The police of the “Borgo Ognina” police station in Catania have investigated a 32-year-old for the crime of aggravated fraud held responsible for carrying out a series of scams against a 78 year old elderly lady.
In fact, the man, taking advantage of the woman’s age, quickly stole the sum of 6,000 euros from her, using tricks and deceptions, draining all the savings she had accumulated with sacrifice.
The investigation was started by the victim’s complaint to the policemen of the “Borgo Ognina” police station, to whom he told them that he had had a crime a few days ago road accident (in via Wrzì, Picanello) with another car. Your vehicle had suffered a small dent on the bodywork.
The driver of the other vehiclewho from the investigations carried out by the police was found not to have a regular driving licence, he had offered to have her car repaired by a body shop he trusted and at a good price. The woman accepted the offer, giving the man the car and the agreed sum of 300 euros to repair the damage.
However, the following day, the scammer asked for and obtained more money from the woman, claiming that his body shop “friend” had informed him that the damage was more serious than expected. In this regard, the man contacted the woman from a telephone number he uses, pretending to be the owner of the body shop and explaining that he had detected the presence of damage to the engine. To better convince the woman, the scammer called her, this time pretending to be her mechanic, explaining the damage to the engine.
Through these conducts, he managed to get another 2000 euros delivered for the repair of the car. Not satisfied with what he had obtained, he also offered the elderly woman the possibility of obtaining a reimbursement from the Revenue Agency for the expenses incurred for the repair of the car. To this end, he had another 700 euros delivered for the processing of the case and even the ATM to withdraw the necessary sums. Soon after, the elderly lady noticed that there were several money withdrawals made with her ATM card and that her entire current account had been drained.
At that point he told the story to his son who, understanding that the elderly mother had been the victim of a scam, he got in touch with the criminal for at least having returned the car, which obviously had never been to the body shop or the mechanic, but simply parked on the street. The scammer, in response, he asked for another 200 euros to be paid to return the car.
Once they had reconstructed what had happened, the policemen from the “Borgo Ognina” police station went to the appointment for the delivery of the additional 200 euros and once they had identified the man, they blocked him and accompanied him to the police offices, reporting him for the crime of aggravated fraudthus putting an end to his criminal conduct.
