Man arrested for defrauding more than €3 million selling private hire vehicles licenses

Spain's National Police have arrested a man in southern Catalonia who defrauded more than €3 million by selling private hire vehicle licences.

The detained pretended to be an intermediary and managed to collect more than €150,000 in the metropolitan area of Barcelona and €3 million in the Madrid region.

Through the use of companies, he sold licenses to interested people who later did not receive them and managed to sell the same one to several buyers for amounts in excess of €50,000.

He's been charged with crimes of continuous fraud and falsification of documents.

The detainee stole the real identity of the real license holder and changed it to the name of the new buyer. Some victims had even gone so far as to buy new vehicles with which they would work.

Since at least 2021, the alleged scammer has been committing this type of fraud. In the last few months he moved from Madrid to Barcelona because he was already starting to be known in the Spanish capital.