Meter Inspector and Wife Arrested in €1 Million Meter Embezzlement Case
One meter attendant and his spouse have been detained on suspicion of embezzling over €1m out of the parking meters of a modest town in Germany.
The unnamed municipal employee is believed to have removed cash out of parking meters in Kempten on numerous instances and deposited them in financial accounts that his wife had control over, authorities stated in a release.
A money laundering alert by a credit institution alerted investigators to the suspected theft. The parking inspector has been charged with 720 counts of embezzlement, while his spouse faces multiple counts of assisting in the crime.
Kempten Head Thomas Kiechle said he was stunned and dismayed by the allegations.
In October, the local legal authorities were informed that money was frequently being deposited into multiple bank accounts, as reported by sources.
Officers then raided work locations in the morning of November 24, the very day that a man in his forties and a woman in her late thirties were arrested.
They are now being held in separate jails.
It is not clear how long it might have required the pair to accumulate the sum.
In response to the accusations, the mayor declared the formation of a committee to review previous procedures, uncover possible flaws, and reliably correct them for the coming years.
Kiechle added that the names of the individuals could not currently be disclosed due to the ongoing investigation and confidentiality issues.
In a written statement, Kiechle stated: "I naturally back the public prosecutor's office and the police in their thorough inquiry of the allegations."
"Until the proceedings are concluded, the presumption of innocence stands," he added.
The town is among the oldest towns in Germany. Located in the country's south, it lies under the slopes of the Allgäu and has around seventy thousand residents.
