A man has entered prison after agents of the National Police of the Provincial Police Station of León arrested him as the alleged responsible for six crimes of fraud and theft against elderly people, whom he approached by posing as a light and gas inspector.
The investigation, carried out by the Group of Technological and Economic Crimes, allowed linking the different complaints filed during the past month of July and directing the focus towards a single suspect, an individual already known to the agents for having been investigated previously for acts of the same nature.
The inquiries conducted served to establish his alleged involvement in six criminal episodes, which is why he was arrested and placed at the disposal of the competent court, which ordered his provisional imprisonment.
The arrested man chose his victims in spaces where elderly people concentrate, mostly women. After observing and discreetly following them, he gathered personal or family data that he later used to inspire trust, as detailed by the Provincial Police Station in a statement.
When he accompanied them to the entrance of their homes, he entered the building with them pretending to be a worker from a supplying company or a municipal worker and claimed the urgency of carrying out a review of the electrical or gas installations.
To make the deception more credible, he mentioned family members, friends, or people known to the victim, thus managing to dispel their doubts and gain access to the interior of the home.
Once inside, he pretended to carry out checks in different rooms while taking the opportunity to appropriate cash, jewelry, and other valuable items. In numerous cases, he also managed to charge sums of money for a review that was actually not carried out.
Along with the economic harm, this type of incident causes a strong emotional impact on the victims, who experience an intense feeling of helplessness upon realizing that the perpetrator managed to enter their home by taking advantage of their trust. In many cases, the theft also affects jewelry and objects with great sentimental value.
During the proceedings, several of the affected individuals recognized the detainee through photographs as the author of the events. In other cases, the advanced age of the victims, the stress experienced during the deception, and the changes in the physical appearance of the suspect —such as growing a beard or wearing glasses to hinder his identification— complicated the identifications. Nevertheless, the set of evidence gathered allowed attributing to him the alleged authorship of the six investigated events.