A 66-year-old resident of Torrevieja has been arrested by the Guardia Civil on suspicion of fraud, after he allegedly set fire to his own vehicle in order to claim compensation for the damages on his car insurance.
The Spanish resident of the town is accused of the crimes of attempted fraud and arson, after he is said to have faked the theft and destruction of the 20,000 euro vehicle.
The investigation began after officers were made aware of the car having been burnt out on a public road. Informing the registered owner, he was surprised by what happened, claiming to have parked his car in the garage of his house, and so it must have been stolen.
After identifying and confirming that the vehicle was his, the owner accompanied officers to the Torrevieja Guardia Civil barracks where he filed a complaint of theft and damage to the vehicle.
The man then set about claiming on his insurance, and visited his insurance brokers, “several times” in the days following the incident, each time asking for the compensation for his loss.
As the days passed, the man´s demands became more agitated, with him first acting with “bad manners” and later in a “threatening tone”, even hitting the desk of the insurance agent during one of his visits.
As the vehicle was the subject on an investigation, the officers continued to gather evidence and statements of what had happened, and eventually concluded that as the evidence given by the owner “began to incur numerous contradictions” which “did nothing but endorse the evidence obtained by agents” that “he was committing insurance fraud”, and so he was subsequently arrested.
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