Four waiters from a popular tapas and fried fish bar in Granada have accepted prison sentences ranging from six months to one year and nine months after admitting that, for at least a year, they misappropriated 30,000 euros from the business.
The method consisted of pretending during their shifts that fewer items had been served than were actually taken to the tables and reflecting lower amounts than those paid by customers. Part of these maneuvers was recorded by the establishment's security cameras, according to sources familiar with the proceedings who indicated this to Europa Press.
The oral hearing was scheduled for this Thursday in the First Section of the Provincial Court, but an agreement between the Public Prosecutor's Office, the defense, and the private prosecution brought by the owner avoided the trial.
The defendants worked at both the Plaza Nueva and Plaza Bib-Rambla establishments and, before the date set for the trial, they returned the 30,000 euros they had stolen to the businessman. The owner was represented by lawyer Rafael López Guarnido.
Three of the waiters have accepted a sentence of one year and nine months in prison for a continuous offense of misappropriation, with the aggravating circumstance of abuse of trust and the mitigating circumstance of reparation of the damage being considered.
The fourth worker has been sentenced to six months in prison, having acknowledged the facts during the investigation phase and also benefiting from this mitigating circumstance.
The Public Prosecutor's Office, which initially estimated the diverted amount at 64,000 euros, accused them of designing a system to bypass the controls of the payment management application. To do this, they took advantage of functions intended for exceptional cases, such as splitting the bill among several diners or moving customers to different tables.
In this way, they would serve the tables and, on occasion, once the customer paid for their order, "they would keep all or part of what they received," entering data into the software that did not match what was actually served or what was actually charged.
Concurrently, they would cancel the generated ticket, "modifying its content, reducing the products and items served, or transferring the items and products to other tables."
In short, "they simulated having served fewer products than those actually offered, and having charged less money than that actually received," according to the prosecution's indictment, which Europa Press has accessed. The money obtained in this way was allegedly put into the bar's tip jar for later distribution among those involved.