Couple charged in 'grandparent scam' appear in Summerside court 

A man and woman from Chile charged with defrauding P.E.I. seniors out of thousands of dollars used their lawyer on the phone from Montreal as a Spanish translator during a court appearance Wednesday in Summerside. 

Luis Luciano David Cortez Abarca, 26, and Genesis Javiera Carvajal Tapia, 25, have each been charged with two counts of fraud exceeding $5,000 by Summerside police. The pair also face two fraud charges each relating to similar incidents in Charlottetown.

Both of their Summerside cases were adjourned until Sept. 11 at 9 a.m. 

A court order prevents the husband and wife from speaking with each other, so both appeared separately in provincial court in Summerside, speaking via video link from jail.

Wearing a grey sweatshirt and jogging pants, Cortez wiped tears from his eyes and bit his lower lip during his short appearance. His lawyer, Marc-Antoine Rock, was on the phone from Montreal. 

Cortez told Judge Krista MacKay his first language is Spanish and said he was struggling to understand her questions. 

"My English [is] not very well, I speak Spanish," Cortez told the P.E.I. judge. 

Rock ended up speaking to his client in Spanish, then relayed the information to the court in English. 

Tapia's court appearance was much shorter. She also spoke with her lawyer in Spanish. 

Rock asked for the adjournment so he could review the evidence against both of his clients and speak with the Crown attorney. Both Cortez and Tapia agreed to stay in jail until their next court appearance. 

Facing more charges 

Summerside police accuse the couple of carrying out a "grandparent scam," a ploy that involves defrauding people by telling them their grandchildren are in legal trouble and need money to be bailed out of jail.

The charges were laid after two people in Summerside were defrauded of $6,000 each. 

A day before those charges were laid, Charlottetown police were contacted by a man who said his grandmother had been phoned by someone with a similar demand for bail money. In that case, the woman grew suspicious and called her grandson to see if he was indeed in trouble.

When a man arrived to collect the $5,000 that had been demanded, officers were at the home and arrested Cortez. Investigators later determined that a woman was also involved in the operation, and officers arrested Tapia at a motel in Borden-Carleton. 

The two accused are from Chile and had been travelling in a vehicle with New Brunswick plates.

Both are scheduled to appear in court in Charlottetown Thursday.