The Public Prosecution Service demands a prison sentence of 5 years and 4 months against a 37-year-old man from Rotterdam. According to the Public Prosecution Service, it is clear that he defrauded victims on a large scale by selling fake flight tickets. He also promised several people, despite better knowledge, work and housing. “The suspect has built his life on lies, deception, and fraud.”
In a restaurant in Rotterdam, the suspect meets an employee. He claims to have a high position at Schiphol. In a short time, he becomes a real friend of the woman, as well as her daughters and son-in-law. The family quickly trusts the man. But what the family does not yet know is that they are being defrauded by a man using a false identity.
Fake Tickets and Contracts
At some point, the suspect offers the family’s daughter a job as a ground stewardess at KLM. She signs a contract and starts working on selling flight tickets. She sells the tickets, which the suspect then books. For each ticket, the daughter can keep 80 euros. In the end, she sells 93 tickets at 580 euros each. The customers paid the amounts into her account, and the suspect then sent a payment request for those amounts or came to collect the cash from her. The daughter genuinely thinks she is working for KLM, but in reality, just like the buyers of the tickets, she is being defrauded by the suspect.
The fraud comes to light when many reports are made in a short period. The police can arrest the suspect. He admits that he used a false name, never worked at Schiphol, and that he forged the KLM contract. He did reserve the flight tickets that the daughter sold, so he could send a confirmation, but chose the option “pay later,” which he then did not do. The suspect also admits that he previously sold flight tickets in this way.
Housing for Family
It does not stop with the fraud via the flight tickets. He offers a house to the mother of the family, with whom he has now built a good relationship. The woman only has to pay the notary fees, for which she takes out a special loan. She cancels her rental apartment. She also resigns from her job because the suspect would arrange another job for her.
On the day of the transfer and move, she receives a message, supposedly from the suspect’s brother, that he would have been involved in an accident and would have died. At that moment, the woman realizes that she has been defrauded. She has already lost her money, her home, and her job, and is left destitute.
The son-in-law is also defrauded. He is offered a job at Customs and signs a contract. That too turns out to be fake.
Life Destroyed
“The suspect has acted in a ruthless and heartless manner and has grossly abused the trust of his victims,” said the prosecutor during the hearing. “He has defrauded a large number of people and destroyed the life of an entire family.”
“All in all, this is undoubtedly one of the most bizarre fraud cases and the most notorious fraudster I have seen in my work as a prosecutor. It is also in the interest of society that this man is locked up for as long as possible.”