The Lleida Court has sentenced two men to nine months in prison for defrauding a couple with the fraudulent sale of someone else's apartment advertised on Idealista. The sentence declares it proven that the defendants devised a plan in January 2019 to sell a property belonging to an acquaintance, obtained the keys, and attracted buyers under the name of a company that was not registered in the Registry of Real Estate Agents of Catalonia.
The case has been closed with a penalty much lower than that requested by the Prosecutor's Office. The public ministry was seeking three and a half years in prison for each defendant and compensation exceeding 50,000 euros, but the trial ended with an agreement after the acknowledgment of the facts and the return of the 20,000 euros advanced by the victims.
The couple transferred 20,000 euros after seeing the advertisement on Idealista
The judicial resolution states that a couple interested in purchasing the property first handed over 3,000 euros and then another 17,000 euros as an advance, after visiting the apartment and accepting the deal proposed by the defendants.
The sale was never formalized. The ruling points out that there was no public deed because the real owner was completely unaware of the transaction and that the two defendants appropriated the money until they learned that legal proceedings had already begun.
In addition to the prison sentence, the Court imposes six months in prison and a fine of 450 euros for aggravated fraud in conjunction with the use of a public document and another two months and 29 days for the use of a false private document.
One of the defendants issued two bounced checks for 20,000 euros
The sentence also establishes as proven that one of the convicted individuals formalized a public notarial deed of debt acknowledgment and issued two checks totaling 20,000 euros to the complainants. Neither could be cashed due to insufficient funds.
The proceedings went to trial at the end of April, after a previous postponement in June of last year. The hearing concluded with an agreement between the parties following the defendants' acknowledgment of the facts.
Mariona Roig, a lawyer from Roig Sanjuan Advocades, specifies that the victims have not only recovered the money advanced but will receive an additional 15,000 euros as compensation for the economic and psychological damage suffered.
The prison sentence has been suspended on the condition that the two convicted individuals do not re-offend within the next two years.
The final ruling arrives seven years after events that began in January 2019, when the accused put the property belonging to others up for sale through Idealista.