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The Supreme Court confirms 23 months in prison for the former president of Tenerife for defrauding Canarian residents in subsidies

2023-03-10T15:11:01.269Z


Miguel Concepción Cáceres and his two daughters will also have to compensate the State with 3.98 million euros


The Criminal Chamber of the Supreme Court has ratified the sentence of 23 months in prison imposed on the businessman and former president of the CD Tenerife football club Miguel Concepción Cáceres, for a continued crime of aggravated fraud in the official bonuses granted by the Administration to residents of the Canary Islands for flights.

The court in turn sentences his two daughters to eight months as accomplices of the crime.

The ruling of the Audiencia de Tenerife, ratified by the high court in an order to which EL PAÍS has had access, also establishes that the three defendants must compensate the General State Administration with 3.98 million euros.

Miguel Concepción will have to pay 50% and his two daughters —Eloísa Concepción Rodríguez and Verónica Concepción Rodríguez—, 25% each.

Residents of the Canary Islands and the Balearic Islands are entitled to a 75% discount on flights between the islands and the peninsula, as well as inter-island routes.

The proven facts maintain that between November 2007 and April 2011, the airline Islas Airways liquidated 47.26 million for inter-island flights in the Autonomous Community of the Canary Islands.

Concepción Cáceres, president of the company, tried to receive from the then Ministry of Public Works amounts greater than those that would have corresponded to him by virtue of the aforementioned Royal Decree.

To do this, she "devised and adopted" a strategy consisting of sending flight files and certifications "that appeared to be correct and had documentary support," according to the order.

This practice allowed them to overcome routine controls, "when in reality they lacked support or did not respond to reality."

This plan allowed them to obtain higher bonuses of up to 8.39 million euros.

The Supreme Court considers correct the classification made by the Court of Tenerife of fraud, aggravated by the amount, "committed by those who controlled a travel agency, simulating inter-island trips to the Canary Islands, and obtaining the official bonuses granted by the Administration to residents on the islands, to help them in their air travel, all of which being false and apparently and formally documented to overcome the routine controls of the Ministry of Public Works, obtaining a large sum for the damage caused to the Administration”.

The illegal practices took place between 2008 and 2011. During the hearing, Concepción and her two daughters pleaded guilty to the facts, which prompted the Prosecutor's Office to reduce the initial request from four years in prison to 23 months.

Consequently, he was not forced to go to jail.

At the end of last year, the businessman submitted his resignation as the top president of the football club and sold an important batch of his shareholding to the Madrid investor José Miguel Garrido.

He was succeeded by the former president of the Government of the Canary Islands, Paulino Rivero.

At that time, Concepción denied that it was a move to leave the presidency given the obvious risk that an unfavorable decision by the Supreme Court could leave him unfit for office.

Source: elparis

All news articles on 2023-03-10

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