The other collected the money at post offices in Legnica.

The defendants are 51-year-old Ryszard S. and 40-year-old Dariusz P. from Legnica. Both are repeat offenders, repeatedly convicted of crimes against property. Moreover, they knew each other from... prison.

Both incidents took place on 26 and 27 August 2015, and the perpetrator’s method was almost identical. Ryszard S. contacted the victims by telephone, introducing himself as an officer of the Central Police Investigation Bureau under a specific first and last name and also providing a service ID number. He claimed to be an investigating officer conducting proceedings under the supervision of a specific prosecutor and urged them to verify his details by calling 112 or 997, which the victims say they did.

He also said that landline telephones might be tapped and asked for their mobile numbers, which he then called. He informed them that their savings in the banks were at risk because, in one case, there was a danger that they would be taken over by a mafia with unauthorized access to the accounts, and in the other, because someone using the victim’s forged identity card had attempted to withdraw the savings.

The defendant was very convincing. The victims followed his instructions. Remaining in constant telephone contact, they went to their banks, withdrew the money, and then deposited it at a post office, sending it by express money order to Legnica in Dariusz P.’s name.

The 66-year-old victim from Warsaw repeated the operation twice. The first time, her husband even accompanied her on the way to the first bank; he too was convinced that the threat was genuine. The woman withdrew and sent nearly PLN 30,000 by transfer to Legnica. The 70-year-old resident of Jabłonna withdrew nearly PLN 20,000 from his account. He could no longer be persuaded to make a second transfer.

However, both victims believed their caller when he assured them that he would come to them in the afternoon to draw up an official report. Only when no one arrived did they become suspicious and report the crime.

The money sent by express transfers to post offices in Legnica was collected that same day by defendant Dariusz P. The latter had been persuaded to do so by Ryszard S. in exchange for a promise of earnings of PLN 600 per day. From the very beginning, Dariusz P. realized that the people who handed him the money had been deceived by Ryszard S. This did not bother him at all. Had he not been arrested on the second day and identified Ryszard S. as the fraudster, the scheme might have continued, because his co-defendant had offered him the opportunity to earn more money in the following days in the same way.

Dariusz P. and Ryszard S. were charged with committing two frauds jointly and in concert. The first suspect was immediately placed in temporary detention by the court at the prosecutor’s request. In the case of Ryszard S., the prosecutor also made such a request, but the court of first instance did not grant it. An appeal led to the decision being changed and temporary detention being imposed on Ryszard S.; however, from that point onward, the latter went into hiding from law enforcement and a wanted notice was issued for him.

Ryszard S. did not admit to committing the alleged acts. He claimed that he did not know Dariusz P. and had nothing to do with the case, and that P.’s statements were slanderous. The evidence collected contradicts this.

Dariusz P. admitted to both acts and gave extensive explanations. He stated that he had taken advantage of an opportunity to make easy money. Fraud committed under repeat-offender conditions is punishable by imprisonment from six months to 12 years.

Ryszard S. had recently also been convicted of a crime involving a similar method of operation (modus operandi). On 30 June 2015, the District Prosecutor’s Office in Legnica charged him with two frauds that he had committed jointly and in concert with another man on 7 and 10 November 2014. Ryszard S. misled two women by calling them and posing as a family member in a difficult financial situation caused by problems at work in one case, and by the loss of money on the stock exchange in the other. He persuaded them to send PLN 2,950 and PLN 15,000 by postal money order in his accomplice’s name; the money was collected at a post office in Legnica.

A judgment was issued against the defendant in this case on 24 September 2015. Thus, Ryszard S. committed further crimes while court proceedings were pending, two months after the indictment was filed. He was sentenced to one year and three months’ imprisonment, suspended for five years, and ordered to remedy the damage caused to the victims by returning the misappropriated money.

Liliana Łukasiewicz, press spokeswoman for the Regional Prosecutor’s Office in Legnica/ii