Three people were arrested in Nerja for theft, usurpation of a bank card to buy exclusive-brand items - it belonged to an 80-year-old woman.

The items stolen from her house were valuables worth a total of 40,000 euros (jewellery & watches), as well as 12,000 euros in cash. In other words all of her savings. As for the credit card, they racked up 8,000 euros in purchases.

She was basically left penniless and struggled to meet bill payments.

All this was taken from her home but the police upon inspecting the dwelling found that they had not made a forced entry, concluding that they had used a tool or skeleton key to open the front door.

Police investigations led to the house of a man in Villanueva del Trabuco, where he lived with his partner. He was the son of the victim, who had had no contact with her in several years.

The suspect and his partner had made numerous purchases using the stolen card on the 31st of October in establishments both in Nerja and Málaga. In fact, they took advantage of the fact that it was Halloween to dress up in a disguise in order not to be recognised when they used the card.

After three months of investigation, officers went ahead and made the arrests: the son, his partner and a third individual whose help was needed in order to make the purchases.

The police had deducted that he son had managed to make a copy of the key so that he and his partner could gain entrance and carry out the theft. He also obtained not only the credit card, but also its pin as he knew where she kept it.

When the police searched the suspects’ house they found the Halloween costumes (which coincided with the CCTV images). They also recovered the purchases made; a 55″ TV, perfume and top-brand shoes.

They also found a starting pistol, six knives, two high-precision weight scales, two grammes of cocaine, 2.5 kilos of marihuana, amongst other revealing items. The son, by the way, as you may have guessed, has a criminal record.

(News: Nerja, Axarquia, Costa del Sol, Malaga, Andalucia)