Police in Spain have pounced on an illegal care home catering for elderly expats and detained the British couple running it.
The husband and wife, both said to be 59, and their 25-year-old daughter are now under investigation for fraud, operating without a licence and engaging in criminal activity.
They are alleged to have been running a 5-bed residential home for five years from their own property in Santa Pola on the Alicante coast where they attempted to convince residents to give them their assets.
According to the Guardia Civil in Alicante the family “targeted elderly British expats who were resident in the town, had no family nearby and who spoke only English."
Through her job in a pharmacy in town, the daughter was able to identify potential victims, investigators said.
"She would show interest in them and establish an emotional tie with them. She would get information of how they lived, about their purchasing power," the spokesman said.
"They were persuaded to move into the so-called care home where they paid a monthly fee of between €2,500 and €3,000 a month. Then the residents were told to hand over documentation and deeds to their properties with the intention of convincing them to sign them over to the suspects to inherit on their death."
The residents were under surveillance.
"If one of them received visitors, they were watched closely to ensure that they didn’t discover what was going on," said the statement.
"Their control was so tight that mobile phones were confiscated and the residents were watched all the time with CCTV cameras."
One resident who had managed to leave the premises spoke to relatives of his concerns.
Although there has been no allegations of physical mistreatment, the police statement said the carers were not properly qualified, that the centre was operating without a licence and, therefore, without being regulated by the authorities.
