More than a dozen individuals, among which bar administrators, bartenders, waiters, and hostesses, have been brought to trial by prosecutors on charges of intoxicating foreign tourists who visited two establishments in the Bucharest Old Town, after which they robbed them or emptied their bank accounts.

In total, 16 individuals and two companies have been charged with illegal access to an IT system, carrying out financial operations fraudulently, qualified theft, and illegal deprivation of liberty.

Prosecutors noted that the defendants obtained significant amounts of money under the cover of commercial companies. The total proven damage was approximately RON 410,000 (EUR 82,000), obtained after offering and selling products and services that were attractive to tourists but designed to mislead them regarding the price paid. 

The bar employees also recorded the PIN codes of inebriated tourists and “carried out illicit subsequent payments within the same economic operator, in some cases even leading to the deprivation of liberty of some of the victims,” according to the Bucharest Prosecutors’ Office cited by Agerpres.

According to investigation data, the defendants identified foreign citizens in the Old Town, whom they brought into two establishments where they were encouraged by dancers to consume alcohol. After the tourists became intoxicated, the bar employees stole their mobile phones or bank cards. The phones were unlocked using the facial recognition function, after which money was transferred or payments were made at POS terminals. 

At the end of April 2024, the defendants allegedly broke into an apartment where a foreign tourist was staying, from where they stole jewelry, a laptop, an iPad, two mobile phones, a bank card, and a passport. Subsequently, under the pretext of recovering his belongings, the defendants kidnapped the tourist, locking him up for five days in a club in the Old Town.

radu@romania-insider.com

(Photo source: Masezdromaderi | Dreamstime.com)