An employee at Berlin’s Tempelhof-Schöneberg district office has been charged with embezzling 175.000 euros of disability support money for benefit recipients. 

State employee charged with stealing thousands in disability benefits

The 45-year-old (now former) employee of the local authorities in Berlin has been charged with stealing 175.000 euros worth of social security benefits from disabled people over the course of two and a half years. The man, who is only known as Sven Q., went to court in Berlin on Monday to plead his case.

The state employee (Beamter), who was responsible for calculating and ordering benefit payments, was accused of changing the bank account numbers on disability benefit recipient forms to that of his own bank account. He would then allegedly order retroactive payments for non-existent reasons. In his job he had the power to authorise payments up to 5.000 euros. German newspaper Tagesspiegel reported that Sven Q. used the money, around 6.000 euros per month, for travelling and buying luxury goods.

Berlin judge charges Beamter with embezzlement 

The judge at the Berlin Tiergarten court said on Monday that an example had to be made of Sven Q. The Beamter was given a two and a half year prison sentence and ordered to pay back the money that he had stolen. Q. was charged with 103 counts of embezzlement. 

In Germany, Beamte hold a special status which gives them very good job security. Only Beamte who commit serious crimes can lose their job. Beamte are also given a special kind of health insurance known as Beihilfe, 50 percent of which is covered by the state. 

Attempting to explain his crimes Sven Q. said, “I deeply regret what I did and to this day I cannot explain why I did it. I fell into a black hole, where I was just functioning,” Tagesspiegel reported.