
Heilsbergerstr. 16
27580 Bremerhaven
kanzlei.newerla@web.de
Tel. 0471/3088132
