Two young women and male accomplice arrested

Three young tricksters have been arrested and subsequently fined for having conned an elderly resident of the city out of tens of thousands of francs.

The police heard how the 73-year-old victim had repeatedly been contacted by two foreign women over a period of several months. These had then gone on to meet up with him and cunningly gain his confidence. On one occasion when they met up they had managed to ensure the man had brought CHF 13,000 with him.

Then, on Thursday 20 October, he was contacted again, this time ensuring he had brought CHF 15,000 with him. It was after they had had lunch together that the tricksters tried to pressurize him into handing over a further CHF 50,000. Fortunately, when it came to his withdrawing this sum in cash, the bank official felt something was amiss and called the police. It was during what was supposed to have been the handing over of this cash near the victim’s home that the police intervened, enabling them to arrest two women and a man. Officers were also able to seize the Austrian-registered car used by the perpetrators, in which they found a further CHF 34,000 in cash.

Two of the perpetrators, a 25-year-old man and an 18-year-old Serbian woman, the ringleader behind the operation, were brought before the court, the youngest, a 17-year-old, duly summoned to appear in a juvenile court. All were taken into custody charged with various acts of fraud and subsequently brought before a judge in fast-track proceedings. The 18-year-old Serbian woman was handed a conditional 90-day sentence, and her 25-year-old accomplice, a foreigner of undisclosed nationality, was given a conditional fine, The 17-year-old, also a foreigner of undisclosed nationality, was given a three-month sentence and fined for several counts of fraud and attempted fraud.

The migration authority also ordered the 25-year-old and the 17-year-old to leave the country forthwith and banned them from returning to Switzerland or Liechtenstein within two years. The 18-year-old was additionally banned from returning to any state signed up to the Schengen Agreement.