The Rio de Janeiro Civil Police arrested three men suspected of scamming elderly people inside bank branches. The suspects offered help to victims who needed to use ATMs and ended up stealing money from them. The arrests were made last Tuesday (30), in flagrante delicto.
The prisoners were identified as Renato dos Santos Mourão, Patrick de Sena Oliveira and Akaue Soares Gonçalves. According to the police, Patrick is Akaue’s son.
Police officers from the 12th Police Precinct in Copacabana, coordinated by Chief Ângelo Lages, were called by staff from a bank branch in Bonsucesso, in the northern part of Rio, who noticed the group’s suspicious behavior at the location, when they offered help to a bank account holder. It was not the first time that they had acted in the same way at this bank branch.
While the agents were moving, the criminal group went to a bank branch in Flamengo, in the south zone, where they were located and arrested.
The three had previous police records for fraud and criminal association. Patrick also had records for theft and bodily harm.
Understand how the gang acted
At the police station, they confessed to the crime and ended up reporting how they operated. Patrick was responsible for making contact with the victims, while his father, Akaue, helped him distract the group’s targets. Renato was in charge of stealing money from bank accounts through withdrawals, transfers and, in some cases, loans.
According to delegate Ângelo Lages, the three used to work in the morning, before the agencies’ opening hours, to avoid inspections of employees.
They will be held accountable for the crimes of theft through fraud and criminal association.
See the moment of the arrest:
Crime in Bonsucesso
According to a statement to the civil police, to which the CNN had access, on the morning of last Tuesday (30), a 69-year-old man was using the ATM at a bank branch in Bonsucesso, in the north of Rio de Janeiro, to make a withdrawal.
According to the report, he was approached by Patrick, who told him that the service terminal was requesting that the customer re-register using the branch number, account number and password. As soon as the victim entered his password, Patrick allegedly instructed the elderly man to go to another cashier to check if the proof of the supposed re-registration would be issued.
Later, the victim received a call from his bank manager, informing him about the scam. The gang withdrew R$2,000 from his account, in addition to making a Pix of R$499, a payment in the amount of R$20 and an attempted personal loan in the amount of R$1,200.
When he appeared at the police station and recognized Patrick, the elderly man had the amount of R$2,520 returned to him by the suspect’s wife.
The incident was recorded by the security cameras at the Bonsucesso branch. In the video, the victim appears wearing a red tank top. Patrick is wearing a black shirt with a hat. Look:
Criminal history
On the day they were arrested, the suspects had already visited branches in five neighborhoods in Rio de Janeiro. The gang had also operated in other states in the Northeast region of the country.
At the time of the incident, a victim’s card was found in Renato’s possession. The card belonged to a victim of fraud committed last Monday (29), in São Pedro da Aldeia, a municipality in the Lagos Region, located about 140 kilometers from the capital of Rio de Janeiro. The action was also recorded by security cameras. Look:
In another action by the group, also in São Pedro da Aldeia, on the 13th, two women had doubts when using an ATM. Wearing a beige cap and black clothes, Akaue offered help and then took the two to another service terminal.
His son, Patrick, appears surrounding the victims, supporting the action. In the following images, he appears wearing a black jacket with a red emblem.
When the victims are taken to another cashier by the accomplice, Patrick takes their position and carries out transactions on the screen, which remains open in the account of the gang’s target. In the images, he appears wearing gray shorts and a long-sleeved black t-shirt. Watch:
Source: CNN Brasil
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