Six men from the Netherlands and Morocco have been sentenced to prison terms of between five and nearly 14 years for blowing up a number of cash point machines in western Germany.

A court in Frankfurt convicted the group of seven ATM attacks carried out in 2022 and 2023. The men, aged between 26 and 32, stole more than €870,000 in total while the damage they caused amounted to over €2.5 million.

One member received a sentence of 13 years and 9 months — one of the heaviest penalties ever imposed for this type of crime in Germany, the Frankfurter Rundschau reported.

The court said cash machine explosions had been treated too leniently in the past. “These are not petty thieves, as Dutch police once downplayed it — these are criminals,” the judges said.

Prosecutors had pushed to convict three of the men for attempted murder, arguing the blasts were so violent that they endangered lives. It was the first time such a charge had been brought in an ATM attack case, but it was rejected by the court.

Dutch gangs are frequently involved in cross-border ATM attacks.  The number of cash machines in the Netherlands has fallen in recent years, and those that remain are often shut at night or located inside shops.

Dutch police have also introduced tougher security, including ink and glue systems that destroy or damage banknotes after an explosion.

German cashpoints also tend to contain more cash because fewer shops and retailers accept payment by card. However, the trend in Germany may be slowing. The paper said there have only been five ATM explosions in Hesse so far in 2025, compared with 61 in 2023.