The Guardia Civil arrests John and Amanda Treagust for an Internet fraud

The two people arrested offered apartments and villas for rent located in Orihuela Costa and Torrevieja via Internet.

Up to the moment, the Guardia Civil has found 11 victims, though people affected might be over 60.

Among these victims we can find British, French, Portuguese, Italian and Belgian citizens.

The Guardia Civil of Almería has arrested John Anthony Treagust, 41, and Amanda Jane Treagust, 37, both living in Mojácar (Almería), as the alleged perpetrators of a fraud crime.

Last February, the agents of the Pilar de la Horadada’s Guardia Civil found out about an alleged real state fraud via Internet when a complaint was received through the forum of Torrevieja.com:
http://www.torrevieja.com/forums/general-queries/5540-costa-blanca-live.html

During the following months, British, French, Portuguese, Italian and Belgian citizens submitted reports for other crimes with identical modus operandi as the first one.

Victims enter into a contract for a property located in the Costa Blanca and which is advertised in several in several Internet sites where you can see pictures and domicile details, as well as the different contact forms and reservation form.

After sending the form, the property administration gets in contact with the victim via e-mail to inform him he/she must pay a deposit to formalize the reservation, and a bank account number is given to that aim. Several weeks later the victim is contacted again to make the money transfer.

When total payment has been made and the victims have tried to get in contact with the administrator, this was no longer possible, and some of them even went in person to the rented property, when already here for holidays, and found out the property was occupied by the real owners thereof. 

The victims have given details which are essential for the investigation, as they made it possible for the agents to find out about the identity and location of the criminals.

All the actions carried out by the Guardia Civil of  Pilar de la Horadada led to the identification of John Anthony Treagust and Amanda Jane Treagust as the alleged perpetrators of a crime of fraud; they lived in Mojácar, a town in Almeria where they had their provisional residence.

The Guardia Civil agents arrested these two people and searched their domicile thoroughly to find significant amounts of information which is being analysed at the moment.

The victims of this fraud might be over 60 people, and the amount stolen might amount to over 150.000€.