Brazen town hall affair

Employee pays himself €750,000 in “overtime”

19 hours of overtime per day? A German city employee is alleged to have swindled 750,000 euros.

(Bild: stock.adobe.com)

Scandal in a small German town: for at least five years, a German town hall employee allegedly paid himself four times his salary. For the alleged "overtime", he allegedly forked out a total of €750,000.

The town hall of Bad Sachsa in the federal state of Lower Saxony was searched at the beginning of January following allegations of embezzlement, and now new details are coming to light. According to research by RTL, an employee of the town is said to have paid himself four times his actual salary for five years.

A city employee from Bad Sachsa is alleged to have embezzled a total of 750,000 euros over several years.

(Bild: stock.adobe.com)

19 hours of overtime per day
According to the report, the man normally earned 50,000 euros a year for a 40-hour week. However, as he is said to have worked numerous "overtime hours" for himself, he took home four times as much. He should therefore have worked at least 27 hours per day (i.e. 19 hours of overtime per day).

This bungling has only now come to the attention of the audit office. In total, the city employee probably scammed himself out of 750,000 euros - paid from taxpayers' money.

Justice investigates
The Braunschweig public prosecutor's office has now taken up the fraud and is investigating for breach of trust. If the suspect is convicted, he could face up to four years in prison.