Elderly man cheated with the fake accident trick, the criminal captured after a chase

A chase between Marche and Romagna ended with the arrest of a fraudster who, using the fake accident technique, had deceived an 85-year-old from Pesaro by having him hand over cash and gold jewellery. It all started in the most classic of ways: the victim was reached on the phone by a stranger who, posing as a member of the police force, explained to the elderly man that a relative had caused a serious accident and had ended up in trouble. To avoid prison, a certain sum was needed and, frightened, the 85-year-old had no choice but to follow the scammer’s instructions. Shortly afterwards, a young man showed up at the victim’s door, later identified as a 22-year-old Neapolitan, who asked the victim to give him 250 euros in cash and several precious objects and then left in a hurry.

The “courier”, however, was kept under observation by the Flying Squad of the Pesaro Police Headquarters with the investigators who alerted their colleagues as soon as they realized that it was headed for Rimini. To get to Romagna the criminal had used a taxi which was intercepted in Via Flaminia by a Riccione traffic patrol. The officers blocked the vehicle and stopped the 22-year-old who, taken to the offices in Piazzale Bornaccini, was found in possession of the stolen goods and arrested for aggravated fraud.

The fraudster, who was found to be a resident of the “Vele” of Scampia, was tried immediately on Wednesday morning. He was defended by the lawyer Igor Bassi and explained to the judge that he had been approached in Naples by two strangers who offered him 20 thousand euros for a “service”. In practice, the 22-year-old had to go to Pesaro by train and show up at an elderly man’s door to collect an envelope. Once picked up, the same strangers contacted him by phone, explaining to him to go to Rimini by taxi where, presumably, he would have to deliver the package to a third person. An unlikely story which, also in light of the fact that the 22-year-old is an old acquaintance of the police, pushed the judge to validate the arrest by ordering him to go to prison. The boy’s lawyer therefore raised an objection of territorial incompetence and the file was transferred to the Pesaro Prosecutor’s Office.