Most of the money still gone but robbers go to jail (Update)

07/02/2010

A German criminal court sent four men aged under 21 to jail Thursday for perpetrating a daylight raid on a million-euro poker tournament in Berlin earlier this year (see previous InfoPowa reports).

Sky News reports that, armed with Kalashnikov assault rifles, grenades and machetes the gang burst into the city's Grand Hyatt Hotel in March and escaped with around Euro 242,000.

Just weeks after the robbery, all four suspects were arrested, and have now been convicted of robbery and bodily harm.

Recapping the story, the television news channel noted that seven people were hurt in the heist and the robbers lost a large part of their intended takings in a scuffle during their chaotic escape attempts.

The 21-year-old ringleader was sentenced to three years and nine months in prison, whilst his accomplices, aged 19 to 20, were each sentenced to three-and-a-half-year terms in juvenile detention.

All four were treated with leniency after they confessed to the crime, but only GBP3,500 has so far been recovered, with the gang refusing to say where the rest of the money is.