AN ALICANTE court has sentenced a Benidorm estate agent and his son to over three years each in jail after conning a vulnerable elderly man out of nearly €100,000.
The duo arranged a sham marriage to a relative in order to access his bank accounts, which were totally emptied.
The prison sentences and verdict can be appealed.
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The estate agent’s wife was acquitted as the court said there was no evidence that she was involved in the fraud.
The Informacion newspaper reported that the 90-year-old victim- named Guillermo- lived in the Galicia region in north-west Spain.
In 2019, he expressed an interest in moving to Benidorm and buying a flat in the Poniente beach area.
The victim became friends of the estate agent and his son, who also worked in the business.
Prosecutors said that the agency’s boss and son realised that Guillermo had a lot of money and no close relatives that could look after his interests.
The agency owner then got him married to his mother-in-law in a ceremony done via videoconferencing in May 2020 due to the Covid-19 lockdowns.
Aged 82, the bride just happened to come from the Galicia region.
The wedding meant that the real estate agency got access to the man’s online banking.
Before the ceremony, Guillermo changed his will to give his new wife everything when he died, but apparently later changed it to bequeath his estate to relatives- after realising he had been deceived.
After the wedding, Guillermo paid a €30,000 deposit to buy the Benidorm flat but the defendants did nothing and pocketed the money.
He started to distrust the two men, and refused to handover any extra cash until details of the transaction were put down in writing.
The duo carried on, and made a €70,000 transfer to the son’s account, before trying to trick a notary over the deeds for the flat being put in the son’s name.
The notary refused and €70,000 was then transferred to the account of Guillermo’s new wife.
The story then took a major twist when the woman filed a complaint against her new husband for alleged gender violence.
A restraining order was issued and Guillermo was literally left on the street.
After spending several days outside and getting into altercations with passers-by, the police took him to the Marina Baixa Hospital in Villajoyosa where he was admitted to the Psychiatric Unit.
Tests showed he had been taking medicines to combat anxiety and depression.
Guillermo went into a coma, but after waking up, he told a social service worker that he had been conned and he wanted to go home to Galicia.
The worker testified in the trial that she helped him contact some friends so that he could get enough money for the bus fare.
Informacion said that a key problem in the Alicante trial was the unavailability of key witnesses.
Guillermo died a few days after returning to Galicia, when he was involved in a road traffic accident.
The woman who married Guillermo passed away in 2022.
There is also the matter of his will with a private prosecution instigated by his relatives
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