A previously convicted 50 year old man was arrested again in the Algarve, but cut his electronic bracelet off and is now on the run.
The man, detained by the Judicial Police of the Algarve for an undetermined number of scams against the elderly, is reported as a fugitive. The suspect was under house arrest, controlled through electronic surveillance, but, according to Portuguese newspapers, he cut the bracelet and disappeared.
He had already served a prison sentence for having joined a gang of robbers that made several elderly people from the Algarve and Alentejo their victims.
The fraudster was arrested on April 30th, at his home in the Coruche area, near Lisbon. The evidence obtained by the PJ showed that the man and other accomplices, approached an undetermined number of elderly people for months, in various parts of the Algarve and Alentejo with the intention to scam them.
The scheme involved pretending to be a Social Security employee or bank employee and to tell victims that some banknotes would no longer be in circulation. He asked them, therefore, to hand over the money, saying he would return afterwards with new 'current' banknotes.
The pile of complaints received by police led to the opening of an investigation, which led to the arrest of the suspect.
One of the other members of the group, who was at large for 22 years, has now been caught and will soon be tried for three crimes of theft and one of aggravated theft.
