Victims of Notorious German Bank Heist Initiate Legal Action

Legal Actions Following the Bank Heist

By Tom Sims

Details of the Heist

FRANKFURT, Jan 28 (Reuters) - The first lawsuits were filed on Wednesday by victims of a German bank heist in December, when burglars used the quiet Christmas period to drill their way into its vault and make off with millions, a lawyer said.

Victims and Their Claims

The lawyer, Daniel Kuhlmann, said three cases were lodged with a court in Essen, Germany, holding the bank liable for damages for what he called lax security.

Bank's Response and Insurance Policies

Masked thieves last month accessed a branch of a savings bank in the western city of Gelsenkirchen through a parking garage, allowing them to bore into a vault with thousands of safety deposit boxes, police have said.

Regulatory Insights from BaFin

The episode shocked Germany and made headlines internationally. 

The court in Essen said it was unable to comment at this point.

The bank, Sparkasse Gelsenkirchen, did not immediately respond to a request for comment, but has said it was itself a victim of the crime and that its premises were "secured in accordance with recognised state-of-the-art technology".

One of the lawsuits filed on Wednesday related to a retired person who had almost 400,000 euros ($480,000) in cash in the vault from the sale of an apartment, Kuhlmann said.

Another victim, the CEO of a medium-sized company, had stored cash, jewellery and a Rolex watch worth around 120,000 euros in total, while a third had around 50,000 euros worth of gold in the vault, the lawyer said.

The bank has said the contents of security boxes are generally insured for 10,300 euros each.

Mark Branson, president of Germany's BaFin banking regulator, said on Wednesday the theft was "spectacular" and "attracted a lot of attention, including the question of what is insured and what customers need to know about insurance coverage".

($1 = 0.8348 euros)

(Reporting by Tom Sims. Editing by Thomas Seythal and Mark Potter)