TOKYO (TR) – A routine traffic stop in Koto Ward last month led to the arrest of a 20-year-old man on suspicion of fraud, police said last week, reports TV Asahi (Nov. 30).
At just past 1:00 a.m. on November 20, an officer in a patrol car spotted a vehicle driven by Shunya Takahashi parked along a road. During voluntary questioning, the officer found six bank cards not in the name of Takahashi and 1.2 million yen in cash.
Police later accused Takahashi of working with accomplices in the swindle of a woman aged in her 80s and living in Warabi City, Saitama Prefecture. On November 20, the woman was falsely told by a person claiming to be from a government office that she was “eligible for a refund if she exchanged her bank cards.”
Takahashi later collected two cards from the woman. “While knowing it was fraud, I withdrew money from an ATM machine,” the suspect was quoted by police in admitting to the allegations.
