In Italy, a woman buys a €165,000 Ferrari with forged cheques... and it passes!

A Ferraritwo checks... and a lot of nerve. In Perugia, Italy, a 27-year-old woman managed to snatch a Ferrari worth 165,000 euros in a scam worthy of a crime movie.

It all began at the end of May. The owner of the car received a serious offer: a young woman wanted to buy his Ferrari. Nothing unusual, except that the buyer was already known to the police for fraud.

During the transaction, she gave him two cheques, one for €90,000, the other for €75,000. To reassure him, she suggested that he contact a representative of the issuing bank. The man picks up the phone, introduces himself as an employee of the bank and confirms that the cheques are covered. Everything seemed to be in order. Convinced, the seller handed over the car keys and papers.

But a few days later, when he tries to cash the checks, the nightmare begins. Both cheques were forged. Worse still, the bank itself doesn't exist. The salesman had just been the victim of a meticulously prepared deception, orchestrated by a team of seven people, all of whom were already known to the police.

The man immediately lodged a complaint, triggering an extensive investigation by the Perugia police. Squadra Mobile agents sift through surveillance cameras, sales documents and telephone communications. Little by little, the puzzle was pieced together: each member of the network played a precise role in the fraud: the false buyer, the accomplice posing as a banker, and other intermediaries responsible for reselling the vehicle.

Thanks to international cooperation, investigators discovered that the Ferrari had been exported to Romania, to the small town of Buziaș, where it was in the hands of a 44-year-old man, also previously convicted of fraud. He was preparing to register the car in his name, after signing a sales contract with the young Italian woman.

The prosecutor in charge of the case immediately ordered the preventive seizure of the vehicle. The information was transmitted via the Schengen system, enabling the Romanian police to locate and confiscate the Ferrari. Meanwhile, simultaneous searches were carried out in several Italian provinces: Bergamo, Monza Brianza, Lecco and Pordenone; where the phones and SIM cards used for the fraud were seized.

As a result, seven people, including the young woman behind the transaction, have been arrested for aggravated gang fraud. As for the Ferrari, it should soon be reunited with its true owner. Note that the photo was supplied by the Perugia Police, but does not appear to represent the €165,000 Ferrari.