“These are criminal offenses that penetrate to the core, touching something fundamental, namely the trust that citizens - and particularly vulnerable elderly people - have in our society and the rule of law, in the police that are supposed to protect them. Fraud by fake police officers is cowardly, it is heartless and leaves a deep trail of destruction.”
That said the public prosecutor today during the motivation of the sentences against three suspects who, according to the Public Prosecution Service, deceived their victims by posing as police officers. The Public Prosecution Service takes this behavior extremely seriously: “This form of organized crime has a society-disrupting character: vulnerable elderly people lose their faith in our law enforcement, and thus their trust in the rule of law. The suspects have cunningly, calculatedly, and downright cowardly abused that trust, resulting in a trail of destruction,” said the Public Prosecution Service.
A house in Hilversum served as a so-called call center. From this location, the suspects allegedly called their older victims using search terms on the site telefoongids.nl. They targeted landline connections, as especially elderly people still have landlines.
In two days (on October 30 and 31, 2024), they made twelve victims, in Barneveld, Ede, and Amersfoort. In eleven cases, it was just an attempt to defraud a victim, but in one case, bank cards were taken from an 81-year-old woman. With those stolen cards, 590 euros were subsequently withdrawn.
“It is clear that she trusted the voice on the phone,” the public prosecutor said today before the multiple judges in the court in Zutphen. “And she then trusted the person who came to the door. And with that trust, she handed over her valuable belongings. Not because she is naive, but because she believes in the rule of law and in the police as the law enforcer.”
A 19-year-old suspect from Almere was arrested on October 31 and has been in pre-trial detention since then. He called victims, looked up phone numbers, and sent an audio message with instructions to an accomplice who went to the door as a fake police officer. For his directing role, the Public Prosecution Service demands a prison sentence of 28 months, of which 6 are conditional. The other two suspects, two individuals from Hilversum aged 19 and 21, spent 51 days in pre-trial detention after their arrest on October 31. For their role in the committed offenses, the Public Prosecution Service demands prison sentences of 24 months (of which 6 are conditional) and 18 months (of which 6 are conditional).
The Public Prosecution Service also urged the court to look beyond just a legal assessment: “These are criminal offenses that strike at the core of our justice system. Elderly people rely on protection from the rule of law and law enforcement. When that trust is deliberately abused by suspects posing as police officers, it strikes at the core of who we are as a society.”