A FORMER mayor of Orihuela, Monica Lorente, has been given a four-month jail term and disqualified from holding public office for 20 months over the illegal award of a refuse contract in 2007.

Lorente was the municipality’s mayor between 2007 and 2011.

She will not go to prison because it was a first offence with a sentence of below the two-year threshold.

ANGEL FENOLL

Along with nine others including three ex-councillors, a total of nearly €600,000 will have to repaid to Orihuela council.

All of the politicians were members of the Partido Popular.

The Alicante Provincial Court reduced the punishments handed down due to the delay in the issue being resolved.

24 other defendants in the so-called Brugal case including former Orihuela mayor Jose Manuel Medina and other former councillors, have been acquitted of all charges.

Orihuela’s refuse contract was deemed to have been ‘rigged’ in favour of an award to businessman Angel Fenoll- owner of Colsur SL and Proambiente SL.

Fenoll was given sentences totalling three years and nine months in prison for three bribery offences.

Prosecutors accused those in the dock of fraud, abuse of power, bribery, influence peddling and illicit association, seeking sentences of up to 38 years in prison.

All of the verdicts and punishments can be appealed before the Valencian Supreme Court.

Monica Lorente and Angel Fenoll are also implicated in other parts of the Brugal probe which includes an investigation over a Vega Baja region waste treatment plant.

That matter is currently being handled by the Supreme Court.
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THREE people have been arrested after tourists made donations to fake charities on the streets of Castell de Guadalest in Alicante Province.

The men, aged between 40 and 45 years old, were bailed by a Villajoyosa court.

Their nationalities have not been revealed or from what part of the country they are from.

CASTELL DE GUADALEST- POPULAR WITH TOURISTS

The Guardia Civil are investigating whether the trio were behind similar scams in other tourist areas of Spain.

Operation Ludwiz was launched after authorities got reports about the scammers approaching several tourists in Castell de Guadalest.

They asked for money to various groups and showed fake papers from alleged charities, mainly linked to children and disabled people.

The official looking documents induced victims to dig into pockets as the scammers took advantage of their good nature.

The Guardia spoke to a number of witnesses and organised a surveillance operation.

They spotted the three men acting in a co-ordinated way after their presence was reported to them by shop owners and pedestrians.

The men were intercepted in their car and officers found papers of an alleged charity, as well as lists of signatures and money.

The Guardia have warned people to be wary of anybody who asks for a donation in the street, even though they may have documents and signature lists.

They point out that legitimate charities rarely ask for money directly on the street or push for immediate donations.

They appeal not to proved any money, personal data or to sign documents without first verifying whether they are dealing with a genuine organisation.

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