Police officer jailed and sacked after issuing bogus fines against disliked neighbour in Spain’s Almeria

A Guardia Civil officer has been stripped of his job and jailed for four years, after issuing unfair fines against a neighbour he did not like on an Almeria urbanisation.

The unnamed officer tried to overturn the original sentence handed down by the Almeria Provincial Court and backed by the Andalucia Superior Court in October 2020.

He took the matter to Spain’s highest bench- the Supreme Court- and lost, which will mean him having pay all of the costs during the lengthy judicial process.

The man was originally convicted for crimes of falsifying an official document.

He imposed four penalties on a neighbour that he was in dispute with on the El Toyo de Retamar urbanisation in Almeria.

The officer handed out two unwarranted fines on March 11, 2017 to the resident for not reacting to Guardia officers waving down cars at an accident scene and for not having a vehicle ITV since 2011.

He struck again weeks later on April 7, when at 4.30 am, he pulled over his neighbour’s car after he had left his house to go to work.

The officer incorrectly fined him again for not having a valid ITV and for not wearing a seat belt.

The Supreme Court appeal ruling pointed out that the errant officer had incorrectly listed the same road where all the fines were handed out- namely the N-344 highway- when in fact it was on a street which was under the jurisdiction of the Policia Local.

The court said there was ‘no doubt’ in the evidence that the fines had been fabricated because of the man’s ‘disputes’ with his neighbour.

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