MADRID – A Spanish builder with large debts kidnapped his bank manager at gunpoint and demanded a €50,000 loan plus his luxury car, police in the southern city of Malaga said yesterday.
“He needed money urgently; the company had stacked up large debts recently,” a spokeswoman said.
The builder accosted his
bank manager in a car park near the bank in the Mediterranean resort of Marbella on Tuesday, and told him, falsely, that accomplices had taken his
family hostage.
The builder then forced the executive to drive 20km (12 miles) to Estepona, sign over his luxury car, and transfer €1,500 to the builder’s bank account.
The banker persuaded his kidnapper to let him call a colleague and told him, in
code, that he had been
kidnapped.
Police tracked them down
to an office in the town and
seized the kidnapper as they
left the building.
The builder was remanded in custody on Thursday, El Pais reported.
Several thousand Spanish builders are expected to go bust this year as the number and
value of house sales collapse
and banks become increasingly reluctant to lend to housebuyers. – (Reuters)