Six people will be in the dock between December 15 and 17 accused of having defrauded more than 178,000 euros from several financial institutions, using falsified documents to buy cars and other products on credit in businesses in Lanzarote, "knowing that in none of the cases were they going to carry out the corresponding payments." In addition, the main defendant, I.R.M., must also answer for threatening two of his accomplices so that they would not confess.
I.R.M. was arrested in October 2011 and when he was in the Civil Guard facilities with another of the accused, M.M.D., the Prosecutor's Office maintains that he tried to "intimidate him so that he would not betray him", warning him that "if he said something, something would happen to his wife." "I know who you are, where you live and your wife," he would have said.
In addition, after being released on charges, he sent a message to the mobile phone of another of the accused, who had also already testified in court. "You yourself, you will soon have news," he warned. Afterwards, according to the Prosecutor's Office, he sent him two other SMS messages on the same day. "How brave you are, you will see when you least expect it, the visit you are going to receive, coward," he literally said in one of them. "Tomorrow is your last day, and you better solve it, for good, if not then it will be double," he added in another sent shortly after.
The Public Prosecutor's Office is asking for a total of 10 and a half years in prison for him (5 years and 6 months for a continued crime of fraud and another continued crime of falsification of a commercial document and the other five for two crimes against the administration of justice, for threatening the co-defendants). In addition, he asks that he return the money defrauded to the financial institutions and that he be imposed four fines totaling 24,480, one of them for another crime against road safety.
And it is that the same year in which the events occurred and the investigation began, I.R.M. was caught driving on the LZ-2 without a license and "at excessive speed, with the consequent risk to road safety." Both for this crime and for the crime of fraud, the accused already had a criminal record, which has been applied as an aggravating factor for recidivism.
For the rest of the accused, N.A.P., M.M.D., J.L.R.R., U.M.D., and J.A.R.V., the Prosecutor's Office is asking for sentences of between two years and eight months and five and a half years in prison, depending on the participation of each one in the events, as well as fines amounting to up to 4,950 euros, in the case of the highest.
Alleged accomplices in two dealerships
The trial will begin on December 15 in Arrecife, before the Sixth Section of the Provincial Court, and is scheduled to last for three days, ending on the 17th in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria.
The events took place more than a decade ago, between the months of April and September of the year 2011. In that period of five months, according to the Prosecutor's Office, I.R.M. bought with a false name or through two of his accomplices -N.A.P. and M.M.D.- seven cars and four motorcycles, a 4,000 euro sofa and a television and household goods for an amount of 2,544 euros in different establishments on the island, financing all the acquisitions. Afterwards, a few days later he sold them, before the financial institutions could register their reservation of ownership, and kept the cash.
In addition, in two of the cases he did not even complete the purchase and allegedly got the money from the loan with the complicity of the representative of one of the motorcycle dealerships, U.M.D.. He, according to the Prosecutor's Office, gave I.R.M. the money that the financial institution had given to the establishment, without ever formalizing the acquisition, in exchange on one occasion for 200 euros and on another for 150 euros. U.M.D. was one of those threatened after testifying in the Courts.
Along with him, an employee of another car dealership where most of the purchases were made is also accused, J.L.R.R., who according to the Prosecutor's Office knew that the documents presented to request the loans were false.
As for the sixth defendant, he is accused of having contributed to the fraud by providing false payrolls from a company in Playa Blanca in the name of N.A.P., who was a friend of the main defendant and was the one who formalized some of the purchases. Other false payrolls that they used, in the name of the three people who made the purchases, were issued by U.M.D., who in turn was an employee of one of the motorcycle dealerships where they carried out other operations. In addition to these falsified payrolls, they also presented other false documents, such as telephone bills and registration certificates.
In one of the cases, after selling one of the vehicles to a second-hand dealership, they bought it again requesting a new loan that they did not pay either.
An employee of another dealership uncovered the scam
Finally, at the end of August 2011 their plans were frustrated in another establishment, Moviauto Lanzarote S.L.. There the main defendant, I.R.M., tried to buy a Citroën Berlingo using a false name. "Given the reluctance of the financial institution, he offered the representative of the dealership the amount of 1,000 euros so that he would help him to get the operation with falsified documentation, not agreeing to his proposal and not carrying out the acquisition of the vehicle," the Prosecutor's Office points out.
In total, the Public Prosecutor's Office demands that I.R.M. return the sum of 178,597.43 euros to five banks and financial institutions. The rest of the defendants must respond jointly and severally for that amount, each one in the amount that they allegedly contributed to defraud.
The second highest penalty is requested for N.A.P., the defendant's friend who personally made some of the purchases. In her case, the Prosecutor's Office is asking for five and a half years in prison, while for the other "buyer", who intervened in fewer operations, he is requesting two years and eleven months.
As for the employees of the dealerships, for J.L.R.R. he is asking for four and a half years in prison and for U.M.D., two years and eight months.
Finally, for J.A.R.V., accused of providing the false payrolls, he is asking for two years and eight months in prison.