Chennai Police recovered 271 ATM cards from con man

CHENNAI: Chennai Police have recovered 271 ATM cards from a 55-year-old man, working as a mechanic in Central government’s Heavy vehicles factory in Avadi who conned public who struggled to withdraw money and swindled their cards.

The arrested person, K Prabhu was indulging in the act for the past one year, police investigations revealed. Prabhu’s con job came to light after one of the victims, a 24-year-old woman, Jacqueline made a police complaint about Rs 29,500 debited from her account after she used her ATM card in Ambattur. Investigations revealed that the ATM card in her possession was not hers after which she told police that she had tried to activate her card at an ATM centre and an elderly man, who was waiting behind her had ‘helped’ her.

Based on her complaint, MKB Nagar police registered a case and traced Prabhu with the help of CCTV footage and nabbed him, it was revealed that he had swapped Jacqueline’s ATM card with a similar looking card.

Police investigations revealed that Prabhu stationed himself outside ATM centers in the city and stole ATM cards of innocent public who struggled to use the machine and replaced them with the defunct cards in his possession.

“He mostly targeted elderly people,” a police officer said. Searches in his house revealed that he had 271 ATM cards with him.

Police sources said that he had taken loans for his daughter’s wedding and to settle it, he took to this con job. While police have recovered Rs 6,500 in cash from him apart from the ATM cards, investigations are underway to find out how much money he has swindled so far, police said.