CAR THIEVES WALK FREE FROM ALICANTE COURTS

News

Kevin Reardon / 2010-02-19 08:27:46

One criminal stole 3 cars in a week and was freed

Whilst we all hope that criminal activity is not profitable and that the perpetrators are caught and severely punished it would seem that in Alicante, despite the Criminal Code providing for a punishment of between one and three years in prison, that is not always the case, particularly when it comes to the theft of cars.

As a result there was criticism for the Alicante Judicial system last week when it came to light that not one of the last 150 offenders to go through the courts for car theft in the city has been sentenced to serve a term in jail and this, despite the current car theft epidemic sweeping through the region.

Just last week one habitual criminal was caught by the National Police stealing vehicles on 3 separate occasions but spent less than a day in police custody before he was released. The wave of the theft of vehicles registered since last January, particularly from community garages in Alicante city, has not been stemmed and on just one day in the Albufereta and Nuevo San Blas areas, there were 18 garages broken into resulting in the theft of eleven vehicles.

There has also been criticism of the National Police who residents say are no longer pursuing such crimes although evidence would suggest that is not the case with figures showing that in the last quarter of 2009, 104 people were arrested for stealing cars in Alicante whilst in January and the first half of February the arrests are already around fifty. Although police have a unit in operation to detain car thieves, this does not cover the thefts from cars parked in community garages.

The Palace of Justice says that there is a mix of reasons why those accused for car theft tend not to go to prison including the current heavy workload of the courts which is approximately 50% higher now than it was at the same time two years ago, the length of time it takes to bring such a case to the courts as well as the current problem of overcrowding in the country’s prisons.

This in itself means that criminals are rarely incarcerated except for the most serious crimes. A new penal court has been promised in the city for the past ten years.

A spokesman said that if the accused has no criminal record he would usually be sentenced to one year in jail for which there is rarely detention, so the serves his time on probation. This ensures that the matter can be brought to a speedy conclusion and the courts are tied up for just a short space of time.

In the event that the car thief has a record, the penalty can be up to two years in prison. In these cases it is also normal is that the accused is free while the trial is dealt with by the courts.

He said that the criminal courts in Alicante are in a state of virtual collapse, the workload has increased over 50 percent in the past two years and that translates into delays both in the conduct of trials and in the processing of the convictions. In the end, the beneficiary of these delays is the criminal who often sees his imprisonment postponed or even annulled.