The eight defendants sentenced in April 2018 at the Braga Collective Court to effective prison sentences for using stolen checks and forged signatures to deceive people who put the car up for sale in Internet, appealed to the Constitutional Court, after that of the Guimarães Court of Appeal confirmed the first instance judgment.
The lawsuit involved 35 other defendants, six of whom were acquitted and the rest sentenced to five years or less, whose execution was suspended.
Without pay
The Court proved that they kept the vehicles without paying for them, through a scheme that started from sale websites in Internet, namely the S $, Virtual Stand and Fair cost.
The biggest penalties were for two defendants of the Catamba family, from Alentejo, considered as the heads of the scheme, and who caughtrespectively 12 and 8 years and 10 months in prison
The other sentences of effective imprisonment vary between eight years and 10 months and five years and three months.
The alleged scam reached more than two million euros. Value obtained in the purchase of 70 cars in Internet.
According to the prosecution, the defendants approached the victims by phone, after having seen the photo of the vehicle on the websites S $, Virtual Stand and Fair cost. That have nothing to do with crimes.
The Public Ministry accused them of crimes of criminal association, qualified fraud, falsification of documents, receipt, possession of a prohibited weapon and driving without a license.
The scheme started from the hard core of the gang, five defendants all family members, from Braga, later extended to other family members and friends, from Gaia, Porto, Guimarães, Vila do Conde, Póvoa de Varzim, Santarém, Abrantes and Rio Maior.
Medium and high range
They were dedicated to cars of medium and high range, with values that went from 12 to 85 thousand euros.
The MP concluded that the chain resorted to a couple with normal appearance, who contacted the seller and then showed up to buy.
The scam was consummated, preferably, on a Friday as banks close on weekends.
And the operation was done either by depositing a check or by bank transfer. In both cases without money.
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