Spain has finally taken a step forward to stop being a paradise for pickpockets and those who take advantage of an obvious lack of regulations allowing people to commit one theft after another without, in reality, major consequences for the thieves if the value of stolen items is less than 400 euros.
A reform of the Penal Code, which now includes prison sentences of up to 18 months for petty theft for re-offenders, came into force on Monday and responds to the much repeated demands by sectors such as tourism, which is especially tainted by this scourge.
Spain, including the Canary Islands, has become a kind of ‘paradise’ for pickpockets to such an extent that its tourist areas, as has been repeatedly reported, were preferred by international gangs dedicated to this type of crime, who were aware of the loopholes in the law and that they could ‘get away’ with it, which has angered residents of the islands who have posted photos of pickpockets on social media asking why the police don’t do anything when in reality they have been powerless.
Specifically, this reform was approved by Parliament a month ago thanks to an amendment promoted by the PDeCat and agreed with the PSOE, which was introduced in the draft Organic Law to facilitate access to financial information.
According to its wording in the BOE on July 29th, section 2 of article 234 of the Penal Code is modified to give "an adequate response to cases of multiple recidivism". It is explained that the reform is "necessary" because, although the previous regulation already provided for an aggravated modality for repeat theft, according to Supreme Court doctrine this was intended to punish thefts that exceeded 400 euros.
This interpretation of the Supreme Court doctrine, supposed that the minor crimes of theft that are committed by a multi-repeat offender "do not have a sufficient criminal response, even though they are of growing concern for directly affecting not only tourism, trade, and the economy in general but also to the safety of citizens”.
In practice, this meant that the criminals were aware of the 400 euros limit, knowing that, no matter how many times they were taken to court, they practically entered through one door and exited through the other. But now minor thefts can be punished more severely.
The BOE states that to avoid the disproportionate jump in sentence, it is decided to increase the sentence for these minor thefts, but without reaching the aggravated prison sentence of article 235.1 of the Penal Code.
This now means, that in cases of minor theft of less than 400 euros, which usually applies to pickpockets, the penalty is applied for repeat offenders taking into account the combined total amount they have stolen, not the amount individually each time, and gives the police more incentive to arrest them and the courts more power to charge them accordingly.
