El Supreme Court has confirmed a one-year prison sentence for misappropriation of two employees of the BBVA office in the Plaza de España in Palencia who They refused to give part of the winning coupon to the branch cleaner, with whom they shared said coupon every week, and they took advantage of the fact that she was on vacation that week and was not there to purchase the coupon.
The prize was 100.000 euros. The Provincial Court of Palencia considered it proven that the three played every Friday, that each one contributed one euro and that They had reached a verbal agreement so if one was on vacation the others would contribute their part until they returned. If he played, it was shared among everyone.
When the cleaner returned from her vacation, the two employees realized that they had won the prize and decided to keep it to themselves. But the cleaner ended up finding out and, when they denied her share of the prize, she went to court to demand her share.
The Provincial Court, and now the Supreme Court, has sentenced the two employees to compensate the cleaner with 33.333 euros, the third that corresponded to her for the prize.
The court took into account the statement of the ONCE salesman, who confirmed that the three played together every week. “I have no doubt that the three of them always played it,” declared the seller during the trial.
The cleaner, who carried out the private prosecution, demanded a sentence of four years in prison for the two accused. The Prosecutor's Office came to trial requesting two and a half years - a figure that would have implied actual imprisonment - but at the end of the trial they reduced the request to the year in prison finally imposed.
The ruling, for which Judge Cándido Conde-Pumpido was the rapporteur, highlights that it is a verbal agreement with sufficient data to conclude the obligation of the accused to distribute the prize. Consequently, the conduct of the accused in not distributing it with one of the people who participated in the joint purchase of the same constitutes the crime of misappropriation. Likewise, the Criminal Chamber concludes that the Provincial Court of Palencia handed down its sentence with highly consistent evidence such as the statement of the injured party, the seller of the ONCE coupons and a bank employee, who spent a day there. branch, which stated that it saw the three purchasing the coupon.
