Pair on trial for conning disabled man

The Provincial Court of Las Palmas will begin to hear evidence from today, Wednesday, against two people accused of deceiving a man with a disability by posing as another person on social networks to meet in the Las Rehoyas park, in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, and stealing 200 euro from him.

The Prosecutor’s Office requests a sentence of six years in prison and a fine of 720 euro by charging them with the commission of a crime of illegal detention and another of minor injuries.

The complainant, who has a recognised degree of disability of 49% due to behavioural alteration and developmental disorder, received on December 14, 2022, around 10:00 p.m., a message on Instagram from an acquaintance who encouraged him to go to the park.

The victim did not suspect anything, but those who were allegedly hiding behind the profile with the intention of deceiving him were the defendants SSS and GCG, who were already waiting for him at the meeting point.

The Prosecutor’s Office maintains in the indictment that the two defendants pounced on the injured party as soon as he arrived and threw him to the ground, where “they immobilised him, tying his hands behind his back and beginning to hit him.”

During the alleged attack, the prosecutor maintains that they insisted that the man give them 200 euro for an alleged repair of a motorcycle while the victim refused, so they responded with threats to throw him off a ravine.

At one point, always according to the Prosecutor’s Office, the defendants decided to take away his mobile phone to make a transfer of 200 euro in favour of the partner of one of the alleged aggressors. They allegedly took him to a bank branch in the capital to verify that the money transfer had been carried out correctly, at which point he took advantage of the detention to flee as soon as he saw a police vehicle approaching.

The victim suffered facial and nasal bridge injuries, a frontal hematoma and injuries to the thorax, lumbar, wrists and neck and claims compensation for these damages, which the prosecutor rates at 200 euro for the stolen effects and 500 euro for the injuries.