A GNR officer sentenced to 13 years in prison for fraud exceeding €400,000 surrendered to the authorities this morning (Wednesday) after barricading himself for 15 hours inside the Felgueiras GNR station.
The officer handed himself in at 7.40am, a police source told Lusa news agency.
He had been barricaded inside the station since around 3pm on Tuesday, when fellow officers attempted to execute a warrant to take him to Tomar prison, in the district of Santarém, to begin serving his sentence.
According to the same source, the officer reacted negatively to the enforcement of the warrant, claiming that the court decision was not yet final and that an appeal was still pending. He then barricaded himself inside the building.
The source added that the GNR officer surrendered following negotiations carried out by a specialist team. The officer was unharmed and was found to be in possession of a weapon that was not his service firearm.
He will now be transferred to Tomar prison.
The officer, who was stationed at the GNR post in Fafe at the time of the crimes, was sentenced to 13 years in prison for instigating a fraud scheme worth more than €400,000. Prosecutors said the proceeds allowed him and his wife, a judicial auditor and future judge, to live a “life of luxury”.
In November 2022, the Guimarães court convicted him of dozens of counts of aggravated fraud and money laundering, handing down a single 13-year prison sentence and banning him from exercising GNR duties for five years.
After appeals, the sentence was confirmed, first in June 2024, by the Guimarães Court of Appeal and later in March this year by the Supreme Court of Justice (STJ).
According to the Public Prosecutor’s Office, the scheme involved the officer’s father, described as a “well-known and respected figure in his community, who borrowed money from people – mainly elderly victims – under false pretences, often fabricating urgent and distressing situations”. The officer’s mother assisted in the scheme when necessary.
The prosecution said the fraud generated more than €400,000.
The officer’s wife received a suspended prison sentence of four and a half years for money laundering, a ruling also upheld by the Supreme Court. The officer’s parents were likewise convicted.
Source: Lusa
