More than 16 years after the investigation began, the La Bufona case has a sentence. The Criminal Court Number 3 of Arrecife has sentenced the promoters, the architect Federico Echevarría and the builder Antonio Caro, to six months in prison "less one day", for a continued crime against land management. In addition, it has ordered the partial demolition of 14 homes built in that partial plan, since it considers it proven that rustic land of natural ecological value was occupied. Among the owners of these houses are the former coordinating prosecutor of Lanzarote, Miguel Pallarés, and the island president of the PP, Ástrid Pérez.
The ruling also imposes on Caro and Echevarría a fine of 3,600 euros each, as well as a year of special disqualification to carry out trades related to real estate development and construction. In addition, they must bear the costs of the demolition and the costs of the trial. When establishing the penalties, the Court has applied undue delays in the investigation of the case as a mitigating factor, which has significantly reduced the sentence.
In her ruling, the judge points out that during her investigation, the case suffered "many stoppages that are not understood in any way justified". In total, these periods of paralysis add up to 5 years and 7 months, in which no progress was made in any procedure of the investigation. For this reason, it applies that mitigating circumstance of delays in the degree of "very qualified", compared to the simple mitigating circumstance that the prosecutor had raised when presenting his conclusions at the trial.
The Apmun did not notify the sealing "due to lack of resources"
For her part, the lawyer for the private prosecution, who represented Gonzalo Murillo, asked for 11 and 15 years in prison for each of the two promoters, since she considered that they also incurred a crime of disobedience, for not complying with the sealing order ordered at the time by the Apmun, as well as crimes of fraud and document forgery. However, the ruling does not consider these crimes proven. The Murillo family was the one who reported this case almost two decades ago, since they maintain that in addition to invading public land, they occupied land owned by them when building these homes.
Regarding the crime of disobedience, for which the Prosecutor's Office also filed charges, the ruling considers that it is not proven, given that it does not appear that the promoters were personally notified of the Apmun's resolution ordering the work to be stopped in the year 2000. In this regard, the judge recalls that a technician from the Agency declared during the trial that "the content of the resolution was not carried out, neither the sealing nor the suspension due to lack of resources". All that the Apmun did was publish the resolution in the Official Gazette of the Canary Islands, and the ruling considers that it is not enough to consider that they were notified, so it understands that they cannot be convicted of disobedience.
However, it does consider it proven that Caro and Echevarría "carried out the construction of the houses with knowledge that part of the works were carried out on rustic land with special protection", as it is a jable crossing area, "also not respecting the limits of surface area and building volumes" that had been authorized in the license granted by the City Council for these works.
The invasion of rustic land, after the sale of the houses
As confirmed by many of the buyers of these homes during the trial, the works in the back of the houses continued when they had already acquired the properties. Specifically, swimming pools, walls and other interventions were made, which are precisely those that sit on protected land. In this regard, the defendants tried to argue that it was the buyers who occupied those lands and who carried out those works. However, the ruling considers it proven that it was the promoters themselves who executed them, knowing their illegality.
For their part, the buyers who testified as witnesses claimed to be unaware that it was rustic land. In addition, they defended that the land located behind the houses was given to them as part of the property they were acquiring. However, none of them could explain why the meters that appear in the Land Registry do not match those that appear in the Cadastre. It should be remembered that the person responsible for the Arrecife Cadastre, Francisco Carmona, was a partner of Caro and Echevarría in this real estate development. Carmona was also charged in the case, but died during the investigation.
In the case of prosecutor Miguel Pallarés, the property he acquired in that urbanization has 384 meters according to the Land Registry, while in the Cadastre there are 546. "And what do you want me to tell you?", he replied when asked about it when he testified as a witness in the trial. According to Pallarés, he "did not check" whether the surface area that appeared in the purchase contracts matched the real surface area, despite the fact that there was a difference of about 160 meters.
In addition, like other buyers, he acknowledged that he did not apply for a license for the pool, nor does it appear in the purchase contracts. In his case, he hired another company to do it. In the case of the rest of the neighbors, the majority declared that the work was carried out by the promoters of the houses themselves, after handing them over. Now, the ruling orders that all those constructions that were carried out on protected land be demolished, with Caro and Echevarría assuming the demolition costs.
It should be remembered that the Apmun already ordered the demolition of that part of the houses years ago, but the measure has not been executed so far, since the owners filed appeals in the courts against that decision. Now, it is in the criminal court where that demolition is also ordered, although the sentence is still subject to appeal.