The Motril Criminal Law Court has sentenced a lawyer, Juan José de La Fuente Teixido to 9 months’ imprisonment after he admitted to the charges against him.

In this Acuerdo de Conformidad (Plea Bargain Deal) the lawyer admitted to having received 7,347 euros from a client for him to pay off bills to several companies – the client had a judicial order which obliged him to make these payments.

The trouble was that Juan José de La Fuente Teixido kept the money and produced false receipts to support his claim that he had done what he had been instructed to do. He was rumbled by a lawyer belonging to the Grupo Agaz Abogados and taken to court by them.

Apart from the 9-month prison sentence and an order to return the 7,347 euros, plus interest, he has also been barred from practicing his profession for a further nine months.

Now, what really caught our eye over this one was the fact that the guilty man had already been found guilty of a similar offence in 2009. On this occasion he was ordered to return 5,250 euro to his client; the fees charged for several services that he never even carried out. He was sentenced to 2-years’ imprisonment and barred from practicing for a further two years.

Now, dear readers, if this shady lawyer had already been found guilty of fraud in 2009 and barred from the profession for two years, where is the logic that apart from his prison sentence in this latest affair, he is only barred for nine months? Surely it is demonstrated that the man cannot be trusted as a lawyer and should be barred from practicing for life?

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