More jail for former mayor
AN EX-mayor of Bigastro, who held the position for 25 years until 2008, has been sentenced to prison for embezzling public funds and administrative misconduct.
José Joaquín Moya, who had represented the Socialist party (PSOE), and the town hall’s ex-secretary/auditor were both convicted over irregularities in the procedure to modify the Town Plan (PGOU) in order to allow development of a new sector, and for misappropriating a total of €312,000 which the promoter of this project had paid between 2005 and 2006, according to the General Council of the Judiciary (CGPJ).
The provincial court sentenced Sr Moya to four and a half years in prison for the embezzlement charge, and barred him from public office or employment for a total of over 15 years.
The ex-secretary/auditor was given two years in prison and barred from public office or employment for five years for embezzling public funds and another four years for administrative misconduct by omission. The ex-mayor was also ordered to compensate Bigastro town hall with €162,000, as well as an additional €150,000 to be paid between him and the other defendant.
Furthermore, as yet unconfirmed reports in regional newspaper Diario Información claim that the exmayor and ex-secretary also accepted sentences of 27 months and 15 months respectively in an agreement with the public prosecutor for another case of misappropriating public funds before the same court last week.
And this week, the same newspaper reported a third conviction against them both for embezzling public funds and administrative misconduct, resulting in an additional four and a half years in prison for Sr Moya.
These are in addition to a previous four-year sentence which the ex-mayor received for embezzlement in November last year, another conviction for administrative misconduct in 2013, and there are three more pending cases against him.