Laurence Dollimore
JUAN Antonio Roca has been released on parole.
The mastermind behind the infamous Malaya case was let out of prison yesterday after serving 12 years of his 20-year sentence.
A judge deemed the former Marbella urban planning boss eligible for release as he had completed three quarters of his sentence and had been a model prisoner.
Most notably he had spent the last year working with a charity which works to reform inmates and helps former ex-convicts find work upon release.
Roca was convicted of being the ringleader of the Malaya plot, which saw 53 officials across dozens of Andalucian municipalities tried for embezzlement of public funds, breaches of trust, influence peddling and more between 1991 – 2006.
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- ‘I paid Roca €3 million for occupancy licences’, claims builder in Malaya case
- Unravelling Roca’s web of shame
Born in Cartagena, Murcia, in 1953, Roca moved to Marbella in 1991 after his property development company Comarsa was declared bankrupt.
But following a meteoric rise, he went from being the late mayor Jesus Gil y Gil’s chauffeur to becoming the councillor for ‘Urban Planning’ for a staggering 11 years from 1992 until 2003.
Roca and his string of accomplices were accused of accepting bribes in exchange for building licences from a string of real estate promoters.
In just four years alone (from 2002 to 2006) a total of 19 agents are said to have paid more than €33 million to Roca and his cohorts.
It is alleged that during his time in office, Roca amassed a fortune worth at least €125 million, including a string of properties, a huge collection of exotic animals and a private art portfolio that included a Miro that he kept in the loo.
Free now to spend the money that has been stashed away for the last 12 years!!!