Fraudster caught on film gives up: 'I felt watched'

A Swedish man suspected of using a fake driver's licence to defraud a bank of 1.8 million kronor ($273,000) has turned himself in after seeing his picture in the newspaper.

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The man, who is around 50 years old, was captured on surveillance footage taken at a bank branch in Strängnäs in central Sweden around lunchtime on September 12th, the Aftonbladet newspaper reported.

During his visit, the man asked to have several invoices paid using a fake driver's licence depicting a Stockholm-based account holder.

All told, he managed to have the bank process fraudulent transactions worth 1.8 million kronor.

When the actual owner of the account discovered the next day that his account had been emptied, the money had already been moved to another account.

Earlier this week, however, images of the man were published in the Swedish media and broadcast on TV3's "Efterlyst" ('Wanted') television programme.

After seeing his likeness on TV and in the paper, the daring fraudster realized the gig was up and turned himself in to local police on Thursday.

"He came in because he saw his picture in Aftonbladet and later on 'Efterlyst'," local police officer Willy Bäckström told the paper.

"He thought it was rather unpleasant and felt he was being watched."

The man was subsequently interviewed by police and later detained on suspicion of aggravated fraud.

In addition to the incident in Strängnäs, the man is also being investigated for a number of other suspected swindles.

According to Aftonbladet, the man has previously been convicted of accounting fraud.

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