The Guardia Civil arrested a man and a woman and investigated another, accused of defrauding more than 80,000 euro from an elderly woman in Torrevieja.
The victim, aged 87, realised what had happened when she saw that she only had 63 cents in her bank account, and asked for help from the residence where she is staying due to her reduced mobility.
At the end of April this year, through the collaboration carried out by the Guardia Civil with the nursing homes through the Major Security Plan, one of the senior centres in Torrevieja requested the presence of investigators to assist one of the residents, elderly and with reduced mobility, due to suspicions of having been scammed and stating that all the money had been stolen from her bank. With this information, the agents of the Torrevieja Investigation Area began the operation “Emissary” to clarify the facts.
In the first phase, investigators collected the information provided by the victim to continue their analysis. Initially, the agents detected the existence of different bank cards with which, since December 2022, payments and withdrawals of more than 80,000 euro had been made.
Based on the information gathered, investigators identified several perpetrators. Among them was a worker at the senior centre, who made cash payments and withdrawals worth nearly 40,000 euro, and a niece of the victim and her partner, who made transactions worth 42,000 euro, including withdrawals from ATMs, transfers to other bank accounts and various payments at gambling establishments.
At one point during the investigation, the agents learned that one of the alleged perpetrators was about to leave the country, so they accelerated the procedures, carrying out the arrest of the centre’s worker, a 42-year-old woman, and a 52-year-old man, partner of the 78-year-old niece, who was also investigated.
During the investigation, the agents discovered that the victim’s niece and her partner had also rented the victim’s home without her consent, and during the investigation, the niece discovered that her partner had stolen 28,000 euro from her bank account.
Finally, the detainees and the suspect, who are charged with theft and fraud, were placed at the disposal of the Torrevieja Court who ordered their release with the imposition of precautionary measures and the temporary blocking of all financial assets of the accused until the judicial resolution.
