MonTech found guilty of falsifying ISO 17025 document

Buchen, Germany--A second court has upheld the initial ruling that Hubert Bäuerlein, head of MonTech Werkstoffprüfmaschinen GmbH, falsified ISO17025 accreditation documents. Bäuerlein has decided not to appeal against the ruling, which means the verdict is final and the case is closed.

Bäuerlein has been fined a total of Euro 12 000 for the offence.

According to an official statement from Göttfert Werkstoff-Prüfmaschinen GmbH, MonTech took a copy of a Göttfert 17025 certificate, removed the Göttfert insignia and replaced them with MonTech insignia, and supplied the resulting false documents to a client as evidence that MonTech was accredited to calibrate test equipment.

According to a statement from Göttfert, "Both courts had no doubts that our accreditation document was falsified by Mr. Bäuerlein with the intention to convey these to a business partner in France." The statement continued, "Thus a deliberate criminal offence represents the production and passing on of the falsified accreditation document being expressed in the company MonTech in the opinion of both courts, which was punished with a not insignificant fine."

ERJ contacted MonTech, but the company declined to make any comment in relation to this story.

In his defence Bäuerlein is reported to have said that the document was created to show what a MonTech document would look like, should MonTech become accredited. According to a statement from the client company, however, a colleague of Bäuerlein, "expressly confirmed that the document was genuine." The company, which does not wish to be named, became suspicious and contacted the authorities, after which the criminal offence was discovered.

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Website of Göttfert

Website of MonTech