The fourth section of the Provincial Court in Vigo will begin to hear evidence from today, Tuesday, in the trial against two residents of Poio accused of defrauding 525,000 euro from a service station. The two women were arrested at the end of June of last year in the framework of Operation Nazarín. One of the defendants is in pretrial detention for this cause, as she is considered the main person responsible for the group. The prosecutor’s brief indicates that both hatched a plan, taking advantage of the credibility of the service station, in collusion with two other people, whose whereabouts are unknown.
One of the defendants was a manager and the other the sole administrator of the service station. In August 2021, they signed a contract with a payment service provider company, to manage the sale of fuel on credit. Thus, customers paid for that fuel to the company, which in turn delivered to the service station the credits it held against its customers. But in reality, the customers to whom the station sold fuel did not exist, “rather, the defendants used them to simulate an apparent commercial activity, in order to mislead” that payment service provider company.
Between August and October 2021, the two women collected 525,000 euro from that company’s account, attributing them to commercial operations for the sale of fuel with different clients, but which never existed. The service station will simulate sales with the companies Autos Madrid SL, Madbu Energía e Inversiones 2020, Soluciones Vulcu SL, Inversiones Albiceleste 2020 SL, and Pedroso y Rojas SL. Of the last three, the two people whose whereabouts were unknown and one of the defendants, respectively, appeared as sole administrators. The letter from the Prosecutor’s Office emphasises that all these firms “lack activity and real registered office, being only used for the commission of the crime”, although some could even be registered in the Mercantile Registry.
The payment service provider company made charges of different amounts in these false companies. All charges were returned between October 1 and October 23. There were also several charges in the account of the mother of one of the defendants, which were also returned.
To give an appearance of authenticity to their false commercial operations, the defendants prepared invoices and sent some of them to the defrauded company, “to generate trust and get it to unblock some of the operations that it paralysed preventively, as it did.” This company claims the return of amounts improperly paid to the service station, amounting to 325,783 euro.
These facts constitute a continuous crime of documentary falsification in a commercial document, and a continuous crime of aggravated fraud. For this reason, for one of the defendants, the one who was the manager of the service station, an 8-year prison sentence and a 24-month fine are requested, with a daily fee of 15 euro. For the other, the sole administrator, the public prosecution requests seven years in prison and a 21-month fine, with a daily fee also of 15 euro. A fine of 1,303,132 euro is imposed on the service station.
Regarding their civil liability for the commission of these crimes, the Prosecutor’s Office proposes that the two women and the company under which they operated jointly and severally compensate the company that provides payment services with 325,783 euro, for the amounts improperly collected.
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