Stralsund (dpa / mv) – A trial against two men who are said to have posed as police officers in a series of fraud began at the Stralsund district court on Tuesday. As a spokeswoman for the district court said, the 43 and 33-year-old defendants confessed at the start of the process. The public prosecutor accuses them of commercial gang and computer fraud in 52 cases in several federal states.
The men with eleven accomplices are said to have stolen more than 100,000 euros within a short time at the end of 2021/beginning of 2022. The accomplices will be investigated separately.
The duo from Rostock was arrested in June 2022 after extensive investigations and has been in custody since then. Her accomplices had called senior citizens nationwide and explained that their names were on lists of “Eastern European gangs” planning burglaries. To be on the safe side, the seniors should wrap valuables and bank cards with a PIN number in aluminum foil and give them to the alleged police officers as messengers to keep them safe.
The messengers are said to have been the accused, who also used the bank cards to withdraw money. The victims lost between 3,300 and 28,000 euros. The trial is scheduled to continue on November 30th. A verdict is expected in early December.