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The Sicily-born
36-year-old who owned two struggling pizza joints has confessed
to the robberies which netted some 100,000 euros ($113,000), a
court official said. He goes to court this week along with
another Italian man, 55, accused of being his accomplice.
The pair, who did not resort to actual violence and avoided
speaking during holdups to conceal their accents, gesticulating
instead, were caught after robbing a bank in the town of Viseu
last September.
Police say they found the stolen cash, gloves and fake guns in
the restaurateur's car.
The official at the court in Matosinhos, near Porto, would not
comment on the man's tax affairs, but Jornal de Noticias
newspaper quoted a lawyer for the accused as saying that "the
defense has joined to the case many receipts for payments made
around the time of the robberies".
It said the crimes allowed the man to settle a large part of
tens of thousands of euros of unpaid taxes and other debts such
as motorway fees and his children's school fees.
(Reporting by Andrei Khalip; Editing by Robin Pomeroy)
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