A man from Almuñécar was acquitted of fraud after taking a taxi from Chiclana (Cádiz) to Amuñécar and not paying the 380-euro fare. The court decision and its subsequent publication in the Diario de Cádiz, provincial press, happened at the very end of February and too late for our hard copy edition for March.

The man made it known to several taxi drivers at the Chiclana taxi rank that he did not have the money on him, so he would have to pay upon arrival. Most refused because of the high cost of the fare, but one finally agreed.

The incident occurred on the 4th of December 2009. Now, originally, the man was found guilty of fraud by the local law court in Almuñécar; he was fined 720 euros and ordered to pay the 380-euro taxi fare. However, an appeal was made and a higher, provincial court, decided that although the man did not pay, it was not because he did not intend to pay: upon arrival neither his boss (with whom he had a phone conversation during the journey) or his mother would agree to give him the money for the taxi driver. Furthermore, the man had given the driver his ID card, so there was no intent to commit fraud.

Where the provincial court differed was in the interpretation of what happened when the taxi arrived in Almuñécar. The taxi driver said that his client opened the door and ran off, which the local judge accepted, whereas the appeal judge accepted that the client told the taxi driver to wait whilst he got the money from his mother. The taxi driver later changed his statement, to one that coincided with the client’s one.

Summing up, the appeals judge based his judgement on the facts that the client made it very clear that he did not have the money to pay and would have to pay at the other end, and that he gave his ID card to the taxi driver. Had his intention been to commit fraud then he would not have admitted that he did not have the money to start with and much less, have revealed his identity.

(News: Almunecar, Costa Tropical, Granada, Andalucia)