A second-hand car salesman from Cartagena has been arrested for swindling clients out of more than 100,000 euros
The Guardia Civil of the Region of Murcia arrested one person and
investigated another for alleged scams committed in the purchase-sale of
second-hand vehicles in Cartagena. During operation ‘Carking’, seven
victims were found who were scammed out of more than 100,000 euros, although
the investigation remains open as more affected people are not ruled out.
The investigation began in mid-October 2023, when a resident of Cartagena
reported to the Guardia Civil that he had been the victim of an alleged scam.
Apparently, he bought a vehicle at a dealership in the port city, for which he
paid the amount agreed with the employee who served him, but, later, a
financial company demanded the payment of a loan supposedly requested by him,
for an amount identical to the price of the vehicle.
The Arroba team of the Guardia Civil, specialising in the investigation of
cybercrimes, found out that it was the employee who opened that line of credit
without his authorisation, revealing, in addition, that the customer had
already paid for the car by transfer to a bank account whose owner was the said
employee and not the company, as it would be correct.
Collaboration of the company In view of this first clue, the agents
contacted the dealership of second-hand vehicles in Cartagena, to which they
informed of these alleged irregularities. The company cooperated with the Guardia
Civil and provided the portfolio of customers of the worker in question, due to
the suspicions that there were other affected customers.
The inquiries allowed to discover that this same employee had made false
contracts and invoices to several buyers, residents of different towns in the
Region of Murcia, which started the ‘Carking’ operation that allowed to locate
seven affected.
These customers, despite having paid for the vehicle, still do not have it
in their possession, while the now arrested keeps them waiting with false
promises and bizarre excuses.
According to the investigation, the arrested made the victims believe that
it was necessary to carry out different operations to acquire the vehicles and
took advantage of this circumstance to contract financial loans in their name.
In addition, he collected cash or gave his account number for them to transfer
the money there and pretended that it was the company’s account. The Guardia
Civil detected that with this method he would have appropriated more than
100,000 euros.
Operation ‘Carking’ ended with the arrest of a young man, 36 years old,
Spanish nationality and resident of Cartagena; and with the investigation of another
individual, also related to the same company, as alleged perpetrators of the
crimes of fraud and identity theft.
The arrested and the investigated person, together with the proceedings,
were made available to the court of Instruction of Cartagena.
