A 44-year-old Quebec man has been charged with 11 counts of fraud for allegedly swindling people in multiple Metro Vancouver cities, including Burnaby, out of a laundry list of items, including a Rolex, cameras, MacBooks, iPhones and more.
Florian Dinca was charged last month with nine counts of fraud over $5,000 and two counts of fraud under $5,000 in relation to alleged offences between Jan. 13 and 25 in Burnaby, Vancouver, West Vancouver, Surrey and Richmond.
The two Burnaby charges relate to incidents on Jan. 18, when Dinca allegedly defrauded an individual of five iPhones, and Jan. 25, when he is accused of defrauding someone of two cameras, according to the Surrey provincial court registry.
The other counts allegedly involved a Rolex, jewelry, purse, backpacks and diaper bag, according to the registry.
The charges stem from an investigation by Surrey RCMP, which responded to three separate complaints in January of people selling merchandise on a social media platform and becoming victims of fraud, according to a police news release Thursday.
"Some victims reported being shown an envelope of money when they met with the buyer, but later discovered they did not receive the agreed-upon payment," stated the release.
Dinca was scheduled to appear in Surrey provincial court Thursday for a bail hearing but his case was adjourned to May 23.
Dinca was arrested in Ontario on similar charges last month, according to the Toronto Police Service.
Surrey RCMP said he was transferred to Surrey pre-trial on April 28 and remains in custody.
Toronto police put out a news release with photos of Dinca on April 11 to alert the public about its fraud investigation there.
Police said alleged victims in those cases got messages from someone calling himself "Danny" and asking about items for sale on Facebook Marketplace.
After arranging a location for the transactions, the sellers would be met by a man in a medical mask who handed them an envelope of cash in exchange for the items.
"During the interaction with the victim, the accused switched the envelope containing cash payment with another containing only paper," stated the news release. "He then left the area before the victim realized the payment envelope contained no money."
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