Council worker collared
A COUNCIL worker has been arrested for allegedly taking bribes at Santa Pola town hall, reported the Guardia Civil on Wednesday.
A 52-year-old Spanish woman is accused of 19 counts committed over the last decade, and statements have been taken from the managers of various companies that were hired by the town hall during her 20-year tenure, two of whom are now being investigated, explained a spokesman for the force.
It was the town hall that instigated the investigation after receiving a complaint from a business and a private citizen about a grant.
This indicated that a worker in one of the council departments could have used her position to misappropriate part of a subsidy granted to a local association towards the end of 2020. One of the suspect’s duties was to report requests from businesspeople for authorisation from the town hall to hold certain activities in the municipality.
The spokesman said investigators corroborated that she had asked these businesspeople for amounts ranging between €500 and €2,500, according to the amount of profit they would make from the activity, in return for approving their applications.
She also allegedly falsified documentation, contracts and on one occasion the signature of the beneficiaries of subsidies granted by the town hall to various associations, sometimes keeping part or all of the money.
The investigation by officers based in Santa Pola believes the suspect could have been committing these offences for at least the last decade without being discovered.
She was working at the town hall for 20 years but had been on medical leave for the last few months until her arrest at the beginning of December, and she has now been removed from her duties.
In addition to 19 counts of passive bribery, from which she could have obtained approximately €40,000, the suspect is accused of two counts of falsifying documents, one of misappropriating funds, and one of identity theft.
At the time of her arrest she also turned out to be wanted by a court in Murcia on suspicion of fraud against a money lender. The two businessmen under investigation, both aged 58 and Spanish, are the directors of a company in Cox and in Molina de Segura.
They are both accused of active bribery for allegedly paying the council worker to use her position to approve or speed up the hiring of their companies for events. The case has been passed to anElche judge, who has charged and released all the suspects.