The Criminal Court Number 1 of Arrecife has given the former secretary of Yaiza, Vicente Bartolomé Fuentes, ten days to enter prison to serve the sentence of one year and seven months in prison for the granting of illegal licenses in two plots of the Playa Blanca Partial Plan linked to Pedro de Armas. In addition, he warns that in the event that he does not voluntarily attend, "his search, arrest and entry into the penitentiary center will proceed."
The resolution is dated April 11, after the Provincial Court rejected the appeal filed by the former secretary in the sentence execution phase. As it is a sentence of less than two years in prison, Bartolomé Fuentes had requested that the execution of the sentence be suspended, but both the Court and the Hearing have rejected his claim.
This is also the second prison sentence that the former secretary will have to serve, who was also sentenced to one year in prison in the Yate case, for the massive granting of illegal licenses in Playa Blanca. In that case, Vicente Bartolomé Fuentes acknowledged the facts that were imputed to him and confessed to having committed a crime of prevarication by reporting in favor of the Playa Blanca Partial Plan and the Marina Rubicón marina despite knowing that they were illegal, and also acknowledged having contributed to embezzling public funds from the City Council, allowing private trips of the former mayor to be paid with money from the Consistory.
Although in the trial he accepted the sentence, he later asked for its execution to be suspended and even requested a pardon from the Government, which was denied last January. Then, after having agreed to suspend entry into prison while the Council of Ministers resolved his request, the Court ordered that his entry into prison be required.
In addition, Bartolomé Fuentes also has a third conviction behind him, which was the one that removed him from the position of secretary in his day. That first ruling, also for crimes of urban prevarication, imposed only a disqualification penalty, which was what left him out of the Yaiza Secretariat.
Three convicted for a lucrative operation for De Armas
Now, Vicente Bartolomé Fuentes faces compliance with this new sentence, in which he was convicted together with the former mayor of Yaiza, José Francisco Reyes, and the head of the Technical Office, Antonio Lorenzo. The same penalty of one year and 7 months in prison and 9 years and 3 months of disqualification was imposed on all three.
The complaint that gave rise to this case was filed in 2009 by Urban Transparency, but the events occurred in 2005, when Reyes authorized the construction of 66 villas in the Playa Blanca Partial Plan, with two different licenses for two plots linked to Pedro de Armas.
In one of the cases, the license was granted directly to him, through Marivista Lanzarote SL. In the other, the beneficiary was the company to which De Armas had just sold the land. As highlighted by another criminal case, De Armas bought and sold that plot on the same day, obtaining a profit of 800,000 euros in the operation, without even "leaving the notary." Just after, Reyes granted the illegal license to urbanize that plot.
Both the Criminal Court and the Court consider that Reyes and the two officials were fully aware of the illegality of these licenses, which were granted in a Partial Plan that was extinguished, departing from the law to "satisfy the interests of the promoters, to the detriment of the rest of the citizens of the Island of Lanzarote."
Regarding the allegation of the defenses that "on the date of the events the urban regulations were not clear", the ruling recalls that "they were warned from various instances", specifically the Cabildo and the Government of the Canary Islands, which "warned of the illegality." However, "far from attending to such requirements, with the protection of a legal report issued by the lawyer of the promoters (Ignacio Díaz de Aguilar) they ignored them, agreeing to continue developing the plan for the benefit of the promoters and in contravention of the applicable legislation."
