Secondly, a builder who promoted housing in Illescas between 2014 and 2018, acknowledges a debt to Social Security for non-payment of his worker contributions. But he assures that he did not keep the money. “There was therefore no fraud, but rather an error on the part of the company”his lawyer, Federico Collazo, told ABC at the end of the hearing held this Tuesday at the Toledo Provincial Court, where the parties did not agree on the amount owed.
The public prosecutor’s office and the social security treasury accuse his client of aggravated crime of fraud, for which they request respectively 4 and 5 years in prison, in addition to the payment of a large fine. Collazo, on the other hand, requests free acquittal. “My client says the debt does not add up and there is an error in the calculation. They charge you amounts that are not true. In fact, the Social Security Treasury demanded more than 700,000 euros, although during the trial they presented a certificate and reduced it by almost 300,000 euros,” said his lawyer.
The prosecution estimates, for its part, the debt generated in four years, from July 2015 to the same month of 2018, at nearly 400,000 euros. The defense, however, places it at around 190,000 euros.the amount was therefore a subject of discussion during the session, which lasted three hours.
“It did not disappoint as the money was not deposited into my client’s assets. It’s one thing to have debt and another to keep workers’ money. The company did poorly for him and he didn’t pay simply because he couldn’t do it,” his lawyer told the newspaper. “He ran out of money because he was paying suppliers and wanted workers to be paid, which they were paid. but the problem was their contributions,” he added. “That’s why I’m asking for absolution, because he didn’t commit fraud, but he stopped paying and the money didn’t “It’s not in his assets,” he insisted.
However, the prosecution and the lawyer for the Social Security Treasury assert the opposite. “Connoisseur of debts, consciously stopped paying them and stopped garnishing all contributions “this corresponded to its workers registered in this company from July 2015 to July 2018”, specifies the public prosecutor in its indictment. He did it, according to him, with the aim of enriching himself “at the expense of Social Security”. And the accused also did not adopt “any measures” regarding the debt, according to the prosecutor, such as requests for postponement, opening of bankruptcy proceedings or other alternative means of financing.
The defendant’s lawyer reports that in 2017, a meeting took place at the Social Security Treasury to regularize the situation. “They asked for 30 percent of the amount, but it’s not the same for 700,000 euros as for the 190,000 we say,” he said.
The workers said they had been paid, as Segundo’s lawyer informed ABC, and only one of the two police officers cited showed up, the other having died. The technicians did this via video conference during the trial, which was held for sentencing.
