A gang accused of defrauding thousands of tourists in the Canary Islands has gone on trial in Las Palmas.

The alleged crimes, which involved a network of taxi drivers, shops selling electrical items, and estate agents, mostly took place in Tenerife and Gran Canaria in 2016.

Eleven people are accused of swindling foreign holidaymakers by offering them ‘cut price’ electrical items, and when they swiped their bank cards they pretended the transactions hadn’t gone through so took the payments multiple times.

Since the gang specifically targeted foreigners at the end of their holidays, the victims only realised all the payments had processed once they were back home.

The trial at the Provincial Court of Las Palmas is expected to last until 19 July.

The Public Prosecutor’s Office are requesting the accused are locked up for between two and eight years, plus compensation of more than €600,000 for the payment processing company ServiRed, which lost out when customers cancelled their card payments.