Mannheim/Heidelberg (dpa/lsw) – Under the pretext of being an employee of a company, a man is said to have rented numerous hotels and not paid for them. Because of the suspicion of fraud in 15 cases, the suspect is now in custody, as the Mannheim police announced on Wednesday. After a hotel stay in Sinsheim (Rhein-Neckar district) in May of this year, the public prosecutor’s office in Heidelberg obtained an arrest warrant.

Last weekend, the man rented a hotel in Buxtehude (Lower Saxony). The hotelier became suspicious and called the police. After his arrest on Monday, the suspect was brought before the district court.

Since June 2021, the 33-year-old is said to have rented hotels throughout Germany for several weeks. To underpin the confidence in himself, he had founded a company under a false name. The police suspect that the suspect has committed similar acts in many more cases. Damage in the six-digit range is said to have occurred.