The Orihuela Criminal Court Number 1 has put off the trial that was supposed to happen today, Friday Novemver 21st. The Mayor of Orihuela, Pepe Vegara, and three other businesspeople were going to be tried for tax fraud. The trial will now take place in May and June of 2026. The accused are facing a seven-year prison sentence from the prosecution.
The first hearing was set on January 22nd. Vegara’s defence counsel got sick, therefore it was put off. The next hearing was arranged for ten months later. The first hearing was to take place on November 14th at the Palace of Justice in Plaza de Santa Lucía. But the judge became sick, so it was pushed back till this week. Now there will be two hearings: one on Friday, November 21st, and another on Friday, November 28th. Sources at the High Court of Justice of the Valencian Community say that the judge’s medical condition is still the same.
According to the same sources, the new trial dates are planned for May 22nd and 29th and June 5th of next year, which is six months from now. This is the third time that a date has been scheduled for the trial.
Two decades ago
The events that have already been looked at and are going to trial happened in 2005, before Vegara got active in municipal politics.
The Prosecutor’s Office is asking for a seven-year prison sentence for Vegara, who is a businessman, CEO, and representative of ITV Vega Baja. They are also asking for a seven-year prison sentence for three other defendants, two of whom are from the same company, ITV. The charges are for continued falsification of commercial documents and two crimes against the Public Treasury: VAT fraud and corporate tax fraud.
The indictment says that the Treasury didn’t get 917,935 euros in the 2005 financial year because of the “fraudulent manoeuvres and deductions used by the Vehicle Technical Inspection Station,” which Vegara is still in charge of.
The start of the trial was made public just a few days before he was supposed to run for mayor of Orihuela in 2023. Neither Vegara nor the Popular Party had spoken anything about the court probe that was hurting the main candidate until that point.
Not in accord
The Mayor has said that there would be no plea deal with the prosecution, even if the defendants have tried to make one. Vegara would have to admit to a crime in order to make such an arrangement, which he won’t do.
A few days before Vegara’s court appearance in January, the People’s Party said it had initiated a disciplinary complaint against him once the trial date was set. The party’s rules say that this step must be taken.
Author: Derek Appleton
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