A hearing in Palma on Thursday failed to reach agreement between the prosecution and the defence in the case of four tourists who are accused of having used cloned bank cards in spending thousands of euros in hotels in Mallorca. There will now be a trial, which has been set for February 1.
The prosecution service is calling for sentences of eight years and three months for each of the four, who are aged between 22 and 29 and are variously British, German and Irish nationals. They are charged with fraud and with having been in possession of tools for forging credit cards.
The case goes back to July 2018. They are said to have cloned cards belonging to an American company and used these to reserve four rooms at a five-star hotel in Llucmajor. Over three days, they ran up bills of 12,130 euros, of which 1,776 euros corresponded to drinks.
After they left this hotel, they made another reservation - for five days at a four-star hotel in Magalluf. The Guardia Civil were called when they attempted to leave without having settled the bill.
In addition to cash, officers found a card reader device, a laptop, and several credit and debit cards from different banks, which had been stolen or cloned.
As well as the prison sentence, the prosecution is demanding that they pay compensation to the two hotels.