More than 129,000 euros. That is the amount that the former official of the Teguise Property Registry has admitted to stealing from this body between 2008 and 2012, V.M.M.P., as he himself confessed before the Sixth Section of the Provincial Court, which was to try him this Friday.
The defendant has reached an agreement with the Prosecutor's Office to avoid the trial, for which he has obtained a significant reduction in the sentence, which could prevent his imprisonment, as it does not exceed two years and he has no criminal record.
The agreed sentence has finally been one year and 9 months in prison, compared to the 6 years in prison initially requested by the Public Prosecutor, for a continued crime of misappropriation.
In addition to modifying the penalties, the Prosecutor's Office has introduced another change in its initial qualification letter, but to increase the amount that the defendant appropriated. In the letter, it was estimated at 112,997, and now it has been increased to 129,497 euros.
The sentence also implies the obligation to return that money to the Property Registry, although he has not done so yet. He must also pay a fine of 720 euros, compared to the 7,200 initially claimed by the Prosecutor's Office.
Years appropriating money that was deposited for operations
The agreement has been ratified before the Courtroom of the Audience, which has only asked the defendant if he agrees with the penalties and with the account of the facts that were imputed to him, both by the Prosecutor's Office and by the private prosecution. "Yes," he replied, thus admitting his guilt. According to his defense, he has "collaborated from the beginning" with the investigation and had already confessed during the investigation of this case.
Although it has not been explained during the brief hearing that has been held before the Audience, for the reduction in the sentence, not only the confession would have been taken into account, but also other mitigating factors, such as undue delays in the processing of this procedure.
The events occurred between 2008 and 2012, when the defendant held the position of official in the Teguise Property Registry, being in charge of collecting the money that was deposited from each operation and recording it "in the computer program", as well as "verifying its deposit in the Registry's bank account."
As the Prosecutor's Office stated in its initial qualification letter, which has been acknowledged by the defendant, he used his position "of maximum trust" to appropriate different amounts for years. In most cases, he even recorded the collection in the computer system, but then did not make the deposit in the bank account. In others, he directly made "documents that had been dispatched disappear", so they do not even appear as collected in the application, nor of course deposited in the account.
