Former lawmaker from Germany’s AfD receives fine in shoplifting case
A former MEP from the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party was fined on Wednesday linked to allegations of shoplifting and assault.
The Neuss District Court fined Gunnar Beck, who served in the European Parliament between 2019 and 2024, 3,600 euros for resisting law enforcement.
The 60-year-old had appealed against a fine order of 12,000 euros.
According to the indictment, Beck was caught stealing cosmetics from a department store in the western German town of Neuss, near Düsseldorf, in October 2022.
Beck, who was previously convicted of misuse of title after falsely impersonating a professor, allegedly used a pipette to transfer test sample creams and lotions into containers and then put them in his bag.
A security guard observed him on the surveillance monitor and alerted his colleagues at the exit. After being restrained, he allegedly attacked a guard, kicking and injuring him, according to the indictment.
Testifying in court, security guards involved in the case said they no longer remembered the incident. “I don’t remember, it was so long ago,” one said.
Beck denied shoplifting. However, the 60-year-old man was found guilty of violently resisting police officers called to the scene.
The European Parliament had already lifted Beck’s parliamentary immunity.
