Alex Trelinski
A FORMER Santa Pola mayor has been sentenced to prison for corruption over a private health clinic that didn’t have to pay any bills and employed his sister
Miguel Zaragoza, was the Partido Popular mayor of the Costa Blanca municipality between 2003 and 2015.
Along with ex-councillor Jorge Perello, he was convicted of fraud, bribery, and administrative prevarication, and they received six and a half years each in prison.
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Two doctors who ran the clinic on the Gran Alacant urbanisation were also found guilty of the same charges and given the identical punishment.
A clinic employee who was Zaragoza’s sister and Perello’s partner received two years and three months behind bars for ‘assisting’ bribery.
Three former Santa Pola councillor were acquitted.
The clinic was also sanctioned with a four year ban on receiving any subsidies or tax benefits.
All of the sentences can be appealed before the Valencian Supreme Court.
The Alicante Provincial Court ruled that Zaragoza and Perello allowed the company Clinica Gran Alacant SL to open a clinic in a council-owned building without paying rent or utilities.
The judges said the politicians acted ‘in concert’ with those behind the clinic.
They also took advantage of their positions by ensuring the facility hired ‘like-minded people’, namely members of the Partido Popular.
Zaragoza’s sister, Pilar, even stopped working because she ‘would suffer no consequences’ and continued to receive a full salary.
The court said the two politicians and two doctors must compensate Santa Pola City Council to the tune of €109,37- of which €13,022 has already been paid by Clinica Gran Alacant SL.
