Alicante Provincial Court handed down a two-year prison term to two men found guilty of embezzling more than 1.4 million euros from a courier company. The High Criminal Court also deemed the defendants responsible for two crimes: embezzlement and falsification of documents. In addition to the prison sentence, they must compensate Tourline Express Courier with 1,443,013 euros plus interest.
According to the proven facts outlined in the ruling by the Second Circuit, the fraud occurred between 2012 and 2015. One defendant oversaw two Tourline Express Courier branches in Alicante and San Vicente del Raspeig, while the other worked in the company’s collections management department in Barcelona.
The firm specialized in express courier services and accepted cash on delivery from customers. The abuse involved taking these cash payments and not depositing them into Tourline Express Courier’s bank account so the company could refund the sums to customers as promised. The decision notes that a computerized system recorded revenue and was used to generate refunds for customers who arranged shipments.
The company used a computer program to log revenue and to notify customers about refunds connected to shipments.
Dealerships
However, the ruling clarifies that one defendant, who owned two franchises in Alicante and San Vicente, did not deposit the money into the company accounts. Instead, he treated it as part of his inheritance. He cooperated with colleagues in prison to avoid discovery in the collections management department, and the court found that fictitious income was entered into Tourline Express’s computer system.
The deceived business noticed unreal income appearing in its computer system and began transferring funds to customers. Although these transfers were recorded, they did not reflect actual transactions on the ground.
The court notes that this fraud caused clear economic losses to the company. Payments were made for amounts never deposited in the company’s bank accounts, even though the entries appeared as completed in the system and were attributed to the two defendants.
In its ruling, the court explains that the two defendants logged more income in the control computer program than was earned in reality. The judge also states that the person responsible for the Alicante and San Vicente delegations acted in collusion with a company employee based in Barcelona.
The defendants exercised their right not to testify at the hearing, and they denied the facts during the proceedings. [Source: Alicante Provincial Court decision, cited for the record].