Parking Enforcer and Spouse Arrested in €1 Million Parking Theft Case
One meter attendant and his spouse have been arrested on allegations of misappropriating more than €1m from the coin-operated meters of a modest German town.
The unnamed city worker is thought to have taken cash out of parking meters in Kempten on multiple occasions and placed them in bank accounts that his wife had access to, local police said in a release.
A money laundering report by a credit institution alerted authorities to the alleged theft. The attendant has been charged with 720 counts of theft, while his wife is charged with 720 counts of aiding and abetting theft.
The town's Mayor Thomas Kiechle said he was stunned and dismayed by the allegations.
In October, the Kempten legal authorities were notified that cash was repeatedly being deposited into several bank accounts, as reported by reports.
Officers then raided office premises in the morning of 24 November, the very day that a 40-year-old man and a 38-year-old woman were taken into custody.
They are now being held in separate detention facilities.
It is not clear how long it might have taken the couple to accumulate the sum.
In response to the allegations, the mayor declared the formation of a commission to examine previous procedures, identify possible flaws, and reliably correct them for the coming years.
He added that the names of the couple could not currently be disclosed due to the active investigation and confidentiality issues.
In a official comment, Kiechle said: "I certainly back the legal authorities and the law enforcement in their detailed investigation of the allegations."
"Until the case are resolved, the innocent until proven guilty stands," he continued.
The town is among the most historic towns in Germany. Located in the southern region, it lies under the hills of the Allgäu region and has around seventy thousand residents.