British tourists are allegedly being spiked and plied with 'free' alcohol before having their bank accounts emptied by nightclub staff in Bucharest. Police launched a crackdown on clubs in the stag do hotspot after three Brits, along with one American and a German, were targeted in two different clubs in the Romanian capital.
Two club owners and a number of bartenders, waiters, hostesses and a taxi driver are now facing trial over the alleged attacks, which reportedly saw victims spiked, robbed and even kidnapped.
Tourists were picked out while walking around the city's Old Town before being lured to clubs, according to prosecutors working on the case. They were then offered free booze and the services of private dancers, who would encourage them to keep drinking, according to reports. Once they were intoxicated, bar workers would take their phones or bank cards and charge them extortionate prices, according to police.
Mobiles and banking apps were then unlocked using facial recognition, with people's cash transferred or payments made on card machines, it is alleged. The probe was launched after a British tourist filed a complaint with Bucharest police in March last year. Police in the Romanian capital raided a residence in the investigation, which began in March. CCTV footage allegedly shows a drunk tourist being led somewhere by one of the defendants.
Stacks of cash were found during one of the raids. The alleged perpetrators are then claimed to have broken into an apartment where an American tourist was staying in April of last year. They took jewellery, devices including an iPad, a laptop and two phones, a passport and a bank card, according to police. While attempting to recover his belongings, the tourist was allegedly kidnapped by the defendants. He was allegedly locked up for five days in a club in the Old Town while the defendants went on a spending spree, and only escaped when he managed to call for help through a crack in the window.
