Costa de la Luz
Nine charged in new real estate scam in Chiclana
By h.b.
Apr 11, 2008 - 6:37 PM

A new investigation into real estate fraud in Chiclana has resulted in the Environment Prosecutor for Cádiz ordering the arrest of nine people accused of fraud, falsifying documents and acting against town planning regulations.

The allegation is that they registered as five year old houses plots of land where in fact nothing had been built. After a period of paying the taxes resulting from the land and construction, they then obtained a mortgage for the non-existent property. Once this was achieved they then started to build the house, thinking that they could not now be fined, given that town planning irregularities only have a validity of five years, and the properties were listed as being from before that time.

The scam worked some four times with the group managing to build inside the special town planning area of Chiclana. Town planning councillor in the Town Hall, José Pedro Butrón, told El País that these practices damaged the image of the town, and it was a clear case of defrauding both the banks and Hacienda.