Malaga brotherhood fraud: man jailed for defrauding fellow members of more than 9,000 euros

He claimed he had won nine million euros in an Once lottery draw. He also said he was a National Police officer, sometimes claiming to work for the secret police, and told people that his young daughter had miraculously overcome leukaemia. None of it was true.

The Malaga provincial court has now upheld an earlier six-year prison sentence: four years for an ongoing fraud offence, with the aggravating circumstance of multiple previous convictions, and a further two years for misappropriation.

The defendant already had three final convictions for fraud, two of which resulted in sentences he completed in December 2021.

In its ruling, issued in May this year, the court describes how he built relationships with members of other brotherhood committees. He promised to pay for new cabezas de varal (the decorative supports for the poles of the María Santísima del Mayor Dolor throne) in a project budgeted at 80,000 euros.

He also offered to fund the restoration and replacement of a moulding on the Santísimo Cristo de la Exaltación throne, costing 9,500 euros; the restoration of its gilding, valued at 48,376.07 euros; and sculptures to decorate it, costing a further 53,000 euros.

He also said he would pay for an altar frontal for the chapel of María Santísima de Lágrimas y Favores, costing 10,000 euros, and a group of seven sculptures for the Cristo de la Exaltación, budgeted at 90,000 euros.

To make all these offers appear credible, he met the artists who were supposed to carry out the work and even signed contracts for the projects based on the agreed budgets.

According to the court ruling, none of the projects ever went ahead.

He then began asking for smaller sums. He asked one of the victims for 1,000 euros in cash to pay for the design of the cabezas de varal. He also persuaded him to pay 150 euros for an initial design and another 400 euros for a second one.

On 14 June, he asked him to send 500 euros via Bizum. Later, he proposed that the man give him 1,500 euros "off the books", promising to return 15,000 euros three months later. He never recovered the money.

He asked another person for 1,000 euros in cash to pay the goldsmith who was supposedly going to make the cabezas de varal.

A third victim paid 280 euros for a 3D model of a chapel project and, after Semana Santa, another 400 euros for work to clean the Virgin's mantle. He later tried to obtain another 400 euros from her for a second cleaning and 1,500 euros for four embroidered bocina panels, although she never paid either of these amounts.

He approached a fourth victim with an investment proposal. He asked for 2,000 euros and promised that the man would receive between 15,000 and 20,000 euros in September. The victim sent the money via Bizum but never recovered it. According to the ruling, the supposed investment would have been managed by an alleged uncle of the defendant who worked as a "broker".

The ruling also includes another 1,400 euros from the proceeds of a brotherhood-organised trip to Almeria and Seville, which the defendant took for himself.

He also received 30 Christmas lottery tickets to sell and failed to return either the unsold tickets or the money from those he sold.

The original ruling ordered him to pay compensation of 3,550, 1,000, 680 and 4,000 euros to the four victims, a total of 9,230 euros. The final amount includes the 2,000-euro investment, the 1,400 euros from the trips and 600 euros corresponding to the value of the lottery tickets that he failed to return.

The defendant appealed against the ruling, stating that his right to the presumption of innocence had been breached and questioning whether the victims' testimony was enough to prove the offences.

His defence also said that the victims could have avoided the fraud "with a minimum degree of diligence". As for the misappropriation charge, the defence questioned whether documentary evidence existed to prove that he had kept the money.

It asked the court to overturn the sentence and acquit him. The prosecution stated that the ruling should stand.

The provincial court rejected his arguments. The victims' accounts all agreed that the defendant talked about the nine-million-euro lottery win, claimed to belong to the National Police and spoke about his daughter's serious illness.

The court found that he used these stories to gain the victims' trust and carry out the deception "through a false appearance of financial solvency". The Bizum payments were also documented. In one case, the defendant explicitly asked the victim to enter "donation" as the payment description in order to "disguise the transaction".

Another victim told the court that he handed over the money in "good faith", as is customary within the brotherhood community and because the defendant's supposed status as a police officer gave him confidence.

The defendant denied receiving some of the money and offered different explanations for other payments. Regarding the 2,000 euros sent via Bizum, he claimed it was a personal loan because he needed money and denied promising any return. He also denied keeping the proceeds from the trips or the lottery money.

Faced with "conclusive, persistent and unanimous evidence for the prosecution", the ruling says, the defendant offered only "systematic denials". The court found no reason to alter the conclusions reached at trial and considered the evidence "suitable and sufficient" to establish the facts.

The ruling can be appealed before the Supreme Court.

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