The Provincial Court of Santa Cruz de Tenerife has sentenced six years and a month in prison to the director of a Center for Güímar’s elders for seven crimes of abandonment of dependent users and another of aggravated scam.
The sentence, in accordance with the parties and made public this Wednesday, includes the payment of a fine of 600 euros and compensation for the amount of a scam of 13,730 euros since it withdrew money from the bank account of one of the residents without its consent for just over a year and every time the pension was entered.
The hearing considers as proven facts that the woman, although she was not the owner of the company -her daughter -, did take care of the daily management of the center until in 2017, in two investigations of the Labor Inspection and the Canary Islands government itself, several breaches related to accessibility, absence of preceptive stays, health and equipment were revealed.
It was also found that the staff ratios – insufficient and without the necessary qualification – was not met until a sanctioning procedure was opened by “very serious” administrative infraction, which culminated in the closure of the center on May 17, 2017.
In addition, since a year before a criminal investigation was already open by the Provincial Prosecutor’s Office.
To avoid controls, supervisions and administrative, social and health inspections, it was decided to reopen the center in March, in another location as an extra -hotelier private center of alternative therapies type Zen but which, deep down, continued to function as “undercover geriatric.”
The director tried to prove, without success and through the Güímar Health Center, that the complex users were not dependent, something that achieved posterioment in Arafo but whose opinions were subsequently revoked.
The users were transferred on May 14, 2017 to a home located in Arafo, owned by the convicted person, but after an inspection of the Fiscal Ministry, the Labor Inspection and the inspection and registration service of centers of the Technical General Secretariat of the Ministry of Employment, Social Policies and Housing of the Government of the Canary Islands, the City Council declared the non -viability of the Zen therapy center by not having a geriatric license.
Therefore, the elders were transferred again to the center of Güímar that had been closed where it continued to operate as a “undercover geriatric” under the modality of tourist room accommodation of rooms.
To achieve her purpose, the woman arranged with a man who had the formal ownership of the exploitation of the business appearing as a lessee of the property, although she continued to direct the facilities “knowing that she did not have the knowledge, authorization and control of the competent administrative entities, hindering and thus deliberately hinder her activity”, he collects the sentence.
The hearing indicates that users did not receive due attention, control and health supervision and the minimum safety conditions were breached, “with obvious personnel and material means deficiencies, grabbing with it severely the safety of residents, mostly elderly people, especially helpless, vulnerable and in need of continuous attention and care, creating consciously and deliberately a situation of helplessness and serious risk”.
He even points out that no medical or nursing visits or controls were made to users even though they mostly needed it.
Just a worker
The man was the only responsible worker and was “exclusively” in charge of serving the six internal users in the center 24 hours a day, assuming cooking and food, controlling their health status, carrying out the necessary priests and providing their medication, as well as maintain Functions.
As an example of the bad conditions of the center, the audience recounts that on September 25, 2017 an 81 -year -old man died, ill from Parkinson and Alzheimer’s, for a possible infection secondary to pressure ulcers.
Following another record at the end of October, it was found that the property lacked hot water and some rooms did not have electric light, also breaking the mandatory regulations regarding minimum safety and health conditions for this type of centers, persisting most of the deficiencies in terms of functionality, accessibility, health and safety that had been revealed by the administrative authorities since 2016.
The hearing concludes that in the center “consciously and deliberately” a “situation of helplessness and serious and prolonged risk” was generated.
