A 50-year-old man has been sentenced to three years and eight months in prison for stealing around 20 kilograms of gold filings from a wedding ring factory.
The criminal chamber of the Pforzheim branch of the Karlsruhe regional court saw it as proven on Friday that the accused repeatedly smuggled out of the company gold chips that accumulated in the jewelry production over a long period of time.
According to the indictment, the man took the shavings to a garden shed, where he melted down the gold and later sold it.
The public prosecutor's office gave the damage as EUR 960,000.
With the verdict, the court stayed a year and a month short of the criminal complaint of the public prosecutor's office.
The accused confessed to the 27 cases of commercial theft that have now been judged.
The defense had asked for a sentence of no more than three years in prison.
The verdict is not yet legally binding.