Two men have been sentenced to 1-year’s imprisonment for selling a property that was simply not theirs to sell.
The man who bought the property for 90,000 euros spent even more money on his acquisition but lost it all – a total of 115, 000 euros – in a lawsuit brought against him by the rightful owner.
Neil John R. was sold on obtaining a property in Carataunas in June 2005, so he spent his savings to buy one – it was going to be his retirement home in the sun, but he was unlucky enough to be inadvertently dealing with two crooks, Juan Antonio J.M. and José Manuel V.S.
But the con was a long time coming, starting in October 2003 when the two men came up with a plan to line their pockets, involving the property of Emilio M.G. The plan was based on the fact that the property had never been entered into the Land Registry, so all they needed to do was ‘pretend’ that it belonged to them.
How? Firstly by requesting from the provincial depart for catastro that their names figure on the said list, using the ‘cambio de titularidad catastral.’ The two men knew how lax the system was, so they simply presented a fake bill of purchase, with one of them acting as the seller and the other as the purchaser. Simple. As anybody who has ever bought a property knows, the catastro is divorced from reality concerning property value and in many cases is hopelessly out of date on a municipal level.
The one who figured as the purchaser was entered as an administrator for a company. Now they had a piece of paper that supposedly recognized them as owners. The next step was the public notary and a deed where another fictitious sale was made between them, which was when Mr N.J.R unwittingly entered into the scene.
The Brit saw the seemingly bona-fide ownership documents and in June 2005 snatched up the property for 90,000 euros, or in other words, the equivalent of 15-million pesetas. The property changed hands and everybody was happy… except the real owner, of course, when he found out.
Emilio M.G. sued Mr Neil John R. in May 2007, who won the case and then again in the appeal. Of course, the duped foreigner was livid because not only had he lost the property that had cost him 90,000 euros, but he had also lost the money that he had spent doing the place up, putting in electricity and rebuilding.
The Public Prosecutor had originally recommend 3-year’s imprisonment and for the accused to return the money, but in the end they only went down for one year, which is not even a prison sentence, but a suspended sentence.
The only consolation for Mr R. is that by court order the two men must pay back the money, which they have since blown… maybe one of these days…
(News: Caratauna, Alpujarra, Granada, Andalucia)