Agents of the National Police have arrested a man in the town of Elx as the alleged perpetrator of a scam through the fraudulent purchase of commercial bonds, offered by the Elche city council. The man, owner of a computer store, used customer data without his consent to obtain the bonuses and subsequently made fictitious purchases.
The investigation, carried out by the Crimes Against Property Group of the Judicial Police Brigade of the Elx Police Station, began after the complaint of the Coordinator of the Economic Area of ??the city council, who reported a series of irregularities in the trade bonus program promoted by the council and the Alicante Federation of Commerce for small and medium-sized businesses, as indicated by the National Police in a statement.
These campaigns have the objective of favoring small and medium-sized businesses and are developed so that citizens who purchase a voucher benefit from obtaining double the amount of money contributed when redeeming it at establishments participating in the promotion. The maximum amount to contribute in the bonuses is 200 euros and purchases of up to 400 euros could be made.
During the investigation, the agents verified that the suspect had made up to 59 bond requests, allegedly using the data of more than 20 people. However, in all of them he had only used two email addresses, two telephone numbers and two bank accounts, supposedly associated with the alleged perpetrator of the events.
Once the bonds were obtained, the suspect allegedly made purchases with these bonds in the computer store he owned, for a value of more than 9,000 euros. In this way, he allegedly obtained an economic benefit and illegally profited from the trade bonds.
The agents also verified that some of these purchases had been made outside the business’s opening hours, so they had to be made by him.
The total amount in bonuses requested by the detainee, for which he allegedly provided data about his clients without their consent, amounts to more than 4,500 euros, requested in three consecutive campaigns offered by the Elx City Council. The bonds were exchanged in various fictitious purchases with a value of more than 9,000 euros. The detainee, a 44-year-old man, was placed at the disposal of the Elx Court of Investigation.
