A witness stated this Tuesday before the Audiencia de Las Palmas that he renounced a plot of land he bought in San Bartolomé de Tirajana, in Gran Canaria, upon learning that the property he had acquired was involved in a fraud case known as the 'caso Catastro', a scheme dedicated to illegally appropriating estates on the aforementioned island, in Lanzarote, and Fuerteventura.
In the fourth session of the trial against three of the accused in the case, as two have passed away (the events date back to the period 2011-2016), the witness indicated that he found out about the sale of the estate online and traveled to Tenerife to formalize the purchase and sale transaction at a notary, although when he went to fence the land he began to have problems with the boundaries.
A son of the landowner declared that when they saw the estate being fenced, they went to the town hall and the Cadastre, and that in this office, on a first occasion, they told him it was not certified as belonging to his family and that, furthermore, "other plots disappeared" belonging to his mother.
And, when he went a second time, they told him he had to go to court to get it registered, he added.
In this session, Hipólito Cabrera, who was the vicar general of the Diocese of the Canary Islands during those years, also appeared. He stated that he did not know the now deceased accused Roque M.M., who appeared in a public deed as the owner of a Church property in Fuerteventura that had been sold to the defendant, but that the property was successfully reverted, as he recalls, so he has nothing to claim.
According to this witness, they had the same problem with several estates, and the issue was resolved.
The nephew of the owner of several estates in Fuerteventura declared via videoconference that he handled his uncle's affairs and that Roque M.M., 'Roquito', "took estates from his neighbors, he's known all his life."
He transformed a water contract for one of his uncle's estates into a sales contract, but the Cadastre did not inform him of the change of ownership, although he eventually found out because he went to the cadastral office, and the ownership was reverted two or three times in favor of his uncle, as he indicated to the court.
This witness said that the name of the Cadastre official in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Jesús O. M. - one of the accused sitting on the bench - sounds familiar to him because he appears in the files of other estates where the same thing happened.
Several witnesses also appeared via videoconference from Arrecife and agreed that they have no doubt that Gustavo A.G.G.R., the other now deceased accused, tried to take their land and that they were even shown documents stating that they had sold it to other people.
Another daughter of the accused Gustavo A.G.G.R., just as her sister declared last week, assured that she signed numerous private purchase and sale contracts because she thought they were documents related to the family inheritance that her father was trying to sort out at the time.
"I was deceived by my father," said the witness, who pointed out that she never paid any amount for the purchase of these properties, nor did she know that irregularities had occurred at the Cadastre, to whose office in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria she went on the advice of her lawyer and of her own volition so that the acquired properties would return to their rightful owners.
This daughter of the accused Gustavo A.G.G.R. denied having been at the management company owned by another of the accused, José María C.F.
In this session, several witnesses declared that they did not recognize their signatures on the Cadastre ownership transfer request document, nor did they recall having requested the change, although they all stated that the estates continue to be registered in their names.
The trial will continue next Thursday with the testimony of new witnesses in the case.
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