A 65-year-old man has been arrested in Kerala's Kollam on a complaint by a Thiruvananthapuram five-star hotel that he cheated them by leaving without paying his room and food bill. The hotel said that the man also stole a laptop. Vicent John was arrested on Sunday near the railway station and sent to judicial custody for 14 days by a local court, the police said. John is a native of Thoothukudi in Tamil Nadu, they added. The laptop was recovered from a shop in Kollam.
The Thiruvananthapuram police caught John by tracing the signals of his mobile phone and alerted their counterparts in Kollam. He was identified by the photograph captured on the CCTV of the hotel.
John spoke excellent English and conducted himself impeccably, due to which the Thiruvananthapuram hotel did not take any advance from him when he checked in.
He even distributed sweets among the hotel staff and on the day he left, said the police. John had told the staff that he would return and said they should be ready for a banquet for 100 people when he comes back, the police added.
Initial investigation revealed that John had allegedly committed such frauds several times in the past, not just in Kerala but Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, and Goa, the police said.
Most of the offences were committed in Mumbai, according to information sent by the police from there, as reported by news agency PTI.
According to Kerala Police, the punishment for the charges under which John has been arrested are not very severe and only entail a three-month jail.
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