Italian police on Thursday arrested Oreste Giurlani, centre-left mayor of the Tuscan town of Pescia near Pistoia, on suspicion of embezzling some 570,000 euros of regional funds.
Tax police deployed in the operation also carried out raids on several homes and public offices in the provinces of Pistoia and Florence and seized large quantities of paper and digital documents
Giurlani is under house arrest and will be questioned by prosecutors on Friday. He is accused of having embezzled the cash between 2012 and 2016 from the Tuscan branch of Italy's mountain community association, Uncem, which he chaired from 2005 to 2016.
Giurlani allegedly transferred 233,000 euros from Uncem's bank account to his own for the purchase of cellular phones, iPads and other computers and petrol.
He is accused of transferring a further 143,000 euros to his personal bank account for consultancies and an unauthorised 200,000 euro severance payment.
The embezzlement probe is believed to have begun after a regional counsellor from the rightwing Brothers of Italy party tipped off Italy's Court of Accounts over suspected financial irregularity at Uncem.
Giurlani was elected mayor of Pescia in May 2014 with 62.6 percent of votes cast.
