The Civil Guard have arrested a Torrevieja man for trying to defraud his car insurance company of more than 20,000 euro.
The man reported that his vehicle had been stolen. It was eventually found completely burnt out but on investigation the incident the police found that he had moved and incinerated the vehicle himself with the intention of claiming replacement costs of the vehicle from his insurer.
He has now been charged with attempted fraud and the crime of arson on his own property.
The agents examined the vehicle in detail, as they always do in such cases. As they did so a spokesman said that a number of small, but significant and suspicious, details appeared.
Meanwhile, the alleged victim was making numerous visits to his insurance office, requesting compensation for the loss of the vehicle, becoming increasingly forceful and aggressive and even banging the insurance agent’s table on one occasion.
The Civil Guard continued with their investigation and, when they had gathered together their evidence, they summoned the owner of the vehicle to the police station to make a statement. As he did so the owner began to make numerous contradictions, as a result of which the officers were able to prove that an insurance fraud had been committed with the perpetrator hoping to benefit to the tune of 20,000 euro.
The owner of the vehicle, a Spanish man of 66 years of age, was arrested as the perpetrator of a crime of simulation and fraud for the attempt and crime of setting fire to his own property.
The attempt to defraud the insurance company has already proved expensive for this man, because the vehicle was valued at more than 20,000 euros, although that cost could now be increased since this type of crime bears the option of either a prison sentences or a large fine.
