The Civil Guard, in the so-called "Catis" operation, carried out in Cádiz, Badajoz and the Canary Islands, has dismantled an organization dedicated to falsifying diplomas and official certificates and has arrested eight people, one of them in Gran Canaria, and charged another three, two in La Palma and Santa Cruz de Tenerife, as alleged perpetrators of a crime of document forgery and fraud. Likewise, more than 1,460,000 euros have been seized, allegedly from this fraudulent activity.
The investigations began in November of last year, when agents were alerted that a union in Cádiz was offering official titles in exchange for certain amounts of money. Subsequently, the agents verified that the Independent Union of Workers of Cádiz (SITCA), upon payment of 80 euros and a photocopy of the National Identity Document, provided diplomas and certificates of attendance of official courses, without receiving any training. Thanks to these diplomas, jobs were obtained for which a certain qualification was required.
Among others, certificates and diplomas of the Basic Occupational Risk Course could be acquired, among others, qualifications necessary to be able to apply for certain job boards or to work in the metal sector.
Under the guise of a union, the Civil Guard points out, since its members did not carry out any union activity and lacked the facilities and means to carry out such activity, "the organization falsified diplomas and certificates, even advertising through the Internet, to offer various courses organized by institutions and official bodies or the Independent Union of Workers of Cádiz".
Modus operandi
Sitca certified, upon payment of 80 euros, that the student had completed a course, counting the teaching hours. In reality, the student did not do any face-to-face hours, nor did the union prepare the worker.
They issued titles authorized by various official bodies and other delegated companies, whose teaching was supposedly given by the Cádiz union. Even, students could enroll in courses taken in previous years, providing them with the corresponding diplomas with a date prior to the student's enrollment.
The agents in charge of the investigation determined that the activity carried out by the members of the union had the sole purpose of economic profit, coming from the payment made by the students for the courses, reaching a total of 1,460,533 euros through their current account between 2007 and 2009, to which would have to be added the money that is charged in cash in the offices themselves.
The organization was headed by the general secretary of the union, the mastermind of the organization, who used other people, organizations and companies, which empowered the union to issue the titles it issued.
These qualifications were later presented by the students in the different competitive examinations to access jobs or hiring pools that required said official certificates.
The ten detainees, the two defendants, the money and the effects seized, are at the disposal of the Investigating Court Number 10 of Cádiz.
ACN Press
