Overview
- The trial at the Kempten regional court, which opened Tuesday, began with both defendants admitting to a years-long scheme to siphon city parking meter cash.
- Prosecutors charge 335 thefts from 2020 to 2025 totaling about €1.34 million, and they also seek to confiscate a further €584,000 tied to earlier, time-barred acts from 2015 to 2020.
- According to the indictment, the city worker used access to meter and cashbox keys to pull coins during rounds, moved the money in plastic sacks, and with his wife fed it into private accounts or coin-to-voucher machines in supermarkets.
- Testimony highlighted weak controls at the municipal depot, including poor tracking of meter receipts and lax key oversight, while the accused say the cash is gone after spending on horses, cars, and other luxury goods.
- A separate money-laundering probe led investigators in April to search two banks in the Kempten area and a service firm in Neu-Isenburg as authorities work to recover about €1.9 million in alleged losses.