Filenews 22 February 2022 - by Dora Christodoulou
Today's was the last attempt of the pseudo-doctor who had been frustrating the Pafos Police in recent months, tricking elderly women and trying to extort money from them by claiming allegedly serious injuries to their relatives who needed immediate hospitalization and interventions. The foresight of bank branch employees and the very well and timely organized trap of the Pafos ICF, resulted in this person, who was found to be a 34-year-old Bulgarian, to fall into the hands of the Police.
The countdown to revealing the identity of the fraudster, who has so far managed to extort €10,000 in one case and €7,000 in another, began when a 50-year-old woman went in the morning to a bank branch and asked for a withdrawal of €20,000. The officials asked her why she was asking for such a large sum and she told them that she was notified by a doctor that her daughter was severely injured at the high school she is attending and should be hastily transferred to Nicosia General Hospital.
The bank employees immediately suspected that something suspicious was happening, having fresh information from the similar recent actions of the unknown "doctor," so they immediately informed the Police.
A team of the Pafos ICF, under the head of the Department, Michalis Nikolaou, acted immediately. After asking the woman for information about the instructions she received from the unknown person as to where he would be found to deliver the amount to him, in private vehicles they went to the church of Agios Kendeas, in the heart of the commercial centre of Paphos, putting the area under surveillance. The woman arrived there shortly, holding an envelope that, according to the agreement of the Police and banks, contained simple paper, instead of €20,000, and a few minutes later a person appeared and approached her asking for the money
At that moment, the police officers of the ICF of Pafos intervened, arresting the suspect in the act. It was found that he is of Bulgarian nationality, a resident of Cyprus aged 34 years. He was transferred to the detention facilities of the Pafos Police Department, where he is being held for an investigation into a case of money extortion with false representations impersonating the doctor.
The 34-year-old, who according to the Police also has associates, has already extracted in two cases sums of money of €10,000 and €7,000 from unsuspecting women on the same pretext, while in three other cases the prospective victims refused to give him the money by suspecting fraud or asking for more clarification.
The head of the Pafos ICF, Michalis Nikolaou, also said that in the last few days there have been other complaints to the Police by citizens who receive phone calls from strangers who are trying to deceive them in order to extort money from them, always on the pretext that their familiar faces had serious incidents that demanded immediate money for interventions and hospitalizations.
