Appeals court upholds seller’s sentence and €17,500 in fines and compensation

The Audiencia Provincial de Balears kept a two-year-and-three-month prison term for a boat seller. He was convicted of falsifying a commercial document and punishable insolvency. The court also kept €17,500 in fines and compensation as one total. The ruling is not final, and the seller may appeal on points of law to the Tribunal Supremo, Spain’s Supreme Court.

The court’s note gives no separate sum for the fines and compensation. It says the seller bought a boat in January 2021 but did not register it or pay the taxes due. Months later, he sold it to a buyer and gave him a false contract to help register it. He worked on his own in the boat trade, but the paper named a company as seller even though it had not made the sale.

The buyer later had mechanical problems with the boat and sued both the seller and the company named on the paper. A handwriting expert found the contract was false, and the charge against the company was later dropped. The court kept the seller’s convictions for the false paper and punishable insolvency. But it did not find for sure that he had cheated the buyer in the first sale.

The ruling also covers steps taken after a €25,000 court order to seize assets. The court said the seller emptied his bank accounts and sold assets and vehicles to avoid that order. They included a van, jet skis, an Audi R8 and a Mercedes. This €25,000 seizure order is separate from the €17,500 in fines and compensation. The release does not split the fines from the compensation.

The seller asked the appeal court to void the earlier ruling. It found no gap in the judge’s reasons and no error in the ruling. The court turned down his request for nullity and left the prison term and money awards in place. The sentence is not final, and a further appeal on points of law may go to the Tribunal Supremo. The court release does not say whether the seller will ask for that review.

Source: Consejo General del Poder Judicial (CGPJ)