FRANKSTON Police have charged a 26 year old man in relation to an alleged scam being run out of Seaford.
Police attended a property on the Nepean Highway, Seaford at around 3.30pm on 11 March. Four men from Ireland were taken into custody at the scene, with three of those later released without charged. One man was charged with obtaining property by deception and state false name.
Frankston Police Detective Acting Sergeant John Melhuish said “we have been conducting an ongoing investigation for a few days now. We have been engaging with interstate police and also border force as part of that investigation. While we were investigating one single report of deception committed in the Seaford area, I was surprised at the apparent extent of this issue across the city.”
“After the media attention we got last week, the amount of information flooding in relating to these types of incidents was quite staggering. We were able to solve this due to a very switched on member of the public. As it turns out, despite being the talk of the town, these offenders kept up their dodgy little act and approached a Frankston man, offering to fix his roof. This Frankston man was aware of the scam and while he was talking to them called 000 to report them. From there the divvy van crew was able to intercept them and brought them in to the police station,” he said.
“We have issued charges against one of the men, and continue to follow up on reports from members of the public. If you have recently been a victim of a scam such at this, then please attend your local police station to make a report and have an investigation commenced.”