4.6 million stolen from Munich bank

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The Munich Regional Court (archive picture): Millions from the locker

Photo: Sven Hoppe / picture alliance / dpa

They are said to have stolen almost 4.6 million euros from bank lockers - now two men and a woman have to answer before the Munich I district court.

The public prosecutor's office blames the accused, among them a bank employee, of serious gang theft.

She is said to have provided the men with insider knowledge.

Between December 2017 and March 2018, according to the indictment, the gang cracked three compartments of a customer in a money house in downtown Munich and stole almost 4.6 million euros.

They are said to have transported the cash out of the bank in trolleys and divided it up.

The three did not want to comment on the allegations at the beginning of the trial.

One of the defense lawyers spoke up for this, as reported by the Süddeutsche Zeitung, among others.

He pointed out that the case had already been tried in early 2020.

Four of the seven suspects were acquitted at the time.

The proceedings against the bank employee and the two men, however, were separated for follow-up investigations and are now scheduled.

The prosecution is still based on these seven parties, criticized the lawyer.

In terms of its structure, it therefore does not correspond to the current status at all.

The "Bayerischer Rundfunk" reports that the 60-year-old defendants knew about a rich customer who had stored a lot of money in compartments at a Commerzbank branch.

She told her son, 33, who brought in a friend, 29, for the crime.

According to the prosecution, the 33-year-old was responsible for planning the offenses in the background, while the bank clerk provided valuable information and made sure that the gang got a locker right next to the rich customer's compartments, which were later to be cracked.

The 60-year-old gave them unhindered access to the vault, explained the prosecutor.

Sealed with hot glue

According to the investigators, the acts were then carried out by the third defendant and a previously unknown further perpetrator.

The 29-year-old and his friend are said to have walked into the vault with the access card on three days between December 2017 and March 2018.

There they are said to have pried open a total of three lockers and removed the money.

Then they would have closed everything again with hot glue and an adhesive tape.

The trial before the Regional Court of Munich I began with several interruptions due to a number of applications from the defense lawyers.

The hearing of witnesses is expected to continue on November 11th.

The injured customer should also be heard in the course of the negotiation.

jpz / dpa