José (not his real name) is a 79-year-old man with serious vision problems who has (or had) the habit of having breakfast every day in a cafeteria-pastry shop in Sant Fruitós de Bages, a municipality in the Bages region, in Barcelona. Man suffers from cataracts, a disease that causes a loss of transparency of the crystalline lens (the natural lens of the eye), resulting in loss of vision. It is the most common cause of blindness, reversible through surgery, and affects around 94 million people around the worldaccording to the WHO.
The owner of the cafeteria-pastry shop, having gained José’s trust, began to personally manage payment of breakfasts, since the client’s visual difficulty prevented him from doing it himself. José gave her his bank card and PIN so she could enter the data into the payment terminal. There came a point, according to the Prosecutor’s Office brief, from June 30, 2023, in which the accused began to charge amounts much higher than the real price of each consumption, adding up to more than 100 euros extra every day. The public ministry details in its report: “The accused validated charges higher than those of actual consumption, obtaining an undue economic benefit that amounted to 6,986.09 euros“In this way, the money ended up in the defendant’s assets through the business, while José, due to his visual disability and the trust placed in him, was not aware of the fraud.
The accusation highlights the special vulnerability of the victim and the abuse of trust generated by the personal situation of the person affected. The text presented by the public ministry states: “The defendant used the confidence generated and visual limitations of the victim to appropriate an economic amount that did not belong to him.”
In legal terms, the Prosecutor’s Office classifies the events as a crime of fraud included in articles 248 and 249 of the Penal Code, and incorporates the aggravating circumstance of abuse of superiority. As criminal consequences, he requests for the accused a sentence of two years and three months in prisonthe special disqualification for the right to passive suffrage during the duration of the sentence and the payment of judicial costs. Regarding civil liability, the Prosecutor’s Office demands the full return to the victim of the amount allegedly defrauded, adding the corresponding legal interest.
The document presented by the prosecution also includes the management company of the establishment as subsidiary civil liabilitywhich implies that, in the event that the accused could not pay the compensation, the company that manages the premises should assume the return of the amount claimed. The oral hearing will serve to clarify whether the facts reported by the Prosecutor’s Office are proven and whether the accused must face the return of almost 7,000 euros and the penalty requested. The trial takes place on May 5, at the Provincial Court of Barcelona, which will decide on the criminal and economic responsibility of the owner in relation to the events described.
