Linea Directa 200 LEFT COL CAR INSURANCE

PROPERTY SEARCH

Date Published: 28/03/2023

ARCHIVED - The Alicante gang that stole the inheritance of 22 retired expats

ARCHIVED ARTICLE -

Twenty-two victims have been identified so far, most of whom were foreigners and died during the Covid pandemic

<span style='color:#780948'>ARCHIVED</span> - The Alicante gang that stole the inheritance of 22 retired expats

The Guardia Civil in Spain have taken down a criminal organisation that illegally appropriated the inheritances of at least 22 deceased elderly people who died during the pandemic.

Eight people have been arrested and three others have been investigated for the crimes of belonging to a criminal organisation, theft, fraud, false documentation, misappropriation, money laundering, usurpation of marital status and illegal possession of weapons in the provinces of Alicante, Valencia and Bizkaia (Basque Country).

To date, a total of 22 deceased victims of this criminal group have been identified, of which two are Spanish, five are French, one is Belgian, four are Swiss, one is British, eight are German and one is Finnish. Most of them have no known heirs, and there may even be more victims who have not yet been identified.

The operation began in May 2021 when police officers discovered that someone had removed the police seals from a house located in Benissa, a town in the north of Alicante, and they came in and stole various objects, including a high-end motorcycle.

It didn’t take police too long to track down and arrest the two people responsible, who worked in a mortuary located in the Marina Alta area of Alicante. In addition to stealing jewellery which was unclaimed by relatives from the deceased who came through their doors, they passed on information to others of how to steal from the homes of the deceased and obtain their bank details.

After they were sure that there was no heir to come forward and claim any inheritance, the gang kicked into gear: a brother and sister living in Bilbao, a 63-year-old woman with a law degree and a 54-year-old man, an insurance broker. The woman was the manager of 12 companies, among them two real estate agencies, and the man was the owner of an insurance brokerage.

The real estate agencies, located in Denia and the Basque Country, were used to rent and sell the properties of the deceased. To evade taxes, the siblings used a construction and renovation company, an insurance processing office, a mechanical workshop in Bilbao, two hotels in the provinces of Murcia and Valencia, a restaurant in Denia and two offshore companies in Ireland and Malta to launder the money through. They even took control of a cultural association in Bilbao to simulate donations and non-payments during the lifetime of the deceased.

Another member of the gang was a former worker of a town hall in the Marina Alta area, who, through his knowledge, advised and carried out cadastral modifications to irregularly register the properties in the Land Registry.

Another detainee is a worker of a nursing home in the same region, who obtained the documentation and bank details of his victims, transferring more than 112,000 euros from two nonagenarian residents of German and Swiss origin to the bank accounts of the criminal group.

The group increased its criminal activity due to the increase in the number of elderly people who died during the Covid-19 pandemic, taking advantage of the difficulties of the families to take care of their bodies and the lack of known heirs in other cases.

Police estimate that in total they managed to take control of 20 properties, four of them in Paris, France, with a total value of more than 3 million euros.

Image: Guardia Civil

Linea Directa Bottom Article A-L CAR INSURANCE

Sign up for the Spanish News Today Editors Roundup Weekly Bulletin and get an email with all the week’s news straight to your inbox

Special offer: Subscribe now for 25% off (36.95 euros for 48 Bulletins)