Saturday, August 10, 2013

Back in the dock

The next trial for José Joaquín Moya, former socialist mayor of Bigastro, is due to begin. This time he is accused of receiving a “gift” from two local entrepreneurs of a VW Toureg, valued at 60,000 euros. Prosecution are seeking a prison sentence of five years along with a fine of 180,000 euros for the three defendants. 

At the time of his arrest in October 2008, Moya said that accepting the car as a gift was a “mistake” and pointed out that he had sold the car a few months later and bought something more discreet.
Sr Moya has already been disqualified from holding public office for 15 years and still awaits the outcome of the trial related to allowing Repsol to build gas tanks on green land. The case against him regarding the use of council employees and council equipment to do work  at his farm in Vistabella proved inconclusive.  

In May he was sentenced to disqualification from office for 8 years and given a fine of 2,600 euros for granting permission to Eurener to build a solar farm at La Pedrera without permission from Valencia. You will recall that the concession to build was granted to a member of Moya’s family.

In September 2012, Moya was disqualified for holding public office for 7 years in a case that involved selling off 35,000 square metres of protected land at La Predera to allow Idearco to build an aparthotel and golf practice range. In this instance, the selling price was 2.1 million euros representing over 25% of the town’s budget. The town still owes that money along with compensation and interest to the company who bought the land. 

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