Alex Trelinski
FIVE SPANIARDS have been arrested at a Benidorm campsite after scamming elderly people across Spain.
Three men and two women aged between 27 and 55 were part of a travelling gang that approached victims in the so-called ‘tocomocho’ scam involving a winning lottery ticket.
A Cadiz woman told the Policia Nacional that jewellery and €30,000 in cash were stolen when gang members approached her in the street and offered her a lift home.
One of the crew pretended to suffer from a mental disability and showed her a bag containing a large amount of money that was allegedly won on in a lottery.
They said that they had problems in cashing in the full value of the winning ticket but she could buy it off them for a large sum of money and valuable items.
Inside the home, the elderly victim handed over her cash and jewellery in exchange for a package containing the lucky lottery ticket and allegedly a sum of money- which was not the case.
Police inquiries tracked the gang down to a Benidorm campsite where they had checked in under bogus identity documents, with the car used to commit their crimes parked far away from the campsite to avoid being linked to them.
The detainees were staying in two caravans, where officers found a large amount of jewellery, watches, €1,790 in cash and documents and fake identification papers.
All five were taken before the Benidorm Probation Instructions Court.
The Olive Press reported last August about a man and woman being arrested at a Benidorm campsite under similar circumstances.
They were part of a travelling Madrid gang pulling off ‘tocomocho’ scams on elderly victims but it’s not been clarified whether the latest arrests involved the same criminals.
READ MORE:
- Scammers tricked elderly people with ‘winning’ lottery ticket offer on Spain’s Costa Blanca
- Police arrest culprits behind lottery scam of thousands of euros in Malaga
