Canary Islands Court Clears Fraudster, Citing Victim's "Obvious" Negligence

The Canary Islands High Court (TSJC) has cleared a man who had been sentenced to four years in prison by a lower court in Las Palmas for property fraud. The court ruled that the person who reported the fraud acted "negligently, carelessly, and clumsily," and that the scam itself was "crude, vulgar, or obvious."

The court's decision was based on how many times the victim handed over large sums of money, totaling 246,000 euros, without getting anything back. He was tempted by the idea of buying very cheap properties from "vulture funds."

The court noted that if a fraud victim doesn't take basic steps to protect themselves, the accused might be acquitted, especially if the accused didn't force the victim to do anything against their will.

The judgment highlighted that the purchases never happened, the money wasn't returned, and instead, the amounts grew, with the fraudulent deals happening six times over a year and a half. Because of this, the TSJC stated that "any reasonably normal person would not have fallen for such a trick."

The original sentence also included a fine of 2,400 euros and an order to pay back 146,000 euros to the victim, to whom the man had "sold" five properties without ever handing over any homes or returning the money.

The court said it was "too much money in too many payments over too much time for the victim not to realise he was being deceived." This suggests there might have been "other interests" involved in these deals, which had "no sign of reality," according to the TSJC.

The accused met the victim in late 2020. Pretending to be a very experienced real estate agent, he offered to sell him a bungalow in El Cotillo for 50,000 euros, and received the money.

Soon after, in January 2021, the accused suggested buying four apartments in Sardina del Sur and asked for 60,000 euros, which the victim paid. In March, the victim sent another 46,000 euros for apartments in Santa Cruz de Tenerife.

In June of the same year, the victim gave the accused a check for 48,000 euros, supposedly because the accused needed cash to buy a house. Then, in February 2022, the accused offered an investment of 42,000 euros in apartments in Costa Calma, Fuerteventura.

The TSJC pointed out that none of these sales were ever completed, even though the money was received. The accused only returned 100,000 euros after legal action was threatened, which led to a reduced sentence for making amends.

While the court acknowledged that greed motivated the accused, it also noted that the victim was trying to buy properties from "vulture funds" at extremely low prices.