German bank worker raided kids' piggy banks

A bank cashier has been caught stealing from children aged between one and nine. They handed her their piggy banks full of pocket money and she credited their savings accounts with less than was in them. The case has shattered the children's faith in banking.

A female German bank cashier has been convicted of stealing money from children's piggy banks and ordered to pay €1,800 to a charity.

The 45-year-old woman, who has since lost her job at a savings bank in the southern city of Augsburg, received a suspended six-month sentence. The public prosecutor's office had sought a tougher penalty for a crime it called "deeply immoral."

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"It's a disgrace and it stinks to high heaven when little children are robbed of the money they saved up," the prosecutor said.

The cashier was found guilty of stealing a total of €60 from children aged one to nine who had handed over their piggy banks to pay their pocket money into a savings account. But the prosecutor suspected that was just the "tip of the iceberg." He said the children's confidence in the bank had been massively damaged.

She was found out by a father who set a trap for her by getting a neighbor to hand over two piggy banks containing amounts of money he had counted. In each case she credited the children's accounts with €15 less than the contents.