The mechanic’s victims were all foreigners who lived locally and were the owners of high-end cars originally registered abroad.
Guardia Civil officers in Malaga province’s Guadalhorce valley have carried out an operation in which a person has been arrested in Coín as the alleged perpetrator of six offences of fraud, four of misappropriation and one of making threats. After gaining the trust of his victims, the arrested man would transfer vehicle ownership to his own name, subsequently selling the vehicles to third parties and keeping the proceeds from the sales.
The investigation began after several complaints were lodged with the Guardia Civil in Coín, which had one thing in common: that all the victims were foreign residents in the town, owners of high-end vehicles with foreign number plates and who had allegedly been swindled by an individual who ran a used car company and a car repair workshop, the police said in a statement.
It appears that this individual earned the trust of clients, all of whom were foreign residents in the Guadalhorce region, who left their vehicles at his workshop because they wanted to import their cars for registration in Spain. He requested all the vehicle documentation from them, stating that it was essential to carry out the procedure.
After some time, when customers asked about the vehicle, this individual told the victims that they had a serious and costly engine breakdown, asking them for a large amount of money to repair it. Once the money for the repair had been collected, in addition to the money already requested for importing the vehicle, this individual carried out the procedure for changing the ownership and the Spanish registration of the vehicle with the DGT, transferring it to his name and then selling it to a third party.
Similarly, when customers demanded the return of their vehicle and the money paid for it, the arrested individual invented all sorts of excuses to evade his responsibility, even seriously threatening one of them.
Investigators were able to locate four victims who had allegedly been swindled by the man using the same modus operandi, who would have made money from the sale of their vehicles and the money requested for repairs, valued at more than 200,000 euros.
As a result, the Guardia Civil arrested the individual and place him at the disposal of the court in Coín. The officers managed to recover and hand over to their legitimate owners all the vehicles that had been the object of the crime.
Source: https://www.surinenglish.com/