The State Police of Reggio Calabria has enforced a precautionary custody order issued by the GIP at the Court of Palmi, against 15 people residing in the province of Reggio Calabria, all employees of ARSAC (Regional Agency for the Development of 'Agriculture Calabrese - Area 6, Section of Gioia Tauro), who have been accused of having absent themselves or not having presented themselves on duty, falsely certifying their presence in the workplace through the "swipe" of the badge by others colleagues, on the reader of the special validating machine, thus inducing the aforementioned institution into error regarding the effectiveness of the presence in service of the suspects.
The investigation activities of the Agents of the Gioia Tauro Commissariat, with the support of colleagues from the Reggio Calabria Mobile Squad, the Public Security Commissariats of Siderno and Palmi and the Crime Prevention Department of Siderno, made use of technical interception and video-shooting by the employees of the regional offices of ARSAC and were combined with accurate observation and shadowing services for employees who, during office hours, left the workplace to carry out personal activities: from shopping in supermarkets to long walks and stops in public places, to sporting practices. The system used by the recipients of the precautionary measures was simple and tested: to assign, in turn, one or more employees so that they also "swipe" the badges of other colleagues on the digital reader, placed at the entrance to the offices, falsely certifying their presence in the workplace and with this, carrying out the disputed crimes.
The precautionary measure of house arrest was applied to 5 suspects, while the precautionary measure of the obligation of presentation to the judicial police was applied to the other 10 suspects. Furthermore, the investigating judge ordered the preventive seizure for the equivalent of the sums unduly received (approximately € 12.000,00, in total) - such as resulting working days, but, in fact, not carried out for the adoption of the ascertained system fraudulent use of individual badges - against the 15 recipients of the personal precautionary measures and against another 3 suspects.