Bank employee receives 10-month prison sentence, $3,120 fine for $34 embezzlement

A bank employee, who tried to embezzle TL 100 ($34) by collecting leftover or stuck coins from his bank's ATM machines, was sentenced with a 10-month prison term and fine exceeding the amount he tried to pocket by more than 80 times.

According to the report of Turkish daily Habertürk, M.Y., who was working as the bank teller responsible for a private bank's cash transactions branch in Istanbul's Mahmutbey district, started collecting coins stuck in ATM machines without reporting it. When the amount of coins reached TL 100, he exchanged the amount with a banknote from the vault.

However, M.Y. actions did not go unnoticed and the bank pressed charges against the employee, despite M.Y. returning the money back to the bank.

The prosecutors' office demanded a prison term between six and up to 12 years for M.Y.

The court sentenced M.Y. with the minimum sentence of six years and ruled that the incident could be revealed by the bank through a simple inspection while M.Y. did not use fraudulent methods against the bank.

M.Y.'s sentence was deducted to 10 months and the announcement of the verdict was deferred by the court as the embezzled amount was paid back, good behavior during the court and the low amount of money that was stolen.

Meanwhile, the court ruled that court and attorney costs totaling TL 8,850 ($3,120) to be paid by M.Y.