According to a recent ruling by the Third Section, the Provincial Court sentenced a truck driver from Alicante to one year in prison for stealing a shipment of 12.5 tonnes of chocolate, and a businessman from Alicante who purchased the goods for 1,200 euros (worth 113,737 euros) to six months in prison. The chocolate cargo was recovered in Alicante as a result of the victim’s report to the National Police.
The judgement’s events began in early 2021. A transport firm employed the truck driver on trial, who is represented by attorney Gonzalo Martín, in January. After being given a truck, he drove to Zaragoza and loaded 12,500 kilogrammes of chocolate and other goods that belonged to a different business. On February 4th, the goods, which were worth just over €113,000, were to be delivered from Zaragoza to a logistics facility owned by the chocolate company in Elche.
But according to the court decision, the truck driver loaded the goods in Zaragoza and failed to deliver them to their destination. Instead, he called the other defendant, a representative of an Alicante-based company, and agreed to sell them to him for 1,200 euros with the goal of making money.
Price much lower than the actual price
The buyer paid the agreed amount in cash without requesting an invoice or evidence of payment, and the negotiated sum was “significantly lower” than the evaluated worth.
The 12.5 tonnes of chocolate were dumped at a warehouse owned by the convicted owner of the Alicante firm.
However, for 158 euros, the truck driver also sold the 13 pallets that were used to load the goods to a business in Valencia.
The truck was eventually found after being left unattended in the town of Cox. Similarly, the court decision states that the police were able to recover the goods sold to the Alicante company because of the truck driver’s knowledge.
All of the chocolate and other goods were taken back to Zaragoza when the authorities gave the consignment back to the shipping company that had employed the guilty truck driver. The accusation that the transport firm lost €5,634 as a result of these incidents was not supported by enough evidence, according to the Alicante Provincial Court.
The accused truck driver acknowledged during the trial in the Third Section of the Court that he had stolen the 12.5 tonnes of chocolate and that he had contacted the other defendant, whom he had never met before, and they had reached a deal to sell him the load for 1,200 euros, according to the legal grounds for the sentence.
The merchant, for his part, contended in court that he paid such a cheap price for the merchandise because he thought it belonged to the truck driver and that the seller had informed him that it was perishable and had a short expiration date. He added that he didn’t ask for an invoice or receipt at first since he planned to do so later in order to collect the VAT.
The accused businessman was aware of the “high probability” that the goods were illegally sourced, according to the prosecution. The court deemed the businessman’s justifications as neither credible nor plausible. The judge said it was “neither logical nor reasonable to believe that a merchant like the accused, who runs a business open to the public, would acquire a batch of products to sell to third parties without verifying the origin of the merchandise and without demanding proof of payment, especially since he did not know the seller.”
Author: Derek Appleton
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