The Permanent Criminal Court of Larnaca has sentenced two defendants to concurrent prison terms of four years each, after finding them guilty—following a trial—on three counts of obtaining property by false pretences and three counts of money laundering. The charges were faced jointly by both defendants.
According to a statement from the Legal Service of the Republic, “in three separate incidents in the Larnaca district, the two defendants took part in fraudulent schemes to extract money and valuables from three elderly women, using false pretences. These consisted of claims that urgent payments were needed for surgical operations supposedly required by the victims’ children, who had allegedly been hospitalised following accidents.”
The statement adds that “each of the elderly women received a phone call from a man, speaking in broken Greek, who falsely claimed to be calling from a hospital and acting as a go-between to facilitate the immediate payment of surgical expenses. He convinced the women to hand over cash and valuables to a person who would visit their homes to collect the funds.”
In the first incident, on 16 May 2023, the pair extracted €7,000 in cash from an 87-year-old woman.
In the second, on 11 June 2023, they managed to obtain €70,000 in cash and various valuables from an 80-year-old woman.
In the third, on 29 June 2023, they took €9,000 in cash and valuables worth another €9,000 from another 80-year-old woman.
The defendants claimed in court that they were acting as couriers, receiving instructions over the phone from an unknown man speaking broken Greek. They said they believed they were collecting advance payments for aluminium construction work and only realised it was a scam after their arrest.
However, the Criminal Court rejected this defence, ruling that the Prosecution—acting on behalf of the Republic and represented by the Legal Service—had, based solely on circumstantial evidence, proved beyond reasonable doubt the defendants’ knowledge of and participation in the fraudulent scheme.
Each defendant was sentenced to four years in prison, to run concurrently.
Furthermore, the €16,000 in various banknotes found during the police investigation was deemed to be proceeds of criminal activity, and a Forfeiture Order was issued. The amount will be returned proportionately to the victims based on the individual sums they lost.
The case was handled on behalf of the Attorney General of the Republic by Adamos Demosthenous, Lawyer of the Republic.
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