Alleged parking meter thief deposited $300k in coins into bank, police say
A PARKING meter technician who allegedly stole more than $300,000 from meters in Melbourne’s city area deposited every cent in a personal bank account in coins, police say.
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A PARKING meter technician who allegedly stole more than $300,000 from city meters deposited every cent in a bank account in coins, police say.
Slavko Kalic allegedly made more than 200 trips to the bank, depositing thousands of coins at a time, before his amateur scam was uncovered.
Police allege that, during a six-year operation between 2011 and 2017, Mr Kalic and three co-accused emptied city parking meters, then went to a bank to deposit the loot.
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On some days, Mr Kalic made multiple trips to the bank, depositing up to $3000 at a time, it is alleged.
How much was stolen remains unclear, with sources saying the $339,078 allegedly stolen by Mr Kalic could be just the tip of the iceberg.
It is understood there was no way of auditing the parking meters targeted, making it impossible to calculate the exact amount of money stolen.
Instead, police have charged the 49-year-old over deposits linked to a personal bank account.
Meters near The Royal Children’s Hospital and the Shrine of Remembrance were among those to have been emptied of gold coins.
Steep fees paid by shoppers parking on landmark thoroughfares, such as Bourke St in the CBD and Lygon St, Carlton, were also stolen.
Mr Kalic appeared at Melbourne Magistrates’ Court this week, where his lawyer, George Balot, successfully applied to have the matter adjourned until September.
It is understood Mr Kalic, who made partial admissions to police following his arrest, will seek to prove some of the coin deposits were legitimate.
He was carrying out maintenance and repair works on meters for the City of Melbourne council-run company Citywide when he was arrested in November last year.
He carried a key to access parking meters but was not authorised to access the coin cashboxes, which can hold more than $1000 in gold coins.
Citywide began an internal investigation after some parking meters were found to have much less cash than expected.
Surveillance was carried out between September and November which allegedly captured Mr Kalic removing cashboxes from meters and emptying them into a work van.
He was also allegedly captured depositing money at an ATM.
Police allege Mr Kalic opened a bank account in 2011 and marked the first transfer as “coin collection”.
He was employed as a meter technician with Citywide from 1998 until his arrest.