A manager of an aircon firm, together with a store man, who worked under him, have received prison sentences for fraud.

On the 9th of June the Granada Provincial Court considered it a proven fact that 130,000 euros had been swindled out of the company between 2016 and 2018 by these two men, both employed by the entity. However, the accused can appeal before a higher court (TSJA).

Both men also face fines; the manager 1,140 euros and the storeroom worker, 1,080 euros, as it presently stands. Furthermore, they would have to pay compensation to the company to the tune of 130,334 euros.

However, 90% will have to be paid by the now ex-manager, as the court considers him the prime mover and who almost exclusively benefitted from the fraud.

It was the manager who removed the aircon units from the store and sold them privately, retaining the money gained from the sale, and the storeroom lad, who claims that he never personally benefitted from the fraud, falsified official documentation to cover this up. The younger man was given a shorter prison term because he had confessed to the crime.

The defence lawyer had argued that the company ran parallel, black accounts where units were sold without IVA, which is why stock was missing from the company warehouse. This was rejected by the judge because there was quite evidently “a hole in the stock.”

Furthermore, a witness who had bought material from the accused said that the accused always insisted on cash payments with handwritten invoices.

(News: City & Metropolitan Area, Granada, Andalucia)