Cartagena card forgery arrest

An industrial engineer has been arrested in Cartagena for creating a computer system that allowed fake cards to be used for payment of the regulated parking service (ORA) in the city.

Blank cards were bought online for €90 and were used in the electronic parking meters, allowing unlimited use.

It is estimated the fraud has cost the company operating the machines €125,000.

The company sold the cards for €15 which were then topped up and recharged with cash for use in the parking machines.

A police investigation began a year ago when the company responsible detected the possibility that some service users were not paying any amount to use their cards.