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Date Published: 29/04/2022
ARCHIVED - Benitatchell ex-mayor investigated in parking fine scandal
Former mayor of Poble Nou de Benitatxell, Josep Femenía, is embroiled in an embezzlement and prevarication probe
Ex-mayor of Poble Nou de Benitatxell, Josep Femenía, is at the centre of a parking fine scandal that has rumbled along for four years, and has now been summoned to testify over a possible crime of embezzlement and prevarication.
The case first came to court in 2018 after three current councillors from the Més Benitatxell party (More Benitatxell) provided the Prosecutor's Office with evidence and documentation indicating that the Town Hall failed to process dozens of sanctions for parking fines made by the Local Police between late 2013 and early 2017, a period in which Femenía held the Mayor's office.
Initially, the Public Prosecutor's Office only requested the indictment of the municipal secretary, Jesús Castro, for allegedly committing the crimes of prevarication and embezzlement, "causing economic damage to the municipal coffers".
Now, after four years of investigations, the judge has also summoned the former mayor.
According to evidence provided by the councillors, over the four-year period in question, the local authority failed to "process and, therefore, to collect a total of 85 fines".
Reports drawn up by the Local Police indicated that, from the fourth quarter of 2013, the procedure for investigating complaints was modified and the Chief of Police was "revoked as the instructor of the procedure".
The Local Police's own entry and exit register was abolished, with communications centralised from the general registry of the town council.
From then on, the sanctions sent by the police and the cash paid by drivers who paid the fine on the spot remained in the hands of the Mayor's Office.
From time to time, the police would send the reports to the council for subsequent forwarding to the tax agency SUMA until January 2017, when the chief officer of the Local Police was reappointed as an "instructor" and electronic communication with SUMA was reactivated.
"This case is very serious. Four years went by without managing a single fine or sanction, with all that this entails for the public coffers. There was a total neglect of duty and great economic damage to the town. We trust in justice and we hope that the case will be cleared up soon," said the spokesman of the municipal group Més Benitatxell, Víctor Bisquert.
Also of interest: DGT launches extra road controls for May bank holiday weekend in Spain
Image: Ajuntament del Poble Nou de Benitatxell
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