Dutch men sentenced to up to 14 years in prison for ATM robberies in Germany

Six men from the Netherlands and Morocco have been sentenced to prison by a court in Frankfurt, Germany, for their involvement in explosive ATM robberies. The men, aged between 26 and 32, received prison terms ranging from five to nearly 14 years.

The gang members stood trial for seven explosive ATM robberies in 2022 and 2023 in western Germany. They stole more than 870,000 euros, while the damage they caused amounted to over 2.5 million euros, almost three times the value of the stolen money.

The trial lasted nearly seven months, German media such as Hessenschau reported. The court said that blowing up ATMs has been punished too leniently for far too long. "They are not petty thieves, as Dutch police have downplayed it, but criminals," the court stated.

The prosecutor sought to convict three men of attempted murder due to the severity of the explosions, but the court did not agree. The Frankfurter Runschau reported that the sentence is "the most severe sentences ever handed down to ATM bombers in Germany."

Criminals looking to blow up ATM's have set their attention to ATM's in Germany. ATM's in the Netherlands are often closed off at night due to the high number of ATM explosions during the last decade.