Rome, 61-year-old repeat offender arrested by the State Police while he was disguised as a priest in a post office in the capital to obtain a loan

In the morning in Rome, the State Police arrested, at the post office in via Anastasio II, a 61 year old repeat offender, previously reported to the Postal Police by the Fraud Management Office of Poste Italiane, because he was intent on carrying out suspicious transactions.

The man, in the company of another individual and disguised in a cassock, was in that post office to request a Bancoposta loan by showing a driving licence previously stolen from a high prelate of the Vatican State; the same was blocked thanks to the rapid intervention of the investigators of the Postal Police who, for several days, had been monitoring the post offices in the neighborhood considered to be at greatest risk for the commission of fraud crimes.

The investigations revealed that the man had previously sent his counterfeit death certificate to the Public Prosecutor's Office where he was accused in order to obtain the dismissal of the proceedings. Furthermore, at the time of the check, the man was also found to be in possession of an identity card, perfectly reproduced, registered to an unaware person resident in the province of Potenza.

The companion of the fake prelate, investigated for complicity in the crime, turned out to be a forty-year-old already investigated for having passed himself off as a NAS Carabiniere during a check by the police; on this occasion the latter had exhibited a false qualification badge together with a counterfeit passport of the Presidency of the Council of Ministers.

The arrest was validated with the application of the measure of house arrest with the obligation of an electronic bracelet.