The Audiencia de Valladolid has imposed a total of 700 euros in indemnities to the confessed telemarketing scammer E.F.F. to compensate three victims for the economic damage caused by the criminal activity carried out between September 2020 and October 2021 when he extracted various amounts from the accounts of a dozen Vodafone clients after accessing their personal data.
In its ruling, the court, instead of the 20,000 euros compensation requested by the prosecutor, will only have to pay 50 euros to one client who is still claiming, and 350 and 300 to two other victims, provided that it is proven that their bank did not reimburse the stolen money, as reported by legal sources to Europa Press.
The trial held in the Second Section of the Criminal Court of the Provincial Court had focused on civil liability, after the accused and the prosecutor reached a settlement in criminal proceedings in which E.F.F. pleaded guilty and accepted a two-year prison sentence and a fine of 540 euros, which he will not serve as it has been suspended. Therefore, the only issue left to resolve was the payment of compensations directly attributed to the accused and, as subsidiary liabilities, claimed from the mentioned operators, whose defenses had refused to take responsibility for any payment.
In this regard, both the scammer’s lawyer and the operators’ lawyers disagreed with the prosecutor regarding the obligation to pay compensations, the former as the direct responsible and the companies as subsidiaries, Tres Telemarketing, «as the employer» of the confessed accused; Vodafone, «as their product was being distributed»; and Phone House, «since the author of the scam carried out this activity from a backroom of their property,» according to the public prosecutor’s opinion.
In response, the defenses argued that almost all of the dozen affected clients had waived any payment as they had already been compensated by the bank, and therefore believed that the bank, which had not intervened in the case, should seek reimbursement, if deemed appropriate, through a separate civil procedure.
This approach has been ultimately accepted by the court, which notes that no bank or insurer has appeared in the process, and therefore has dismissed the liability of the operators, except for those already mentioned that the convicted must pay. However, the Provincial Court reminds the victims that they have the option of pursuing a civil claim.
The remarkable aspect of the case is that by exempting E.F.F. from refunding the majority of the compensations, he will have to ‘refund’ almost all of the 16,000 euros that he had previously deposited in court to cover the civil liability payment. Paradoxically, this has also led to a reduction in his prison sentence as the mitigating factors of damage reparation and moral responsibility were applied.
The confessed accused, who has no criminal record, began working in February 2020 at Tres Telemarketig, responsible for formalizing contracts for Vodafone, which gave him access to the databases with clients’ personal information through the Smart platform of the company.
Initially, he worked in the backroom of a Phone House establishment on Mantería Street and later in an office on Don Sancho Street until his contract ended in March 2021.
During that period, the accused accessed the platform containing clients’ data to select potential victims, mainly elderly people with accounts linked to Banco Santander, and used that personal information to meticulously duplicate the victims’ SIM cards.
From there, E.F.F. made fraudulent charges on behalf of the victims at different ATMs — one victim had about thirty transactions — and also made numerous purchases at local stores. The accused could not continue his actions as he was transferred to a different job, losing access to the database.
On June 15, 2021, the police conducted a raid at the accused’s residence on Costada Dorada Street in the capital, which he shared with his parents and a sister. During the raid, the authorities seized several items used for ATM withdrawals, two mobile phones for SIM card duplication, along with images of third party documentation and bank accounts.
FUENTE