The Supreme Court (TS) has confirmed the eight-month prison sentence imposed on a lieutenant colonel of the Air Force stationed in Great Britain for abandoning his destination and residence after having been teleworking from Spain without permission for eight months between 2020 and 2021.
The magistrates have agreed as an accessory penalty the suspension of employment and the special disqualification from exercising the right to passive suffrage during the time of the sentence.
In the sentence, it is stated that the facts that were considered proven by the Central Military Court date back to July 2020, when the lieutenant colonel was assigned to the Air Combat Group, garrisoned in the Air Force Barracks in the English county of Buckingham.
The convicted man, who took possession of his destination on August 1 of that year, indicated the officers’ pavilion of said barracks as his place of residence and was registered as a resident by the Consulate General of London through a certificate issued on August 6, 2020.
As a Spanish soldier with the greatest employment and seniority, he performed functions as a senior member of the national contingent and his additional duties included acting as chief of staff during the absences of the head or his deputy.
On November 5, 2020, he returned to Spain without authorisation to establish his residence or to telework in Spain, where he remained until July 9, 2021, the date on which he returned to the United Kingdom in order to receive the colonel. that was incorporated into the Base.
The proven facts confirm that he worked remotely, from his home in Spain, for the period of time between November 14, 2020, and July 8, 2021, and that he received additional compensation abroad (ICE) the amounts of 55,885.49 euro in 2020 and 136,779.15 euro in 2021.
The lieutenant colonel appealed to the Supreme Court against the ruling of the Central Military Court by which he was convicted. In the resolution, of which Judge José Alberto Fernández was the rapporteur, the Chamber has rejected his appeal for cassation.
The magistrates have considered that there is no authorisation to support his conduct. And they have stressed that a report from the head of the human resources management and support section of the Defence Staff (EMAD) states that he was teleworking in Spain for 32 days in 2020 and 130 days in 2021, “without having been authorised by any national authority to telework from his home in Spain at any time during the entire period of his assignment.”
Likewise, the ruling states that in the “Action plan against infection with the new coronavirus (covid 19) in organisations dependent on the JEMAD”, of April 21, 2020, it was established that the personnel dependent on the JEMAD assigned abroad, will follow the instructions of the health authorities of the destination country and the unit itself, but informing the Head of Human Resources at EMAD of any vicissitudes, “which clearly did not happen.”
Furthermore, in 28 pages, the Supreme Court has concluded that there is a clear duty to return the money received for residing abroad. Thus, it has assured that the processing of the corresponding administrative reinstatement procedure will proceed, even though the Public Prosecutor’s Office ignored it from its claim in order to demand civil liability derived from the crime of abandonment of destination and residence.
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