The Criminal Chamber of the Supreme Court on Monday acquitted two people convicted of fraud in… Fraudulent sale of Espegol Beach apartments. Who was Picafort in Mallorca?
The Supreme Court thus upheld the defense’s appeal and annulled the four-year prison sentence imposed by the Regional Court of Palma in September 2022. At the beginning of the trial, three of the defendants were arrested They acknowledged the facts They agreed to the agreements with the charges.
In the ruling, the Supreme Court finds this “There’s no trace of evidence.” This allows them to attribute participation in the deception to which the buyers were subjected, and the absence of any contact between them and the injured parties, who also announced during the trial that they only dealt with other defendants.
The Chamber blames the regional court for basing its story “with its back on documentary evidence” and relying “almost exclusively” on the statements of other defendants who had reached agreements according to the Public Prosecutor’s Office, which, according to the Supreme Court, required “enhanced caution” in its assessment.
Moreover, it points out that the basic operation presented as incriminating evidence, namely the sale of shares of the company “Espigol Beach”, carried out by the appellants in November 2004, does not allow the conclusion of an agreed plan to commit the fraud later, especially when the fraudulent sales took place after the company had come under the control of another accused.
It should be noted that they were accused of selling rooms in a former hotel apartment as residential houses between 2004 and 2005, and concealing that the apartments were intended for tourist exploitation, which meant that the houses were outside urban planning and, therefore, They lacked a certificate of occupancy To manage various water and electricity supplies. All this means that buyers cannot live, rent or sell these apartments.
The appellants were ordered, in addition to the prison sentence, to pay damages totaling 1.2 million euros.