Municipal car-towing company and Fuengirola council locked in legal battle over 600,000 euro debts
Grufu SL has run up enormous debts which the council has been forced to assume
Fuengirola town council has been forced to assume the debts of Grufu SL, the municipal car-towing company, which owes 600,000 euros in unpaid social security payments. Or put another way, tax payers in Fuengirola, who may have already paid steep fines to recover their impounded cars, may now have to pay Grufu’s debts.
Grufu was contracted in 2006 as Fuengirola’s ‘Vehicle Towing, Storage and Immobilisation Service’. By 2017, it had racked up debts of 500,000 euros in unpaid social security payments. Fuengirola council was held jointly liable for the debt.
As the debts continued to mount, last year the council was declared solely liable for the debts and ordered to pay up. A legal battle between Grufu SL and the council is now underway.
It has also emerged that since 2017 Grufu also owes the council close to 100,000 in unpaid municipal taxes. However, Grufu will continue to manage the towing service until at least 2026 under the terms of the contract it signed in 2006. The council is now seeking to have that contract annulled.
