The case, told yesterday in court in Chieti, begins with a fake phone call. The protagonist, an 85-year-old woman living in the Levante neighborhood, is contacted by a man pretending to be her nephew.
The impostor, speaking in a convincing yet alarmed tone, demands that she immediately pay the sum of €6.000 to avoid alleged trouble. Fear, combined with trust in a family member, pushes the woman to agree, setting in motion a pattern that, unfortunately, is quite common in elderly scams.
The home visit and the theft
After the phone call, the situation turns into a "doorstep" scam. A young man shows up at the eighty-five-year-old's house, pretending to be the agent of her supposed nephew. The woman, still in shock from the phone call, hands the visitor the sum of
1.000 euros. The scam doesn't stop there: during the visit, the boy also steals several gold objects, wiping out much of the pensioner's savings and memories.
The arrest, the stampede and the hit-and-run
When the details of the scam are reconstructed and the Carabinieri are called, the situation escalates. A marshal and a colleague arrive on the scene in the Levante neighborhood to reconstruct the incident and track down the perpetrators of the scam. But the suspects, who had fled in the meantime, encounter them in a car: while fleeing, the vehicle hits the marshal, who suffers injuries that will heal in seven days. The accident involving the law enforcement officer ultimately worsens the situation of the main defendant.
The trial and the sentences
Yesterday, the trial concluded with a summary hearing before the preliminary hearing judge of the Chieti Court, Enrico Colagreco. Public prosecutor Lucia Campo had requested a four-year prison sentence for Davide Gatto, a 19-year-old Neapolitan citizen; and a two-year prison sentence for Salvatore Giustino, 44, from Pomigliano d'Arco.
The collegiality of the case, however, was reformulated, with the judge sentencing Gatto to four years in prison and a €1.000 fine for aggravated fraud, as well as for robbery and aggravated assault on a public official in connection with the accident involving the man in uniform. Giustino, however, was acquitted "for not having committed the crime," following a request by his defense attorney.
Elderly fraud: a still-live phenomenon
The case, although it occurred in Chieti, follows a pattern now familiar to law enforcement and social workers: the phone call from the "false nephew," emotional blackmail, the handing over of the money in cash, and often, the intervention of an accomplice at the victim's home. Law enforcement continues to warn the elderly, urging them never to hand over money or valuables without verifying the identity of the person, and to avoid accepting home visits from strangers who arrive as a result of "emergency" calls. In the case of the 85-year-old from Chieti, the scam left a single woman with the financial burden but also the emotional impact of a betrayal, which impacts an increasingly fragile and vulnerable family.
Choose the social channel you want to subscribe to