MOSCOW, July 9 (RAPSI) – A court in Nizhny Tagil has sentenced Russian citizen Yury Blinov, who had extorted money playing a police officer’s role, to 8 years in prison for fraud, the press service of the Prosecutor General’s Office reports.

The court found that Blinov had conspired with an unidentified person to steal money from local citizens. They claimed to be police officers, by phone presented people with misleading information on crimes allegedly committed by their relatives, offered them to pay for termination of criminal cases. Later, Blinov came to their victims to take money.

According to case papers, the accomplices committed such crimes against 28 people, mainly the aged.