Thursday, February 18, 2010

Pole pries prostitutes pretending to be policeman

From: NPE
A 33-year-old resident of Gostynin was arrested this week for impersonating a police officer and using a fake police badge to acquire sexual services from prostitutes. In a modus operandi that repeated itself precisely dozens of times, the man carefully selected prostitutes from local papers that were offering services from their own homes.

He would arrive at the doorstep then flash the silver badge at them and announce that there was an investigation concerning an infection with HIV which would lead to a lot of trouble for the prostitute, making it impossible for her to work for several months. He then suggested that he could be persuaded to keep a secret if the woman had sex with him. If the woman still resisted, he threatened to make the nature of her work public.

The badge he used was a plastic toy of the kind readily available from any toy shop and even had the word ‘Police’ written on it in English, not Polish. But most of his victims didn’t look closely enough at the flashing badge in a black wallet. So far police have found eight women who were cheated in this way, but they do not exclude the possibility that further cases will be found. The man, who lives in Gostynin and works in Plock, and is in a steady relationship, was taken completely by surprise. He was even carrying the fake plastic police badge when arrested by Plock officers. The man faces up to ten years in prison.