The Orihuela Mayor, Pepe Vegara, has refused to strike a deal with the public prosecutor for the alleged crimes of fraud and tax evasion, with which he is charged, in exchange for admitting his guilt.
In its indictment, the Prosecutor’s Office requests, along with three other defendants, a sentence of seven years in prison for a crime of falsifying a commercial document and two crimes against the Public Treasury for VAT and corporate tax fraud. However, Snr Vegara continues to declare his innocence saying that he is happy to fight the case in court.
He says that he is not willing to accept any other agreement that does not involve acquittal of all the charges of which he is accused.
Vegara and three of his partners are charged with a crime of tax fraud in which it is alleged that the group, whilst running the company ITV Vega Baja SA, RPZ and CCB, reduced the company profit so that the amounts to be paid for Corporate Tax and IVA for the year 2005 were significantly less than the amounts due, saving them 760,539.12 euros of Corporate Tax in 2005 and 157,396.80 euros in VAT.
During the presentation of the PP list for the municipal elections in 2023, the mayor elaborated a little more and attributed the case to malpractice on the part of an employee whom, they decided not to report.
Now, however, almost a year after the case came to light, and eight months since Vegara was sworn in as mayor of Orihuela, the issue raised its head again on Friday. After his lawyers refused to reach an agreement with the Prosecutor’s Office and following his refusal to accept any guilt, everything is now in the hands of the Criminal Court number 1, which must set a date for the trial that Vegara will now have to face.
