British estate agent has arrest warrant issued in the Canary Islands for fraud

The Courts in Arrecife (Lanzarote) have issued an arrest warrant for a British woman by the name of Theresa Carol Arcari, who operated as an Estate Agent in Lanzarote and Tenerife, and who is accused of fraud but has ignored various court summons and has not attended hearings for a case in which the Prosecutor's Office of Las Palmas has now requested a sentence of six years in prison.

The case was initiated for an alleged crime of misappropriation of funds and fraud, and although the accused was on provisional release, she has not attended any of the subpoenas in court or replied to any communication regarding the indictment.

Currently, there is no date for the hearing, although the oral trial has already started, when she did have the opportunity to testify, she didn’t reply to any of the questions.

Since then, the Court has also been able to verify that she has been absent from the address that she gave for this case, and on one occasion she alleged that she had Covid so as not to attend the summons.

The prosecution had repeatedly requested the Court to confiscate her passport and seize her assets or impose a bond to prevent her escape from the island, but these measures were not implemented.

This lack of precautionary measures was appealed to the Provincial Court of Las Palmas, which did not consider it appropriate to issue them either, however, the judge of Investigating Court number 1 in Arrecife, who has taken up the case that was previously handled by Court number 2, has finally agreed to issue an arrest warrant, and if she doesn’t attend court within 10 days, she will be declared in absentia. The search and arrest warrant has now been communicated to the Director General of the Police and the Guardia Civil.

Due to this being issued, the Prosecutor's Office have requested a six-year prison sentence, a fine of 5,500 euros, and the return of more than 67,000 euros for misappropriation for different dealings in Lanzarote and Tenerife.

Arcari is accused of keeping the money from the sale of a property in Órzola, dating back to May 2009. A resident of Órzola contacted her to put her apartment up for sale, and Arcari, who was going to be in charge of all the steps of the transaction, placed an advertisement on the website myplaceinlanza.com, which is now inactive.

A British citizen who was interested in the property contacted Arcari by phone and made three transfers totaling 67,000 euros to a current account provided by her.

The seller granted her a special power of attorney in a notary's office in Arrecife, to carry out all the procedures inherent to the purchase, "without having any intention of perfecting the sale of said property or returning the amounts of money transferred to her, incorporating the same to its assets, causing the consequent economic damage,” says the Prosecutor's Office.

After these events, Arcari continued to sell properties, operating from another web portal with a similar name to the previous one, offering her services to manage the sale and all procedures involved, and even receiving recommendations in some Facebook groups intended for British people in the Canary Islands.

If you have any information regarding her whereabouts, please contact the Guardia Civil in Tenerife or Lanzarote.