07.05.2007

Crane man arrested

The newspapers in the Voralberg region of Austria have been running a story on an embezzlement case involving up to three UK based employees of Liebherr container cranes.

The public prosecutors office in Feldkirch has registered a case against at least one individual, an Austrian employee who was based in Sunderland as “director /field sales manager of Offshore cranes”, the man was arrested last Thursday and could face up to 10 years in prison.

The Feldkirch case states a sum of €86,000 although Nenzing managing director Wolfgang Remlinger is quoted as believing that the total sum involved is considerably higher than this, running well into three figures.

The embezzlement concerns irregularities with customer credit notes , the reports say, that so far the accused person has admitted that company moneys have been transferred to his private account, although they were transferred by a third party.

Two other UK nationals employed by Liebherr Sunderland, “a financial leader and accountant who have been named, are also said to have been under investigation by the police in Sunderland concerning the six monthly audits.

Warning/comment

Naturally all parties in this case are presumed innocent until found guilty, those who know the arrested man well say that it is almost impossible to imagine that he would have embezzled from the company and that some form of misunderstanding coupled with naivety on the part of the accused to funds going into his private account might be to blame?

At present there is no case to answer against the other two individuals, who might well have been dragged into the affair for having not raised the flag earlier?