A couple on trial in Bavaria admitted at the start of proceedings that they stole nearly €1.9 million from parking meters over about a decade. The 40-year-old man, who had been responsible for emptying the machines for the city of Kempten in the Allgäu region, told judges at Kempten Regional Court he regretted his actions and accepted the charges.
Prosecutors say the former municipal employee, assisted by his 39-year-old wife, siphoned coins into private accounts and converted part of the proceeds into supermarket vouchers. The couple have been in custody since November and face charges of commercial theft, an offense that carries a maximum sentence of 10 years’ imprisonment. Court documents allege roughly €1.34 million was taken in 335 separate incidents between 2020 and 2025 alone.
The male defendant gave detailed testimony, responding at length to the court’s questions. He said the scheme began with small amounts of loose change taken from coin piles and gradually escalated. “At some point, it became self-perpetuating, a vicious cycle,” he told the court.
Investigators identified more than 500 earlier incidents dating back to 2015, but those cases are now time-barred and cannot be prosecuted. Prosecutors are nevertheless seeking the confiscation of almost €584,000 tied to those older alleged offenses, bringing the total amount authorities aim to recover to roughly €1.9 million.
Municipal witnesses were unable to explain how the defendant repeatedly accessed a key for the parking-meter cash boxes, a point still unresolved in court testimony.
The matter came to light in November after a bank reported repeated suspicious cash deposits to investigators on suspicion of money laundering. Missing funds had been noticed on occasion, and a local bank had previously questioned the frequency of coin deposits, but staff accepted the couple’s evasive explanations at the time.
Following the investigation, the city of Kempten changed its parking management: locks were replaced, additional checks were introduced and an external service provider was hired to handle collections.
The couple owned a horse farm and a number of high-value personal items. The woman told investigators the money is “gone,” adding, “Our standard of living was very high; we spent everything.” When the pair split in August 2025, the man said he gave his long-term partner a final settlement of €15,000 in coins.