Gipsy pickpockets' palaces

Gipsy pickpockets' palaces: The mansions built by Romanian family of thieves who robbed train passengers while they slept

In Britain, they claimed to be destitute, living on benefits and scrounging from tourists to whom they sold the Big Issue.
But in fact the Rostas family had five huge palaces in their Romanian homeland, financed by the proceeds of a massive pickpocketing racket here.
These are the gaudy mansions the family of Roma gipsies built after stealing hundreds of thousands of pounds from commuters, snatching mobile phones and cash as they dozed on late-night trains from London to Kent.

Bad taste: The Rostas family built five gaudy mansions in their homeland financed by their racket here

Over two years the gang claimed at least 185 victims, though police believe that the true number is well over 500.
The stolen phones were sold in Romania to generate huge profits which the family used to build this 16-bedroom villa. A few streets away four similar blue-roofed palaces, all decorated with the Mercedes car emblem to symbolise wealth, are shared by other members of the extended family.
All are unfinished to avoid paying Romanian property taxes.
When the Daily Mail tracked down relatives of the clan who live in the small town of Huedin in Transylvania, one was eager to boast about the family’s riches. He said: ‘Yes, we are very, very rich family. We work in England, Spain and France. We make a lot of money.’
The young gipsy proudly gestured to the five-storey house built with stolen cash, adding: ‘We have spent a fortune on this. Well over a million euros.’

Twelve months ago, the family bought another plot of land for 30,000 euros in nearby Calatele, where they are believed to have more houses.

Lavish display: The Mercedes symbols on the roof of one of their houses in Huedin, Transylvania, symbolise wealth

Dodgy: The family deliberately left windows unfinished on this five-storey building to avoid property taxes

Ostentatious: The distinctive luxury homes built by the the family - who admit to robbing sleeping commuters - tower over the town in north-west Romania

Yesterday other members of the Rostas family were swaggering around Huedin in shiny designer tracksuits and weighed down with gold watches and jewellery.
Parked outside their palaces were Mercedes, Audis and BMWs with English and Irish number plates.
Police believe the family may be part of a wider criminal network spread across Europe, operating in Britain, Ireland, Spain and France. One neighbour, Artur Potra, 42, a retired engineering technician, said: ‘They have never worked in Romania. They just steal, steal, steal. They started out trading stolen whisky and cigarettes in the 1990s before they moved into Britain.
‘They spend 11 months of the year there and then they come back here for one month and put another 10,000 euros on the house.

‘They come here to party, betting thousands at the casino and eating as much as they can, and when the money runs out they go back to steal more.
‘The mobile phones are sold on the streets and the markets and they also operate as loan sharks here, but they get no trouble because they bribe the police.’

The crimes were carried out by the (clockwise from above left) Romulous, 18, Marin, 25, and Robert, 23, and their cousin Cornell, 22

He added: ‘They love showing off. Two of the children in the family have been named after the Mercedes car and you can see the sign on their rooftops. The children are taught to beg and they all live off benefits in England. The English have been good to gipsies.’

Since the Rostas family arrived in Britain ten years ago as refugees, they have been claiming thousands of pounds in disability and child benefit which they used to pay the rent on two cramped terrace houses in Gravesend, Kent.

But now their assets could be seized after four members of the family pleaded guilty to conspiracy to steal this week.
It can now be revealed that during their decade in Britain, family members have been arrested and prosecuted dozens of times for pickpocketing, stealing from customers in pubs and cafes, and shoplifting.
Detective Constable Tim Weekes of British Transport Police said: ‘These men are career criminals who worked in a co-ordinated and organised manner.
‘Their aim was to generate as much money as possible to pass back to other family members in Romania to buy land and property.’

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2106131/Pickpockets-palaces-The-Romanian-mansions-built-targeting-UK-commuters.html#ixzz1njBJxJ9A

Dozens Of Tamil-Canadians Arrested In Toronto For Massive Auto-Insurance

TORONTO – A lengthy investigation into a multi-million dollar auto-insurance scam led to the arrest of 37 people Thursday, mostly Tamil-Canadians and other South

Asians, according to police, who say it is an escalating problem in the South Asian community that’s made the GTA Canada’s phony collision capital.

Police say the ring is allegedly headed by 10 people from Markham and Toronto, all facing a slew of charges, including fraud, forgery and falsification of books or

documents.

Many of the accused hail from the GTA’s South Asian community. Of the 10 alleged ringleaders, who range in age from 32 to 57, most are Tamil, said Det. Const.

Kajamuganthan Kathiravelu, who made a separate appeal to the Tamil community at Thursday’s news conference, reported the Toronto Star newspaper.

Police named nine of the accused in Project Whiplash: Pirapaharan Nadesu, 33, of Toronto; Sipaskaran Sabaratnam, 32, of Markham; Nishanthan Ponnuthurai, 32, of

Markham; Jeyakanthan Theivendran, 43, of Markham; Baskaran Tharmakulasingam, 35, of Toronto; Mahaletchumy Pathmanathan, 57, of Markham; Sujeegah

Kanagalingam, 32, of Markham; Ravigunathas Gunasingam, 40, of Toronto; and Vishnukanthan Sabapathy, 35, of Toronto.

Thirty-six suspects sought in an alleged multi-million dollar auto-insurance scam were scooped up Thursday in early-morning raids across the Toronto area, and arrest

warrants have been issued for several more.

As part of an investigation dubbed Project Whiplash — in early morning raids across the GTA, police arrested dozens, laying a total of 130 charges stemming from 77

collisions police say were staged and have helped send insurance premiums skyrocketing in the province. Additional arrests are expected.

“The victims of this crime are all of us who operate motor vehicles,” said Toronto Police Chief Bill Blair at a news conference to announce the arrests.

Auto insurance fraud costs Ontario drivers as much as $1.3 billion per year, between 10 and 15 per cent of all premiums, according to a recent report by the Auditor General

of Ontario.

“There’s no question that the GTA is the staged collision capital of Canada,” said Rick Dubin, vice-president of investigative services for the Insurance Bureau of Canada

(IBC), which was a key player in Project Whiplash.

The Toronto police’s traffic services division first probed the scam in 2009, said Insp. Gord Jones. A joint investigation with IBC and Financial Services Commission of

Ontario (FISCO) uncovered a sophisticated scam ring operating primarily in the GTA’s Tamil community.

It works like this: scammers orchestrate, or in some cases fabricate, an accident, then file a fraudulent insurance claim for vehicle damage and bodily harm

If pulled off, the phony accidents can be lucrative, said Sgt. Mike McCulloch — as much as $50,000 per scam.

While exact figures are not known, Jones said the scams accounted for millions of dollars in losses.

State Farm Insurance, one of the first companies to suspect fraud by the accused, said its losses alone amounted to $4 million. A State Farm spokesperson confirmed that some

of the accused were named in an affirmative action civil lawsuit launched by the insurance company in December 2010.

Some of the accused worked as paralegals, helping to file false insurance claims. Others operated rehabilitation or medical clinics in Scarborough, Toronto and Markham, and

are accused of submitting false invoices to insurers.

Four of the implicated clinics face separate charges, laid by FISCO, under Ontario’s Insurance Act with one count each of knowingly making false or misleading statements to

an auto insurer.

The clinics are: McCowan Rehabilitation Clinic, Ontario Rehabilitation Clinic, Physiotherapy Clinic and North York Health & Rehabilitation Centre in Toronto.

Investigators contend the accused recruited largely from within their community, preying on new immigrants with few English-language skills.

“This gives a bad reputation to the community,” said Markham Councillor Logan Kanapathi, who is Tamil. “These people have let down their families and their community