A 49-year-old man was sentenced to a year and a half in prison for telephone fraud, the District Court in Stara Zagora announced. The sentence was imposed after an agreement was approved, and execution was suspended for a period of four years.
In court, the man pleaded guilty to the fact that on August 6 of this year in Galabovo, in complicity with persons not identified during the investigation, misled an 83-year-old woman. She was told that she should leave the sum of BGN 15,450 on the street in front of her home in order to be detained by the Ministry of Internal Affairs officials who are involved in telephone scams. With the act, the convicted person caused property damage to the victim, and the fraud was committed by more than two persons who agreed in advance to carry it out. One of the accomplices presented himself as an official – an employee of the Ministry of Internal Affairs.
On the day of the crime, an unknown man contacted the victim on a landline and introduced himself as a police officer. He explained that the day before, a fellow citizen of hers had become a victim of telephone fraudsters and the woman had to assist the police in catching them. Otherwise, she was threatened that she would suffer because they knew where she lived and that she had money. The woman agreed. The unknown man gave her instructions over the phone how to arrange the money in a paper bag and then place it under a car with dark windows that was parked near her home. The woman complied with his orders and left the sum at the indicated place next to her home, went home, and a little later the defendant took them from there.
The agreement approved by the District Court in Galabovo is final and has the effect of a final judgment.