Shooting-range operator fined for accepting 7,000 rounds as payment for training

A shooting-range operator in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern has been fined €5,940 for accepting 7,000 rounds of ammunition as payment for shooting training. The Schwerin Regional Court imposed 55 daily penalties of €108 each.

The court convicted the operator of incitement to embezzlement and bribery. The judgment has not yet become legally binding.

The ammunition came from a Saxon police officer, who was convicted last year and fined €10,800 for embezzlement and bribery. The officer secretly used service ammunition from the armory of the State Criminal Police Office’s Mobile Operations Unit to pay for training at a private range near Güstrow. The unit had attended training there in 2018.

The broader ammunition scandal continues to occupy the courts. Germany’s Federal Court of Justice partially overturned the officer’s earlier judgment and instructed the Dresden Regional Court to reassess whether he violated the weapons law. The lower court had rejected that violation, arguing that transporting the ammunition to the Mecklenburg-Vorpommern range was work-related. The Federal Court disagreed, saying the secret transfer of 7,000 rounds served as payment for completed training and a deposit for future training, rather than as an official activity of the shooting instructor.

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In this specific case, the secret transfer of a total of 7,000 rounds of ammunition as payment for the training carried out and as a deposit for future shooting training did not constitute an official activity of the shooting instructor.