Five people arrested; one in preventive custody
PJ police have conducted a second mega operation on the island of Madeira – this time targeting a “gigantic” suspected fraud in social mobility subsidies.
Around 60 inspectors from the Anti-Corruption Unit swooped on the island this morning with warrants to search dozens homes and other properties in Funchal, Santa Cruz, Câmara de Lobos and Caniço.
At the same time, PJ inspectors searched locations in Lisbon and Loures on the mainland.
Similar to the investigation that brought down Madeira’s PSD government in January, teams travelling to the regional archipelago arrived in an Air Force plane that brought them back to the mainland with the defendants, now due to be brought before a judge at the criminal investigation court in Loures.
Five people have been arrested so far in what is dubbed “Operation Traveller’s Route”.
A statement published by the PJ explains that their investigation has found “that the defendants, with the aim of obtaining large amounts of illegitimate economic profits, decided to develop a criminal scheme with the objective of obtaining illegitimate profits through the social mobility subsidy, related to hundreds of non-existent journeys, totalling more than half a million euros in undue reimbursements”.
The scam allegedly involved “recruiting residents’ of Madeira, who were provided with the documents needed to withdraw the subsidy and which had been falsified in advance, such as airline tickets, tickets and reservations, invoices and receipts. These people were then accompanied by members of the criminal network and presented the documentation at CTT stations on the mainland in order to receive the reimbursement from the State.
“The now dismantled criminal operation showed high levels of organisation, with different hierarchical levels, and was made up of counterfeiters, recruiters and controllers”, said the statement.
The arrested people are aged between 23 and 55. One has already been placed in pre-trial detention.
The PJ statement also recalls “various police operations” carried out over the last five years to dismantle criminal networks dedicated to the fraudulent use of the social mobility allowance in Madeira and the Azores, and which have already damaged the State by more than €6 million.
Elements of the National Anti-Corruption Unit (UNCC) and Madeira’s Criminal Investigation Department were mobilised for this operation. The PJ also had the support of the Portuguese Air Force in terms of logistics and transporting defendants and seized evidence.
NB. The social mobility subsidy is designed for citizens who live in Madeira or the Azores, and national students, who travel backwards and forwards to the mainland. The idea is that the government pays part of the costs of the journey
Source: SIC Notícias/ Lusa
