Two individuals residing in Nevogilde (Lousada) and a company based in Bustelo (Penafiel), start to be judged this Monday at the Court of Beja, before a Collective of Judges, for crimes of qualified fraud.
At issue is the purchase of 105 calves worth a total of 69.995 euros, carried out to three agricultural producers on farms located in Alentejo, namely in Ourique, São Marcos da Ataboeira (Castro Verde) and Alvalade do Sado (Santiago do Cacém) and which were never truly paid.
According to the charge order that the Lidador News (LN) We had access, between 25 August and 4 September 2020, António Magalhães and Daniel Magalhães and Herdade da Estôsa-Exploração Agropecuária, Lda “conceived a plan to deceive third parties and obtain money to spend for their own benefit”, with the scheme going through “contact with cattle producers, made fictitious deposits, received the heads of cattle, without making payment”, justifies-is not document.
According to the Public Prosecutor of Santiago do Cacém, responsible for the accusation “the defendants deposited checks in an ATM on a Thursday, the balance appeared in the victims' account as an “accounting balance” until the following Monday, but their unacceptability was only detected days later by banking institutions”, concluded.
The fraudsters deposited the checks into the victims' accounts, warned these, who then went to the bank and received confirmation of deposits. In the time interval, between these actions and the true validation of checks, the defendants went to the farms, raised the cattle, received invoices from sellers and subsequently sold the animals in other locations, at prices below purchase, but given the stratagem, all value was profit.
The two individuals and the company are accused of three crimes of qualified fraud, one of which is in the aggravated form, men being free subject to identity and residence terms (TIR).
Teixeira Correia
(journalist)
