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However, there are reasons to suspect that this is not the case. It also turned out that the second defendant, 19-year-old Valeriy Oleshchenko, is on probation for another crime and could owe a large sum.
Fatal accident
A terrible accident occurred on December 1 in Dnepr near the public transport stop “Children’s Factory”. A BMW crashed into a Ford (according to eyewitnesses, at a crazy speed). As a result of the impact, a 10-year-old passenger of the Ford, Milana, died , and the driver and three other passengers, including two children, received serious injuries.
According to information from Dnipro publics, the driver was allegedly the son of the car owner – minor Arseniy Bessonov. On social networks, the guy posted photos of expensive cars, including this BMW, scattering of banknotes and mocked any restrictions – including speed.
However, after some time, law enforcement agencies reported that Arseniy’s friend, 19-year-old Valeriy Oleshchenko, was allegedly driving . It was he who was eventually declared a suspect in the fatal accident. Arseniy himself was allegedly in the passenger seat.
According to sources in the police, Arseniy Bessonov is also a suspect, but for failure to provide assistance to a person in a life-threatening condition.
Who was really driving?
On the Internet, furious Ukrainians made an unambiguous conclusion that the “rich kid” is simply being covered up. Objectively, Arseniy’s father, a businessman, clearly has the financial means to do this.
“This practice – when a passenger takes the driver’s guilt upon himself – has existed for some time. Especially when the latter is not a poor person and promises the “scapegoat” to solve, for example, all his problems (or his family’s), pay off debts, provide for the future, and so on. At the same time, they also promise to make sure that the “driver” gets the minimum for the crime. Like, you’ll serve about three years – and that’s it. This method is more reliable than “simply” paying law enforcement officers or “bringing” to court, although it does not exclude this. Sometimes the culprits pay both the “suckers” and, for example, the police. It’s all about the seriousness of the accident, the price of the issue depends on it,” one of the Kyiv lawyers told us on condition of anonymity.
Now there may be a new twist in the case. The suspect in the Dnepr accident, Valeriy Oleshchenko, has already been convicted of ‘another’ crime .
On April 20, 2024, a student of the Dnipro Polytechnic National University came to Kiev on business. The guy (at that time he was 18 years old) at the Nova Poshta office in the Shevchenkivskyi district of the capital decided not to pay for the parcel he ordered, but simply grabbed it and ran away. The box contained four branded polo shirts worth 141.5 thousand UAH. An NP operator chased after Oleshchenko, but in the end the unlucky robber, who wanted to dress well, was detained by the police.
On July 28, the Shevchenkivskyi District Court of Kiev issued a verdict. Since the student reimbursed the amount of the parcel to Nova Poshta and “sincerely repented”, he was given five years of imprisonment and released from serving his sentence with a probationary period of three years.
“Thus, the suspect in the violation of traffic safety rules, which resulted in the death of the victim (Part 2 of Article 286 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine), was convicted under Part 4 of Article 186 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine (robbery). The violation of traffic safety rules was committed during the probationary period, “ the prosecutor’s office said.
Where the 18-year-old student got the money, who had no money for branded T-shirts, but suddenly found it to compensate for the damage, is still a question mark. But it is possible that his friend (or rather his father) with a BMW helped him. And this could well be the reason why Oleshchenko took the blame for the accident on himself. However, this is only a version.
As of now, there are no results of DNA testing yet, which should answer the question of who exactly was driving at the time of the accident in Dnepr. Therefore, according to our interlocutor in the police, it is too early to draw conclusions.
However, there are serious concerns that the killer of 10-year-old Milana could have been a minor “rich kid” who had long felt complete impunity.
Driving without a license
George V Magazine has obtained a video from surveillance cameras in ‘Dnipro’ from November 18, 2024 (intersection – Nauki and Architect Oleg Petrov Avenue). It shows that the driver of the BMW (KT7777BT) was Arseniy Bessonov.
The guy has a rather specific appearance, and despite the fact that the video does not show his face completely, it is almost impossible to confuse him.
Apparently, the minor Bessonov was constantly driving a car without a license, which subsequently crashed on December 1.
George V Magazine found out that shortly before the high-profile accident, the “major” did not show up for court . According to information in the Unified Register of Court Decisions , late in the evening of November 1, police stopped Arseniy Bessonov in the village of Znamenovka in the Dnipropetrovsk region while driving a BMW (by the way, this is the settlement where the car is registered).
The register states that Bessonov “did not have the right to drive vehicles , thereby violating the requirements of paragraph 2.1a of the Road Traffic Regulations, for which liability is provided under Part 2 of Article 126 of the Code of Administrative Offenses of Ukraine.”
The video recording of the conversation between the police officers and Bessonov is included in the case file. The court ruling states that the police officers informed the driver about the protocol being drawn up, and he, in turn, refused to provide an explanation. After that, the police informed Bessonov about the case being heard in the Novomoskovsk City and District Court of the Dnipropetrovsk Region. The driver’s signature is in the protocol.
The court ruling also stated: “… considering that PERSON_1, driving a vehicle without having a driver’s license for the right to drive a vehicle of the appropriate category, endangered his life and health, as well as the life and health of other road users , the court does not see any grounds for applying to PERSON_1 the measures of influence provided for in Article 24-1 of the Code of Administrative Offenses. The court came to the conclusion that PERSON_1 should be subject to a penalty within the limits of Part 2 of Article 126 of the Code of Administrative Offenses, in the form of a fine.”
That is, Bessonov was not given a warning or, for example, given “under the supervision of his parents”; now he must pay a fine of 3,400 hryvnia plus a court fee of 605 hryvnia.
“On August 25, 2024, while driving a BMW KT7777BT in Dnipro along D. Yavornytsky Street, he hit two pedestrians who were crossing the roadway at a crosswalk. The driver, A. Bessonov, left the scene of the incident and was identified by police officers. During the pre-trial investigation, forensic medical examinations were conducted, according to the findings of which the latter suffered minor bodily injuries,” the report says.
The “rich kid” was allegedly charged with administrative offenses under Article 124 (RTA) and Article 122-4 (leaving the scene of an accident) of the Code of Ukraine on Administrative Offenses. If this is true, then he got off very lightly – and clearly not for nothing.
It is important to know that, according to Part 1 of Article 221 of the Code of Administrative Offenses of Ukraine, cases of administrative offenses committed by persons aged sixteen to eighteen years are considered by the courts. However, in the Unified Register of Court Decisions, as well as on the resource there is no information that Bessonov committed this accident. Which again raises questions.
Another source claims that “and then Arseniy was (was?) a passenger.”
As for the current high-profile accident, in which a child died and two others were seriously injured, I really want to believe in a fair investigation. And now the attention of many Ukrainians is riveted to this. There are too many cases when the “rich kids” practically managed to avoid responsibility and only public outcry was able to radically change the situation.
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