A recent case in Elche involved two 23-year-old workers who are facing charges after allegedly defrauding arcade owners to the tune of 269,000 euros. Police say the suspects leveraged their positions within the city’s gaming venues to learn how payments and cash collections were handled, using that knowledge to execute a calculated fraud scheme against multiple business locations.
The investigation began when several arcade operators in Elche reported a pattern of irregular cash handling. According to the provincial police, the two men used copies of cash-collection receipts that they themselves produced for months. These duplicate slips mirrored legitimate transactions and enabled the perpetrators to withdraw the same amounts from cash change machines that customers had already settled, effectively duplicating receipts and taking money without consent.
Dishonest scheme
When the employer detected the deception, he confronted one of the workers and found duplicates whose total value approached 116,000 euros. The other employee was linked to duplications totaling around 153,000 euros. The victim provided the National Police with the duplicated receipts, revealing that both workers had been siphoning money from various cash change machines across several game rooms owned by the same business group.
Investigators reviewed the complaint and, after gathering information on the alleged fraudsters, executed a search operation. A few days later, the two suspects were located and arrested on suspicion of committing fraud. The arrests marked a significant step in tracing the fraud network and establishing the scope of the manipulation within the arcade business community.
The detained individuals were brought to local police facilities for formal inquiries. They were later remanded to custody by the Elche Night Court, where preliminary proceedings and reviews of the evidence continued under judicial supervision.