Parking Inspector and Spouse Apprehended in €1 Million Meter Embezzlement Investigation
One parking inspector and his wife have been detained on suspicion of misappropriating over €1m from the parking meters of a modest German town.
The unnamed city worker is thought to have taken cash out of parking meters in Kempten on numerous occasions and deposited them in bank accounts that his spouse had access to, authorities said in a statement.
A financial crime report by a bank alerted authorities to the suspected embezzlement. The parking inspector has been accused with numerous charges of embezzlement, while his spouse faces multiple counts of assisting in the crime.
Kempten Mayor the mayor said he was stunned and disappointed by the claims.
In October, the Kempten legal authorities were notified that cash was repeatedly being placed into multiple accounts, as reported by reports.
Officers then searched office premises in the early hours of 24 November, the same day that a man in his forties and a woman in her late thirties were arrested.
They are now being held in different detention facilities.
It is uncertain how long it might have taken the couple to accumulate the amount.
In response to the allegations, the mayor declared the appointment of a committee to review past work processes, uncover possible weaknesses, and reliably correct them for the coming years.
He noted that the names of the individuals could not currently be released due to the ongoing probe and privacy concerns.
In a written statement, Kiechle stated: "I certainly back the public prosecutor's office and the police in their thorough investigation of the allegations."
"Until the case are concluded, the innocent until proven guilty applies," he added.
The town is one of the oldest settlements in Germany. Situated in the country's south, it sits under the hills of the Allgäu and has around 70,000 inhabitants.
