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CRIME

Council employee fired for swindling millions

Nearly five million kroner of Gentofte Council's money has been misused since 2009 and council employees weren't aware of anything until a curious resident came to their aid.

Published: 6 August 2014 17:44 CEST
Council employee fired for swindling millions
Gentofte Town Hall. Photo: Gentofte Kommune
A former employee of Gentofte Council is suspected of using nearly five million kroner in public funds for her own use. 
 
According to TV2 News, the woman is suspected of swindling 4.7 million kroner ($842,000) from 2009 until July 2014. The alleged misconduct was discovered when a resident conducted business with the woman and noticed that the woman’s payment came from a bank account owned by Gentofte Council, a suburban municipality north of Copenhagen.  
 
When it was brought to the council’s attention, officials subsequently discovered suspicious withdrawals and transfers dating back to 2009. 
 
Gentofte Council’s administrative director Frank Andersen confirmed to TV2 News that the woman was fired after the misuse was reported on July 28th.  
 
“A police report has been filed,” he said. “That we didn’t find it earlier is solely because supervision [of the account] was not maintained.”
 
Andersen said that an employee in charge of the council’s bank account has been temporarily suspended from work. According to TV2, there is no indication that the supervisor was involved in the misuse of funds. 

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CRIME

Danish government backs removing children from gang-connected families

Denmark’s government wants authorities to be able to move children out of families in which parents are gang members and is likely to formalise the measure in parliament.

Published: 9 April 2024 13:38 CEST
Danish government backs removing children from gang-connected families

The justice spokesperson with senior coalition partner the Social Democrats, Bjørn Brandenborg, told regional media TV2 Fyn that he wants authorities to have the power to remove children from their families in certain circumstances where the parents are gang members.

Brandenborg’s comments came on Monday, after Odense Municipality said it had spent 226 million kroner since 2009 on social services for eight specific families with gang connections.

“There is simply a need for us to give the authorities full backing and power to forcibly remove children early so we break the food chain and the children don’t become part of gang circles,” he said.

The measure will be voted on in parliament “within a few weeks”, he said.

An earlier agreement on anti-gang crime measures, which was announced by the government last November, includes provisions for measures of this nature, Brandenborg later confirmed to newswire Ritzau.

“Information [confirming] that close family members of a child or young person have been convicted for gang crime must be included as a significant and element in the municipality’s assessment” of whether an intervention is justified, the agreement states according to Ritzau.

The relevant part of November’s political agreement is expected to be voted on in parliament this month.

READ ALSO: Denmark cracks down on gang crime with extensive new agreement

Last year, Justice Minister Peter Hummelgaard told political media Altinget that family relations to a gang member could be a parameter used by authorities when assessing whether a child should be forcibly removed from parents.

In the May 2023 interview, Hummelgaard called the measure a “hard and far-reaching measure”.

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