Since the beginning of the summer, the repetition of attacks on elderly people to steal their bank cards had placed gendarmes and police officers on alert, pushing them to increase their surveillance in the south of Morbihan. Each time, the scenario was the same.
The retirees, mainly single women, had been jostled and knocked down by a man in the busy aisles of the markets, in Sarzeau, Vannes, La Trinité-Surzur, La Trinité-sur-Mer (three times) and Carnac. While leaning over my victims, under the pretext of helping them, an accomplice took off their bags to grab the bank cards. The duo had previously noted the secret code of the cards by following their prey when they made purchases from market traders. This scene of violence lasted only a short time, since the thieves disappeared into the crowd. And victims sometimes only discovered the theft later, when they used their bank card again.
In flagrante delicto
On Wednesday October 2 in the morning, the offenders were arrested in flagrante delicto by the police at the Vannes market. Acting in civilian clothes, the men of the anti-crime squad already had their eyes on these two men. They intervened very quickly to arrest them, while they were trying to take a bag from a 76-year-old woman, whom they had caused to fall, while she was moving with a crutch.
Aged 35 and 50, these two Romanians, unemployed, from Rennes and Corbeil-Essonnes (Essonne), had €1,500 in cash with them. The oldest admitted to seven thefts, committed with another Romanian – who has since returned to his country -, of cards with which he had withdrawn sums ranging from €430 to €900. Like his colleague, the other man arrested, prosecuted for the only failed attempt in Vannes, was also subject to an obligation to leave the territory, but he had nevertheless just bought a car in September.
A repeat offender
This Friday, October 4, before the Vannes court, the eldest, who was in possession of a false identity card purchased for €100 in the Paris region, explained: “I came to France to find work. I did this to have money because my wife is seriously ill. In Vannes, I followed this woman to rob her, but I didn’t make her fall. »
For the prosecutor, Francis Bihin, “the police did a remarkable job to succeed in stopping this worrying series of thefts but also of scams committed using bank cards. The oldest had already been convicted of theft in France in 2021 and is a repeat offender. »
The court sentenced repeat offender Costica Pohrib to thirty months in prison, with a ban on residence in Morbihan for five years. He sentenced Florin Boti to one year in prison, six months of which were suspended. Both were immediately incarcerated.
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