Parking Inspector and Wife Apprehended in €1 Million Parking Theft Case
One meter attendant and his wife have been detained on suspicion of embezzling more than €1m out of the parking meters of a modest German town.
The unnamed city worker is thought to have taken cash from parking meters in the town on numerous occasions and placed them in bank accounts that his spouse had control over, local police said in a release.
A money laundering report by a credit institution alerted investigators to the suspected theft. The parking inspector has been charged with 720 counts of theft, while his wife faces multiple counts of assisting in theft.
Kempten Mayor the mayor said he was shocked and disappointed by the claims.
In the fall, the Kempten public prosecutor's office were informed that money was repeatedly being deposited into multiple bank accounts, as reported by sources.
Police then raided office premises in the early hours of 24 November, the same day that a man in his forties and a 38-year-old woman were taken into custody.
They are now being detained in separate jails.
It is not clear how long it might have required the couple to accumulate the sum.
In response to the allegations, the mayor declared the appointment of a committee to examine past procedures, identify potential weaknesses, and effectively remedy them for the coming years.
Kiechle added that the identities of the individuals could not currently be released due to the ongoing investigation and confidentiality issues.
In a written statement, the mayor stated: "I certainly back the public prosecutor's office and the police in their thorough investigation of the claims."
"Until the case are resolved, the innocent until proven guilty stands," he added.
The town is among the oldest towns in Germany. Located in the country's south, it sits under the hills of the Allgäu and has around seventy thousand inhabitants.
