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Jail for 'fake' grandkids who conned pensioners

Published: 24 Oct 12 13:13 CET | Print version
Online: http://www.thelocal.se/44020/20121024/

Two men have been jailed after tricking a series of elderly Swedes into giving them money by acting as their grandchildren, earning the pair over one million kronor ($149,000).

The two men, aged 47 and 45, were sentenced to 3 years and ten months prison at the Hudiksvall District Court for aggravated fraud and attempted aggravated fraud.

The men, who hail from Stockholm, were arrested in March outside of Örnsköldsvik in eastern Sweden after police had received several reports from elderly people who had been conned out of their money. The thieves focused their attention on women, with only two men being caught up in the scandal.

The crimes were committed within a four month period, with the majority of victims being women aged over 80, the oldest being a woman born in 1912 who was tricked out of 50,000 kronor.

Some people had been tricked out of as much as 60,000 kronor.

The scam worked by the con artists calling the elderly people, acting as their grandchild, then asking for money to go towards a new car.

The scammers then told the victims that a friend would be around later to fetch the money.

The men were charged with 37 counts of completed fraud and 100 attempted frauds. As well as the one million kronor, the men took jewellery worth around 350,000 kronor.

The pair admitted to just one of the charges, but evidence found on their telephones confirmed that they had made calls to the victims.

TT/The Local/og
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17:07 October 24, 2012 by Abe L
Such double standards, we normally let actual criminals walk but as soon as there is money involved there is a *multi* year prison sentence.

I do fully support the verdict and can only hope there will be more of these. But it is so much more important to lock up the folks that commit assaults, theft, robbery, burglary and other real crimes.
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