A WOMAN posing as a lawyer has been arrested in Marbella accused of scamming a property investor out of €100,000.
Police say the 52-year-old posed as a legal intermediary working on behalf of major Costa del Sol real estate agencies, winning their trust so completely that several handed her the keys to high-end properties in the belief she was bringing them genuine buyers.
She is accused of using that credibility, and a fictitious identity, to target a 43-year-old investor.
She offered him a rental deal with an option to buy a property in one of Marbella’s upmarket gated developments as the bait, then produced a series of documents to convince him the deal was genuine.
It was enough to persuade him to hand over two cash deposits, of €80,000 and then €20,000, to reserve the home.
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She had the whole scheme mapped out from the start, according to police, and once she had the cash, she disappeared.
A judge in Marbella issued a warrant for her arrest on suspicion of fraud.
However, the woman is alleged to have carried and shown her sister’s passport, relying on a strong physical resemblance between the two women to slip past checks and evade police for a period.
The ruse held until she tried to fly back into Spain through Malaga airport, where officers matched her fingerprints to her real identity and arrested her on the spot.
She has now been charged with fraud, identity theft and document forgery, as well as practising as a lawyer without a licence and defrauding the tax authorities.
A judge has confiscated her passport and barred her from leaving the country while the case continues.
Investigators have not ruled out finding more victims who fell for the same trick.
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