The Third Section of the Provincial Court of Alicante has confirmed the eleven-year prison term given to a man who broke into seven residences in Alicante and El Campello between January and February 2025.
The magistrates agreed with the Criminal Court’s previous sentence, which said he was guilty of five crimes of robbery with force in a house where people lived, two of which were continuous. The court took into account the mitigating factors of repairing the damage and mental alteration, as well as the aggravating factor of recidivism, as reported by the Superior Court of Justice of the Valencian Community (TSJCV).The first robbery took place on January 5th, 2025, in the early hours of the morning. The man who is currently in jail entered into a property in Alicante after breaking the lock on the garden door. The alarm went off in the house, so the owner locked himself in a room and contacted the police. The man who was found guilty ran away before the police got there, grabbing a phone, jewellery, and a purse worth 2,000 euros. Days later, on January 20th, in the early morning hours, he climbed a pillar to get to the balcony of a house in El Campello where the owner was sleeping. He grabbed two cameras and four lenses valued at 1,700 euros from this property. The guilty man broke into five more residences in Alicante and El Campello, either by climbing in or breaking the door lock. The last robbery took place on February 9th. The man has a history of similar crimes and has been diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and a substance use issue. The court, on the other hand, did not find enough proof that the defendant’s ability to control his impulses had been weakened or taken away. Before the trial, the defendant put more than €2,000 into the court’s bank account to pay the victims.
Court denied his appeal
The Alicante Court has now thrown out the appeal that the convicted man’s defence filed against the lower court’s decision. The court agreed that the lower court appropriately applied the Penal Code to four of the seven robberies in question. The court also agrees with the Criminal Court’s use of the accused’s mental handicap as a mitigating factor, but not as a total exemption, as well as the use of the mitigating factor of reparation of harm and the individualisation of the penalties given. Article 849.1 of the Criminal Procedure Law says that the sentence is not final and can be appealed in cassation for breaking the law. This means that the sentence is based on the wrong or improper criminal precept with respect to the legal classification of the circumstances.
