The crimes have been committed from call centers in different countries during 2022 and 2023. Through long phone calls, the elderly have been tricked into signing and making transactions with bank ID, and thus lost large sums from their accounts.
It is extremely tragic for the individual. And a social problem that the crime-fighting authorities need to get to the bottom of, says senior prosecutor Rebecca Budell to TT after the verdict.
This involves a total of 14 people, where two men in their 25s have been identified as the main characters in the network. The two are sentenced to eight years and eight months in prison and nine years and eight months in prison, respectively. They are also convicted of a particularly serious assault on a former employee at one of the call centers. The man who received the longest prison sentence is also convicted of money laundering.
The other twelve convicted have worked for varying lengths of time at the call centers and made themselves guilty of various numbers of frauds. This has also affected the length of the prison sentences, which range from one year and four months to three years and ten months.
"Well-motivated verdict"
Senior prosecutor Rebecca Budell is satisfied with the verdict, which is 867 pages long.
And I think the district court has also motivated well why they are imposing slightly shorter prison sentences for those who have acted as callers at the call centers compared to the main perpetrators.
Lawyer Björn Hurtig represents one of those considered to be one of the main perpetrators of the frauds.
I think it's a tough verdict, he says, and adds that it mainly concerns the district court's verdict regarding the particularly serious assault.
When it comes to the fraud part, his client denies the crime.
–He has no role in it, says Hurtig.
Seized property
According to the prosecutor, property worth 13-15 million kronor has been seized in connection with the investigation against the individuals in the network.
In a press release, the Göteborg District Court writes that damages have been awarded to 139 plaintiffs for pure property damage. The person who was subjected to particularly serious assault has received compensation of 200,000 kronor for violation and for pain and suffering.
Most of the people in the network have denied the crime.
Corrected: In an earlier version of the text, an incorrect statement was made about how many were sentenced to prison terms.
