Corio and Werribee men charged over alleged $250,000 deception, thefts

A Geelong man has been charged with dozens of offences after allegedly stealing $250,000 from seven elderly victims across Victoria and Western Australia.

Waurn Ponds police arrested and charged a Corio man and a Werribee man with 71 offences. Picture: Alan Barber

A Geelong man has been charged with dozens of offences after allegedly stealing $250,000 from seven elderly victims across Victoria and Western Australia.

Waurn Ponds officers swooped on four properties in Corio, Geelong West and Werribee between June last year and February as part of an extensive investigation into the alleged crimes.

Police will allege a Corio man, 30 and a Werribee man, 33, made contact with the victims and remotely gained access to their bank accounts.

Both have been charged with 71 offences including obtain property by deception, theft, possess proceeds of crime, obtain financial advantage by deception and handle stolen goods.

The offending is alleged to have occurred between June 2024 and February.

The pair were bailed to appear in the Geelong Magistrates Court on October 21.

Online fraud, theft and phishing scams have been on the rise in Geelong.

It comes after a warning from police earlier this year about a growing number of fraudsters.

Deception crimes have increased by more than 600 per cent in Geelong over the past decade.

An 87-year-old woman from Wallington was fleeced of more than $20,000 in a telephone scam in January.

The scam caller, alleging he was from a telecommunications company, requested the victim’s banking details over the phone and advised her to leave her bank cards in a letterbox to be reissued at a later date.

The woman’s cards were then stolen from her letterbox and used at a range of electrical goods stores.

Originally published as Corio and Werribee men charged over alleged $250,000 deception, thefts