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ESTEPONA’S mayor under fire could be headed behind bars, after prosecutors asked for a five-and a-half-year jail sentence over allegations that he misappropriated government money.
Jose Garcia Urbano has been a major player in the conservative Partido Popular since 2011, but he is now under fire for allegedly slipping thousands of euros in public funds to a former girlfriend.
Marbella’s Public Prosecutor Office say Urbano should be jailed and banned from public office for ten years over accusations he handed a juicy no-work contract at the town hall to an ‘intimate female friend’ in 2023.
In the indictment signed by Alejandra Gamez as lead prosecutor, it is stated that on February 13, that same year, the mayor had issued a directive to hire a woman known only as Cristina P as a temporary worker.
READ MORE: Estepona mayor facing potential jail time: Costa del Sol politician paid ‘intimate female friend thousands in taxpayer money to do a fake job checking lampposts and flowerpots’
According to police, she was assigned to the town hall’s External Control Department to ‘gather information on the state of street cleaning, lighting, landscaping and street furniture’ around the town, which is home to over 4,500 British expats.
But during her employment she lived in Cordoba, making it ‘difficult’ for her to carry out the tasks in the flesh.
She remained employed until March 31 and received total remuneration of €5,376 for just 46 days ‘work’.
Aides close to the mayor have slammed the prosecution’s request as ‘legal nonsense based on a false statement’ by Cristina P, who they say underwent surgery during the period of the employment contract but did not request sick leave.
‘This is an unacceptable and unfair political and media campaign with the sole objective […] Municipal sources said that the attempt was made to remove the mayor from his position and to undermine his commitment to the city. El Pais.
READ MORE : Four witnesses to testify against Estepona Mayor amid allegations that he granted a restaurant concession to the wife of his son
Cristina P, who is accused of being an accomplice to the crime embezzlement, will also be sentenced to three-and-ahalf years.
According to WhatsApp conversations seen by police, Garcia Urbano and the woman had an ‘intimate friendship’, with the mayor even sending her €21,000 of his own money between 2022 and 2023 so she could pay rent and expenses.
Emma Molina, a PSOE councillor, told the Olive Press last year: “Handing out public money to a person he had an intimate relationship with – and who she herself claims she never went to work – is enough to make him leave now.”
In January of last year, a judge dismissed the complaint against a policeman for sexual harassment.
The complainant claimed that Garcia Urbano had forced him to have sexual relations with him over a period of 18 months using a combination of threats and bribes.
The local policeman is the former husband of Cristina P., the woman accused of embezzlement.
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