Prison for Murcia Region president

A FORMER Murcia Region president has been sentenced to three years in prison for corruption.

Pedro Antonio Sanchez (PP) led the regional government from 2015 to 2017, but before then he had been mayor of his home town of Puerto Lumbreras for 10 years.

It was during his time as mayor that a series of irregularities were committed regarding a project to build a municipal auditorium, which included awarding the contract to a local architect without going through the official public bidding process in order to claim a €6 million grant from the national government.

A court heard this week that Sr Sanchez and his architect applied for the subsidy without having the project in place, forging the necessary documents and inflating the initial budget by 38 per cent.

The end result was an unfinished building, millions of euros lost and now a prison term for the mayor and the architect.

In addition, Sr Sanchez has been landed with a €3,600 fine and a 17­ year ban to run for public office.

He has announced that he plans to appeal the sentence at the Spanish Supreme Court.