Prison sentences ranging from 18 months to four years were sought on Tuesday in the Courtrai Criminal Court for 11 persons accused of bank card fraud.
The defendants, who are from Aalst, Dendermonde and Charleroi, had posed as bank employees to steal the cards and secret codes of elderly people. "The damage amounted to €136,000, and this is undoubtedly only the tip of the iceberg," the public prosecutor said.
"Their modus operandi was always the same," the prosecutor said at the start of his closing argument.
"The victims, often elderly people with limited knowledge of online banking, would receive a phone call from a Dutch number," the prosecutor continued. "The person on the other end of the line pretended to be a bank employee who had noticed a suspicious transaction. To prevent the transaction, the bank offered to send someone over as quickly as possible.
"Shortly afterwards, the victim received a visit from the crooks, who read the card before cutting it in half without damaging the chip. They would then take the pieces of card away and glue them back together to make expensive withdrawals and purchases."
The investigation showed that the group had stolen at least €136,000 in this way, but according to the prosecutor, that was just the tip of the iceberg.
The ringleader, who controlled the gang through Snapchat, faces up to four years in prison.
