The personnel of the State Police of Perugia have executed an order for the application of the precautionary measure of house arrest issued by the Judge of Preliminary Investigations of Perugia against a woman – Italian citizen, born in 1982, burdened by police records – under investigation for the crime of aggravated fraud in competition. The investigative context, in which the precautionary measure was requested and issued, concerns two episodes of fraud both perpetrated on 26 February to the detriment of two elderly people, aged 94 and 84 respectively, residents in the Municipality of Perugia and Corciano; through a technique now “usual“the perpetrators of the scam, after having identified the victims, generally elderly people, contact them by telephone and pretend to be relatives or members of the police force, representing the fact that a relative is in difficulty and is in immediate need of money and then, once steal the victim’s trust and once they have agreed to the loan, they show up at the house to collect the money and the precious items that the elderly person has made available for their relative. On the morning of February 26, a series of phone calls arrived at the public utility number in which several people reported having been contacted by a male interlocutor who stated that one of their relatives was in difficulty asking for money and valuables to be collected from the house. . In the early afternoon, a further phone call reached the operations center reporting an attempted scam in the Corciano area; the Police activated a series of searches in the areas indicated by the whistleblowers, as a result of which a car – rented in Naples – with a woman on board was identified. Stopped for a driving test, a 41-year-old woman originally from Campania with a criminal record for the crime of robbery was identified and immediately appeared in a clear state of agitation. The results of the search were positive; inside the bag banknotes of various denominations were found for a total of €2,700.00 while in the trunk of the car an envelope containing various jewels and precious objects was found, cleverly hidden. For these reasons, the 41-year-old – having no elements to justify the provenance of what was found – was referred to the Judicial Authority for the crime of aggravated fraud in competition. The investigations conducted in the immediately subsequent moments – also supported by the complaints presented by the elderly gentleman on days 27 and 28 respectively – allowed the acquisition of a series of elements within which the modus operandi of the suspect and the accomplice who remained unknown:
- in the first episode, a man contacted the victim and introduced himself as her brother-in-law, telling her that he urgently needed a loan of €5,000.00, adding that he needed to put aside money and valuables, then announcing that a woman would come by to collect it. . Which happened shortly thereafter;
- in the second episode a man contacted the victim and introduced himself as a nephew, representing, in this case too, the need to find cash and gold, which he would then return shortly thereafter; in this case the man highlighted to the interlocutor that a delegated “postman” would soon be passing by her house for collection. Also in this case what was requested was collected shortly thereafter by a woman.
After having summoned the complainants to the office, the Police showed them the objects found on board the car driven by the 41-year-old as well as proceeded with photographic verification; both recognized the jewelery found as their own and indicated the woman as the one who had collected it from her home. Further elements of responsibility on the part of the woman emerged from the mobile phone she was using, from the surveillance cameras along the road route, as well as from the GPS tracks which placed the car at the homes of the two victims at the same time as the samples were taken. . Having reconstructed the entire affair, also on the basis of the investigative elements provided by the Flying Squad, having assessed the police records of the suspect and also the concrete danger of repeating the crime, this Office requested the application of a precautionary measure. The GIP of the Court of Perugia believes that “” the limitation of freedom of action and movement is currently necessary and unavoidable, in order to prevent the accused from repeating the conduct for which the case is being prosecuted, as non-custodial measures are not considered sufficient, which on the contrary would leave her free to move around and perpetrate further crimes “” applied the precautionary measure of house arrest to the woman to be served at the residence. The Flying Squad personnel carried out the precautionary measure by notifying it to the suspect at her home.
