BERLIN (AP) - A German court has convicted and sentenced members of a group dubbed the “Gang of Retirees” to jail for kidnapping their financial adviser and forcing him to transfer money into their bank accounts.

Two men and two women, aged between 61 and 80, admitted to kidnapping the man in the southern German city of Speyer last June and holding him in a house.

The victim succeeded in sending an encoded message on a bank transfer slips and was freed by police after four days.

The regional court in Traunstein on Tuesday sentenced the two men to prison for four and six years, and gave the two women suspended sentences of 21 and 18 months.

Judge Karl Niedermeier said the group had taken justice into their own hands “spectacularly.” Their names were not released.
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