A German court on Friday found three elderly men, known as the ”grandpa gang”, guilty of bank robbery and sentenced them to between nine and 12 years in prison.
Over a 16-year period, the trio robbed 14 German banks, stealing more than â,¬1-million ($1,23-million, R8,2-million). Judge Horst-Werner Herkenberg said they ”used all means to achieve their goals”.
The state court in Hagen sentenced the oldest man, Rudolf Richter (74) to nine years, while 73-year-old Wilfried Ackermann received a 10-year sentence. Both men had confessed to taking part in the robberies when their trial opened last month.
The third defendant, 64-year-old Lothar Ackermann, who did not enter a plea, was sentenced to serve 12 years in prison for his part.
Wilfried Ackermann has testified that the two older men met while in prison on separate bank robbery charges, and after their release began meeting with their 64-year-old acquaintance to discuss robbery plans.
He said the group — armed with handguns and automatic weapons, and sometimes with fake hand grenades — would wait until shortly before closing time to enter the banks, because there were likely to be fewer customers.
Judge Herkenberg said the impact on those threatened was much more serious than the financial aspect of the trio’s crimes. Most of the money had been retrieved, while the victims — most of them young women — suffered for months from the psychological impact, he said.
Prosecutors had sought sentences of 14 years and more for the trio. – Sapa-AP