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Bonn bank manager plays Robin Hood for overdrawn customers

DPA/The Local
DPA/The Local - [email protected]
Bonn bank manager plays Robin Hood for overdrawn customers
Photo: DPA

A former bank manager from a Bonn suburb has been handed a suspended sentence for helping out poor clients by temporarily transferring money from the accounts of wealthy people.

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The 62-year-old woman, who played the role of a pencil-pushing Robin Hood from 2003 to 2005, faces up to four years in jail for misappropriating some €7.6 million to aid skint customers in danger of overdrawing their accounts.

Hoping only to give the bank’s poorer clients a bit of breathing room, the woman managed to return €6.5 million to the proper accounts, but some were so far overdrawn it was impossible to wire €1.1 million back.

Though she never skimmed anything off for herself, the woman was convicted of 117 cases of embezzlement and received 22 months on parole, her lawyer Thomas Ohm said on Monday evening.

According to Ohm, the former bank manger is now penniless herself after having her small pension partially seized to cover some of the bank’s damages.

“She has to live off the bare minimum,” Ohm said, adding that he and his client agreed the verdict was “completely correct” for the offence. “It’s appropriate for the circumstances. That’s why we’ve opted against legal recourse.”

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