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Jewellery thief caught after four-year con

Caroline Bishop
Caroline Bishop - [email protected]
Jewellery thief caught after four-year con
Photo: Newsbie Pix

A man who has been swindling jewellery stores in Switzerland for at least four years has finally been arrested, according to a media report.

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The fraudster, who has conned shops out of thousands of francs of jewellery over the years, was caught on Saturday after a suspicious Fribourg jeweller called the police, 20 Minutes said on Friday.

Just days earlier the man had swindled Bern store Sonderegger & Co out of two gold necklaces, worth 13,000 francs ($14,500), using his tried and trusted method, the newspaper said.

After expressing his desire to buy the items, the thief said he was unable to pay in cash but would settle the amount by making a post office deposit to the shop’s account.

On returning to the shop, he produced the deposit receipt and was given his ‘purchases’.

It wasn’t until later that the shop realized he had falsified the receipt and paid just two francs for the 13,000-franc necklaces.

“He was very polite throughout our conversation,” a shop assistant told 20 Minutes.

Manager Ronald Sonderegger contacted police and alerted other jewellers in the area.

The man was finally caught after trying the same ruse on the Vollichard shop in Fribourg on Saturday.

An employee alerted police on instinct after his dealings with the fraudster left him with “an odd feeling”, 20 Minutes said.

According to investigators, it’s possible that the man had been conning jewellers in this way for at least four years.

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