A 26 year-old Portuguese man, who has not been named, was arrested last week after a 5-star hotel in the tourist centre of the Catalan capital reported that he left without paying a bill of around €1,000. It emerged that he had, in fact, stayed at a total of 14 hotels in Barcelona, running up bills totalling €7,525.44.
He was discovered staying in another up-market hotel nearby and was arrested for fraud by officers from Los Mossos d’Esquadra, the Catalan police.
He always followed the same modus operandi, checking into several hotels simultaneously, using maxed-out credit cards, according to a statement from the Mossos d'esquadra. He then enjoyed the facilities, including gyms and restaurants, and charged the extras to the room before slipping away without paying.
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More relevant here is why these hotels have not set up, as shopping centers in the UK did years ago, a 'round robin telemessaging' that warns of thieves in shop x heading for shop y. Impossible presumably in Iberia though for any business or individual to be warning another as to describe the thieves is to defame them ! And the police, if involved, would find it far easier to go after the innocent party as arguidos.
Hence the impossibility here of us expats warning other expats of rogue lawyers, accountants, police, architects, builders, municipal officers and their cousins. Apparently they all have honour ... and guess what, guys - we don't.