Southern suburbs: gang posed as accountants

Two men, aged 41 and 44, were arrested by officers of the Crime Prevention and Suppression Unit, the first in Acharnes and the second in Ano Liosia. A case file was opened against them for a criminal organisation formed to commit fraud, both completed and attempted, on a professional and repeated basis. According to the police investigation, the group’s activity is located mainly in the southern suburbs, in Nea Smyrni and Palaio Faliro, and is alleged to have begun in late March. Both defendants are presumed innocent until proven otherwise by the courts. The Crime Prevention and Suppression Unit is the service that carries out targeted prevention operations on the streets of Attica.

The pattern described in the case file is simple, which is why it worked. The 41-year-old, who is alleged to have played a leading role, is said to have approached elderly people walking in their neighbourhood and introduced himself as an accountant. He would then tell them they were entitled to a tax refund or a backdated pension payment and, using this pretext, would obtain money, jewellery or other valuables. The 44-year-old is alleged to have lent his car for the group’s movements, so that the pair could move quickly between neighbourhoods and leave immediately after contact with the victim. The choice of victims was not random: they were elderly people walking alone in their neighbourhood, away from relatives or acquaintances who could intervene.

For residents of the southern suburbs the case also has a practical dimension. No public service, neither the tax administration nor the social insurance body, approaches citizens in the street to announce a tax refund or backdated payment. The relevant procedures are carried out electronically or at local offices, never with cash handed over on the spot to a stranger. The same advice had been given in a previous case, when details of three people arrested for fraud against elderly victims in Attica were made public.

So far five cases of fraud have been solved and the investigation continues, as further incidents that were not reported cannot be ruled out. Three mobile phones and the car the pair are alleged to have used were found in their possession and confiscated. The two sources used agree on the ages, the location of the arrests and the number of cases solved. The total amount alleged to have been obtained has not been announced, nor whether the defendants have already been brought before a prosecutor. More local news for the area can be found on the Nea Smyrni page and the Palaio Faliro page. Fraud against elderly people is a recurring phenomenon in Attica, with a different pretext each time, from the accountant and the technician to the relative supposedly in urgent need of money.