The First Section of the Provincial Court of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria has acquitted the two defendants of the crime of defrauding the parents of a football team from Lanzarote and Vicálvaro, as ruled in a judgment notified on January 19.
Thus, Damián Horacio Pueblas Prieto has been cleared of "all the crimes he was accused of", while Ivanka Quesada Vizcaíno has been convicted of a continuing crime of misappropriation, and not fraud.
In the latter case, the convicted person must serve a sentence of two years in prison and face special disqualification for the duration of the sentence. Likewise, the Court has determined that the latter must also compensate the representatives of a combined team from Lanzarote and a football club from Vicálvaro with 27,467.35 euros and 6,610 euros respectively.
Trial in November 2022
The trial was held last November 2022, the Public Prosecutor's Office requested three years in prison and the return of the money for the two defendants accused of defrauding dozens of parents for managing the alleged participation of their children in football tournaments.
Through this accusation, the Prosecutor's Office pointed out two different episodes: in the first, which occurred in 2016, the victim was a combined team from Lanzarote, which contacted the defendants because they offered to manage the participation in the XXV Edition of the International Football Tournament "Donosti Cup", which was to be held from July 3 to 9, 2016 in San Sebastián.
The Lanzarote team was made up of 43 children and young people and the defendants asked for 680 euros per participant, to cover both registration and accommodation. Most of the parents faced this payment in three installments, until they all handed over a total of 27,467 euros, without then receiving what they had agreed (a figure that now, after the sentence, will be returned to them).
For its part, the second is also dated in 2016, when they allegedly defrauded a football club from Vicálvaro, which intended to participate in a summer tournament on the island.
