The accused distributed sweets among the hotel staff and the day he left. (Representative)
Thiruvananthapuram:
A 65-year-old man, who allegedly used to stay in five-star hotels and go without paying bills, was caught near Kollam railway station on Sunday and sent to 14-day judicial custody, police said.
A police officer said Vincent John was arrested recently on the basis of a complaint at a hotel in the heart of the state capital where he had stayed and left without paying the bill.
John, a native of Thoothukudi in Tamil Nadu, had also stolen a laptop from the hotel and it was recovered from a shop in Kollam, the official said.
Police said when he checked in, the hotel did not take any cash advance from him considering his style and manner of conduct.
John distributed sweets among the hotel staff and the day he left, he said he would return and asked them to arrange a banquet for 100 people by the time he returned.
Police said that preliminary investigation has revealed that he has committed such fraud several times in the past in Kerala and Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Goa.
He said that according to the information sent by the police from there, most of the crimes were committed in Mumbai. He said that information is also coming in from various other states.
Police further stated that John appeared unfazed by the arrest as the sentence for the crimes was three months.
After he left the star-hotel, the police began investigation and traced him to Kollam using his mobile number and photograph from the hotel’s CCTV footage, the officer said.
He was arrested by a team of Cantonment police station with the help of Kollam police, they said.
Initially, the accused told the police that he was unmarried and had no family.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
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