Foreign Staff & , : {} Four elderly Germans were handed jail sentences yesterday for kidnapping their financial adviser and holding him prisoner in a basement in an attempt to recover about €2.5 million (2.2 million) in lost savings.
The two men and two women, aged between 61 and 80, seized the banker outside his apartment in the western town of Speyer, bound and gagged him and drove 300 miles (480km) across Germany with him in the boot of the car.
The group held the 57-year-old man in a basement for days, trying to force him to transfer large sums of money to them. In one remittance order the banker included the message Sell 100 Call Pol.ICE today please!
A bank employee notified the police and the banker was released by a team of commandos.
My client regrets it greatly, especially that he pulled his wife and the others into the situation, Udo Krause, the defence lawyer said of the 74-year-old ringleader, identified as Roland K.
The two men were given six and four years in jail and the two women were given suspended sentences.
