Bogus Church property restorers arrested

(ANSA) - ORISTANO, OCT 20 - Italian police on Tuesday arrested a group of bogus Church property restorers who offered to restore ecclesiastical works but instead carried out about a hundred scams on several Church institutes and unsuspecting priests.
    The fake restorers, of Roma origin, tricked their way into churches in the centre and north of Italy and extorted and scammed money out of officials, police said.
    The police operation, dubbed 'Res Ecclesiae' (Latin for 'Church Property'), was coordinated by police in Oristano in Sardinia.
    Some eight people were arrested.
    But the alleged Roma gang was made up of 13 members, police said.
    The alleged gang first began operating in Sardinia and then moved to the Italian mainland, police said. (ANSA).