Airline pilot arrested for fraud

AN airline pilot was arrested in Almeria charged with fraud, after placing 11 false reports from which he gained €49,700 from insurance companies. The 34-year-old pilot, who works for a commercial airline had been reporting violent robberies since 2003. Last year, he reported at a National Police station in Sevilla that a €5,000 watch had been stolen from him, but when they began investigating and found no trace of the watch, the police began to doubt his story.

They discovered that he had made several similar reports, and claimed in all of them that two people had threatened him with a knife to steal his belongings. He also reported robberies at some of the homes he owned in different parts of Spain, in which he always claimed that one of the entrances had been forced open.

He also reported several times that his ID card had been stolen, but there was never any evidence of how it had been recovered or renewed.

He never informed the police that the items he reported stolen were insured, and at times gave the police confusing information to hinder their investigation.

He was arrested at Almeria airport when he arrived on a flight from Sevilla.