TOKYO (TR) – Tokyo Metropolitan Police have arrested 32-year-old man who used a teenage boy to swindle an elderly woman living in Katsushika Ward, reports TBS News (Oct. 29).
In March, Kiyoshi Hoshino, a resident of Nara City, Nara Prefecture, instructed the boy, then 19, to pose as a police officer upon arrival at the residence of the woman, aged in her 80s.
While her attention was diverted, the boy swapped an envelope containing her three bank cards with a second envelope containing game cards.
Hoshino later used the bank cards to withdraw 2 million yen in cash from an ATM machine, police said.
Hoshino, of no known occupation, is believed to be a member of a fraud ring. Prior to the incident, the victim received a telephone call from a person who falsely said that a police officer would arrive at the residence.
During questioning, he denied the allegations. “I know nothing,” the suspect was quoted by police.
Hoshino became a person of interest in the case after his name surfaced during an investigation into the boy.
