The previous Mayor of Antas and three of her councillors have been jailed for a year for allowing 18 homes to be built illegally on a plot of land in the town, along with the builder and his architect.
Judge Manuel Rey decided that Ana Joaquina García (PSOE) with the support of three town councillors connived back in 2005 in the granting of building permits for Inversiones García Aute S.L. which applied to build 18 homes on a 10,000 m2 plot of rural land outside Antas.
The town architect said in his report that the plan was illegal, but he was overruled by the Mayor and the permits were issued by the town.
In an attempt to cover their backs, the builder paid for a modification to the town zoning plan to be drawn up to try to make the land urbanisable in 2006. Although the town approved the change, the Junta de Andalucia ruled against the modification in 2008 and refused to permit the modification. Despite this, the builder had by then finished the homes.
The case went to court in 2012 after a series of complaints filed by a resident aware of the scam and the sentence passed down this week.
All involved in the case have been given a years jail sentence, and the politicians have been barred from holding public office for six years. All have announced plans to appeal their sentence, and have requested that it be commuted to a suspended sentence, as is usual in Spain for any jail time under two years.