British family arrested for airport scam

The three, said a spokesman for investigating sources, apparenrtly ran a car hire company although without an office at Palma airport.
When they handed over cars to incoming clients at the airport or collected them from visitors on the return journey, it was arranged “for comfort” that the delivery and pick-up should take place in the multi-story car park.

The three handed over the vehicle with a parking ticket which let them out via a machine at the exit.
The same sources explained that when the hire contract was at an end, the clients left the vehicle parked in the multi-storey at an agreed parking space, leaving the ticket inside the vehicle so that when the hire company came to collect the car, the gang credited themselves with the money which had been left for the vehicle being in the car park and withdrew the car from the multi-storey.

Then, the three alleged fraudsters, aiming to avoid paying for the time the vehicles was in the multi-storey, rigged the machine which read registration numbers, superimposing a sheet with false number plates over the real numbers of the vehicle hired to clients.

According to National Police, it was because the first 30 minutes of parking were previously free, the fraudsters were able to take out a vehicle that had already been parked for hours or days, at no cost. The gang were found to have used other tricks, entering with a vehicle and getting hold of an entry ticket in order to take out a car already parked in the multi-storey and at the time of leaving, both cars manoeuvred to leave together when the barrier rose. Management were defrauded of 5'400 euros.