The Guardia Civil in Carmona, Sevilla has charged a 25-year-old man with starting a fire in his own BMW in order to claim 13,000 euros on his car insurance.

The police press statement says that the accused filed a complaint with them, claiming damages as a result of a vehicle fire. According to his statement, persons unknown committed arson upon his BMW.

The police opened investigations, following several leads, as they considered that the car was in a suspiciously little-frequented area in the municipality when the incident occurred.

There were also doubtful over his claim that the burns he had suffered were caused by an explosion when he attempted to get near the burning car to put it out, as claimed, because they were “clearly” normal burns and not ones inflicted by an explosion.

They soon discovered that the ‘victim’ had had his car up for sale online and had recently taken the advert down not long prior to the incident.

Furthermore, the only witness was his mother, whose statement contained contradictions

So, they took him in for questioning, explained their conclusions – tweaked his nipples and beat the soles of his feet, playfully (just joking!) after which he admitted that he had caused the fire himself to obtain 13,000 euros from his insurance.

Editorial comment: taking into account the ridiculously high prices in Spain for 2nd-hand vehicles… it must have been a pretty clapped out BMW to be worth more as a smoldering heap. It must have had pretty terminal mechanical problem, I guess.

(News: Carmona, Sevilla, Andalucia)