Madrid Zoo employees admit stealing more than €1m through fake ticket scam

Two employees of the Madrid Zoo have been arrested on suspicion of stealing more than a million euros via the fraudulent sale of tickets for entry to the attraction. The two men – one of whom was an IT technician, and the other a ticket-office supervisor – had manipulated the zoo’s software so that the tickets they printed did not register in the park’s general system. They were able to keep the payment, albeit in cash or via credit card.

Investigators believe that the pair managed to steal €1,168,147 with the scheme, part of which has been recovered by police from a safe deposit box they were using.

The scheme came to light thanks to an anonymous tip-off from another employee

Police sources explain that one of the men would sell the non-official tickets, keeping back the cash. Meanwhile, credit card payments were made using a portable point-of-sale terminal that they had hired, and which sent the money directly to their own account.

The other man who was arrested, the IT technician, is alleged to have manipulated the code of the zoo’s operating system, avoiding the proper registration of a ticket when it was printed out by his accomplice.

The scheme came to light thanks to an anonymous tip-off from another employee.

The culprits, who have been identified as Diego F. F. and Juan José E. D. M., both Spanish and aged 30 and 55, respectively, admitted to the fraudulent scheme and told police officers that they had stashed away some of the money in a safe-deposit box, according to police sources.