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.
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