Parking Enforcer and Wife Apprehended in €1m Parking Theft Investigation

A parking inspector and his wife have been arrested on suspicion of embezzling over €1m out of the coin-operated meters of a small town in Germany.

The unnamed municipal employee is thought to have taken coins from street meters in the town on multiple occasions and deposited them in bank accounts that his spouse had access to, authorities stated in a release.

A money laundering report by a credit institution notified authorities to the alleged embezzlement. The attendant has been accused with numerous charges of embezzlement, while his spouse faces 720 counts of assisting in theft.

The town's Mayor Thomas Kiechle said he was stunned and dismayed by the allegations.

In the fall, the local public prosecutor's office were informed that money was repeatedly being placed into several accounts, according to reports.

Officers then searched office premises in the early hours of 24 November, the very day that a 40-year-old man and a woman in her late thirties were arrested.

They are now being detained in different detention facilities.

It is uncertain how long it might have required the couple to accrue the amount.

In reaction to the accusations, Kiechle declared the appointment of a commission to review previous procedures, uncover potential weaknesses, and effectively remedy them for the future.

Kiechle added that the names of the individuals could not currently be disclosed due to the active probe and privacy concerns.

In a written statement, the mayor said: "I naturally back the public prosecutor's office and the police in their thorough investigation of the claims."

"Until the case are concluded, the innocent until proven guilty stands," he continued.

The town is among the oldest towns in the country. Located in the country's south, it lies under the slopes of the Allgäu region and has around 70,000 inhabitants.