Suspects Who Spent Stolen Money on Gambling Released on Bail

Çağış and his girlfriend, I.D., who was arrested two days ago in connection with the case, were brought before the court yesterday morning.

Police officer Koral Debrelim from the Kyrenia Criminal Investigation Department presented the facts, noting that the suspects were charged with "Theft by Employee" and "Forgery of Documents."

Debrelim explained that Çağış was initially arrested on February 3 for allegedly stealing 217,000 British pounds from the time deposits of two individuals.

The police reported that the suspect voluntarily confessed to stealing a total of approximately 1.3 million British pounds from eight different bank customers' accounts and spending all of it.

During an initial investigation on Çağış’s phone on February 12, police discovered conversations between him and D. about forging deposit certificates for the bank customers. On the same day, D. was also arrested.

Çağış later gave another voluntary statement on February 12, admitting that he had forged false deposit certificates for clients who had made withdrawals or transfers from their accounts. He also confessed to spending the stolen money on online betting, where he lost large sums. Police confirmed that between December 31 and February 2, Çağış lost 1.228 million Turkish Lira in online gambling.

However, the police stated that they were unable to retrieve data from before December 31, 2024, due to a system change on the betting website.

The police also mentioned that the suspects’ assets and bank accounts had been frozen, and investigations into video footage from the bank and mobile phone records were ongoing. The investigation is still in progress, but the police noted that further research would not affect the suspects’ remaining actions.

The court ordered that İlke Çağış be released on bail with a cash guarantee of 250,000 Turkish Lira, three sureties of one million Turkish Lira each, and three million Turkish Lira in personal surety bonds.

Meanwhile, D. was ordered to pay a cash bond of 50,000 Turkish Lira, with two sureties of 500,000 Turkish Lira each, and to sign a personal bond of 500,000 Turkish Lira for his release. Both suspects will be tried without detention.