The Prosecutor’s Office of Santa Cruz de Tenerife has retracted the accusations during the second session of the trial concerning alleged fraud in the allocation of the Strasse kiosk in García Sanabria Park, for which the administrator of the initial concessionaire has been implicated.
The public ministry asserts that one can only refer to a deception, considering that the new concessionaires never settled the 82,000 euros owed for electricity during the first phase and failed to execute a project costing 75,000 euros to rectify the illegal connection that the Santa Cruz City Council had demanded of them.
According to the Prosecutor’s Office, the true party accountable for the situation is the local council, which not only permitted this connection of the kiosk to the municipal network, associated with numerous risks and in violation of regulations, but has also failed to address the utility bills for electricity and the necessary works.
The only obligation that the proprietors would encounter would be for the last four years of electricity payments during their concession, which remains valid, though it is still uncertain who will take responsibility for the new connection.
The prosecutor attributed the accusations to a mistake made by the individual who drafted the initial document, believing that the dispute would have been swiftly resolved through civil channels rather than criminal proceedings as is currently the case.
Nevertheless, the concessionaires continue to insist on reclaiming the disparity between the amount they paid and an auditor’s assessment, which ranges between approximately 160,000 and 130,000 euros. They are also requesting a three-year prison sentence for the administrator.
In this latest session, specialists including the architect who executed the project intervened, stating that the new owners were never informed prior of the existence of this debt or the obligation to undertake the works, which are estimated to cost 75,000 euros—an issue the local council never raised.
An economist calculated that the electricity costs since the kiosk’s inauguration in 2015 until its transfer in 2021 actually do not surpass 11,000 euros, of which a minimal amount would need to be paid as municipal obligations lapse after four years.
However, the prosecutor reminded that this period is halted when the debt is acknowledged, as occurred in this instance, while the private prosecution mentioned other liabilities to banks that their clients were also not made aware of.
Another expert assessed the value of the concession to be 323,000 euros, the sum that was actually paid, and not the 600,000 euros claimed by the sellers.
Notably, on Monday, the opening day of the trial, the City Council issued a tender for another ten-year concession.
