One of those arrested is from the province of Badajoz and the rest, from Madrid
Seven people have been arrested (6 in Madrid and 1 in Badajoz) accused of crimes of fraud, theft, usurpation of civil status and belonging to a criminal group, who pretended to be workers of the electricity company to enter the homes of elderly people and steal valuables. The operation has clarified 11 robberies in the province of Cáceres and 4 in Asturias.
The investigations began in April of last year, as a result of a complaint filed with the Civil Guard of Garrovillas de Alconétar, for an alleged crime of theft of jewelry from a resident of this town. The Organic Unit of the Judicial Police (UOPJ) of the Cáceres Command, specifically, agents of the Heritage Team, took charge of the investigation.
After interviewing the victim, they found out that moments before the theft he had received a phone call. In said call, a person said that he belonged to the electricity company and that some workers would stop by his home to check the status of the meter since, according to him, he was billing more than usual.
That same day, two young men showed up to check the meter. Thus they managed to gain access to the house where, with the excuse of checking the plugs, while one remained with the victim, the other entered the bedroom and stole objects such as watches, rings, bracelets and chains.
The following month another similar event occurred in another town, in Jaraíz de la Vera. The victim realized that a credit card, the bank card and two mobile phones had been stolen. The amount stolen amounted to more than 20,000 euros since, to the extraction of money at a local ATM, the various transfers made to bank accounts of people whose identity had been usurped by criminals were added.
During the course of these investigations, other criminal acts took place with characteristics very similar to those that had been investigated, all of them in different localities of the province of Cáceres.
Lines of investigation
Two lines of research were established. The first was made up of criminal acts committed in the Cáceres towns of Montánchez, Salvatierra de Santiago, Aliseda, Almoharín, Monroy, Valdefuentes, Bohonal de Ibor and Ceclavín. Later, the authorship was attributed to a resident of the province of Badajoz who acted alone. The man would have traveled to these towns where, after previously calling the victims, he chose elderly people who were alone at home, telling them that he was calling from an electricity company and that he was, with the knowledge of the town hall , making visits to homes to check the meters or electrical installations, appearing moments later at them.
Through deceit, he told the victim that the meter had to be changed so that his consumption was lower and he would pay less on the bill, asking in advance for an amount of money that ranged from 100 euros on some occasions, to 370 euros on others, giving the victims the cash in exchange for the promise to come back and change the meter.
The second line of investigation focused on criminal acts committed in the Cáceres towns of Garrovillas de Alconétar, Jerte, Jaraíz de la Vera and Alagón del Río.
The investigation of these facts has been more complex due to the fact that several people acted, although the modus operandi used had been the same as in the previous assumptions. Once they entered the home, one of them accompanied the victim while the other roamed freely through the different rooms of the houses and seized jewelry, money, cards and bank books. They even got the pin number of the card telling them that they had to pay them an excess charged. Later, they went to the nearest ATM and took out as much money as they could.
Once the investigation was completed and under the direction of the Court of First Instance and Instruction No. 1 of Plasencia, seven people were arrested, six of them in the province of Madird and one in Badajoz, accused of crimes of fraud, theft, usurpation of marital status and belonging to a criminal group. In total, 15 crimes have been clarified, 11 of them committed in the province of Cáceres and 4 in Asturias.
In addition, the rapid intervention of the investigating agents has allowed one of the bank accounts of the detainees to be blocked in time, with nearly 10,000 euros supposedly coming from the fraudulent transfers made from the accounts of the victims.
However, the Civil Guard continues with the analysis of all the information obtained and does not rule out more arrests.
Major Security Plan
These actions are part of the Major Security Plan, aimed at preventing and improving the safety of our elderly, to give them special protection against various types of crime, among which vulnerability to these deceptions, scams and thefts stand out. For this reason, and to prevent them from becoming victims of these, the Civil Guard gives informative talks in day centers, residences and other places authorized by the administration or collaborating entities, to prevent them and advise them in the event that, finally, they become see in such a situation.
In the event of a call or visit to the home of a technician or commercial, the preventive measures to be adopted would be to properly identify these supposed commercial or technical personnel, close the door if we were to look for some type of documentation, consult the company itself by calling its number customer service and, in the last case, call 062 so that the identity of these people can be verified.
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Eddie is an Australian news reporter with over 9 years in the industry and has published on Forbes and tech crunch.