Job scammer gets seven years

A Tunisian man who has been sentenced to seven years on fraud-related charges after he was found guilty of conning 267 people by making empty job promises in France.

Μohamet Jamel Ben Hassen, a 63-year-old Tunisian national who was extradited from Greece to Cyprus, told local audiences in Cyprus he had a contract with a company to guarantee construction jobs in Lille, France.

Back in early summer 2013, the suspect introduced himself to Cypriot audiences as Yiorgos Krasopoulos, of G. Krasopoulos International Ltd, and signed up 470 individuals who were convinced to pay €620 upfront. The advanced fee was requested in order to get their employment contracts while another similar amount would have to be paid later on.

A Larnaca court sentenced Hassen to seven years after the defendant admitted 560 charges related to fraud, forgery, illegal gains, and conspiracy to commit a felony. The offences were committed between June and September 2013 where a total of 267 individuals were targeted, conned, with swindled out of a total of €165,540.

The suspect along with his associate Petar Gospodinov Penchev, a Bulgarian national, together managed to swindle nearly half a thousand job seekers from Larnaca, Limassol, and Famagusta districts out of a total of €290,000 during their registration period from June through September that year.

Over 70 skilled workers actually made the trip to Lille in September 2013 where they discovered there were no jobs, no accommodation, and no contracts for them.

Penchev, and another Greek associate were arrested in Bulgaria and Serbia and later extradited to Cyprus in December 2013 while Ben Hassen was thought to have evaded capture by Cypriot authorities.