Alex Trelinski
A SECOND-HAND car salesman from Cartagena has been arrested for scamming seven victims out of €100,000.
The 36-year-old Spaniard worked at an undisclosed dealership and the Guardia Civil are continuing their probe to see if other people were conned.
A colleague is also being investigated.
Guardia inquiries started in mid-October after a Cartagena resident reported that he had been scammed.
He bought a car from the dealership and paid the full amount, but was later contacted by a finance company demanding the repayment of a loan which he did not take out and was the same amount as the vehicle price.
Guardia technical specialists found the salesman opened a line of credit without the customer’s authorisation and that the client had transferred money for the car into the salesman’s personal account and not one associated with the dealership.
The business owner co-operated with the Guardia Civil and provided a list of the salesman’s customers amidst suspicions that other people had been duped.
He indeed had drawn up bogus contracts and invoices for several buyers across the Murcia region, who were located.
Those clients paid for cars which they never received, with the salesman fobbing them off with bogus promises and a range of excuses.
He said that all kinds of different procedures had to be gone through for them to get their vehicle as he took out loans in their names and got them to make transfers to his own account which he claimed belonged to his employers.
The Guardia Civil believe that he pocketed at least €100,000 from the transfer con.
READ MORE:
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- Millions of drivers entitled to claim €2,000 upwards in compensation after being overcharged at car dealerships across Spain
- Man arrested in police swoop on luxury car dealership on Spain’s Costa del Sol
