Bank manager jailed three years for robbing own bank

A German court on Wednesday sentenced a bank manager who masterminded an armed robbery in his own branch in Hanover and stole 367,500 Euros ($411,700) to three years and five months in prison.

The 32-year-old was found guilty of planning the robbery with an accomplice, who entered to bank in June 2016 with a gas pistol and a fake hand grenade.

He, however, forced another employee to open a safe containing the cash.

The accomplice, also aged 32, was sentenced to three years and 10 months imprisonment.

Prosecutors had pushed for longer prison sentences, but the court argued that the fact that the men did not have criminal records and their admission to carrying out the crime counted in their favour.

Though investigators found evidence that the bank manager acquired two sports cars worth 70,000 Euros in the wake of the incident, most of the 367,500 Euros stolen in the robbery have not been recovered.

(dpa/NAN)