Costa Blanca South
Thirty years of British and Irish residence here, and a legal system that still works nothing like the one back home.
Arrest attendance, defence and private prosecution before the Investigation Section of the Tribunal de Instancia of Torrevieja. We work in English throughout.
In brief. English-speaking criminal defence lawyer in Torrevieja: 24h arrest attendance, investment fraud, property fraud and private prosecution before the Tribunal de Instancia.
At a glance
Most of our English-speaking clients arrive with expectations formed by British or Irish law, or by television. Almost all of them are wrong in the same four ways, and each of those misunderstandings costs something.
The investigation is run by a judge, not by the police or the prosecutor. An investigating judge directs the enquiry, orders expert reports, requires banks to disclose records and decides on precautionary measures. That judge is not your opponent; the enquiry is meant to gather what exonerates as well as what incriminates. It also means that what happens in the investigation phase, long before any trial, is where the case is actually decided.
A victim can be a party to the criminal case. In Spain the injured party can appear as a private prosecution, with their own lawyer and court agent, propose evidence, appeal decisions and ask for a sentence and compensation of their own. This has no real equivalent in England, Wales or Ireland, and it is the single most valuable procedural right most foreign victims never use.
Compensation is decided inside the criminal case. There is normally no need for a separate civil action afterwards. The criminal court determines what must be repaid.
Silence is not an admission. Exercising the right not to answer questions is ordinary and carries no adverse inference of the kind English law once allowed. Explaining yourself at the police station to clear up a misunderstanding, with no lawyer and no sight of the file, is the most common way people damage their own case.
Torrevieja is the head of its own judicial district, which also covers Guardamar del Segura, Rojales, Los Montesinos, Benijófar and San Miguel de Salinas. Since 1 July 2025, under Organic Law 1/2025, the former investigating and criminal courts no longer exist as separate bodies: they are now Sections within the Tribunal de Instancia of Torrevieja. The change is organisational and alters neither your rights nor the procedure, but it does change the name that appears on recent summonses, which has confused a great many people.
Areas
We attend police stations from the outset. Detention may not exceed the time strictly necessary and in no case seventy-two hours before you are brought before a judge.
Fake trading platforms aimed specifically at retired residents with savings. Speed determines whether funds can still be traced and frozen.
Undisclosed charges, deposits that never reach the development, and sales of properties with irregular planning status.
Urbanisations with many non-resident owners, where oversight is weak and misappropriation surfaces years later.
Powers granted decades ago and used long after circumstances changed, often against an elderly owner who no longer follows what is being done.
Checks on the N-332 and around the marina. Refusing the breath test is a separate offence and is often punished more severely than the result you were avoiding.
Homes empty for months at a time. Squatting and breaking into a dwelling are distinct offences with very different routes and timescales.
Incidents in bars and around the seafront, frequently resting on nothing but two conflicting accounts and a medical report.
People whose accounts received funds after answering a job advertisement. This is a defence matter and it is urgent.
What the courts have held
On the right to see the file before you speak. The Spanish Constitutional Court has held that refusing to admit a habeas corpus application without giving the detained person sufficient information about the reasons for the arrest, and without access to the elements of the file essential to assess its lawfulness, breaches the right to personal liberty, and that this access must be guaranteed before the first questioning (STC 21/2018, 5 March, First Chamber, amparo 3766-2016, ECLI:ES:TC:2018:21). The same court had already ruled on access to a copy of the police report (STC 13/2017, 30 January, Second Chamber, amparo 7301-2014, ECLI:ES:TC:2017:13), and has restated the doctrine recently (STC 86/2025, 7 April, Second Chamber, amparo 120-2023, ECLI:ES:TC:2025:86).
This is why our first advice to anyone arrested or summoned is always the same, and it is not evasive: say nothing until your lawyer has read what is in the file.
On fraud, investigation deadlines and costs. A recent Supreme Court ruling upholds a fraud conviction while clarifying how the investigation time limit under article 324 of the Criminal Procedure Act is counted, and setting out the costs regime for a private prosecution (STS 747/2024, 18 July, Criminal Chamber, cassation 2295/2022, ROJ: STS 4260/2024, ECLI:ES:TS:2024:4260). Both points matter to a foreign victim: a fraud investigation that needs bank records takes time, and extensions must be applied for before the clock runs out.
On misappropriation of funds received for a specific purpose, which is the typical shape of a community-of-owners or power-of-attorney case, the Supreme Court has upheld a conviction and clarified how this offence relates to neighbouring provisions (STS 354/2022, 6 April, Criminal Chamber, cassation 905/2020, ROJ: STS 1451/2022, ECLI:ES:TS:2022:1451).
These references come from the firm’s own knowledge base. They must be checked against the original source before being relied on in any pleading, and this page is not legal advice.
Process
Investigation. The Investigation Section takes statements, orders expert evidence, requires bank and land registry records and rules on precautionary measures. This is the decisive phase. An expert report obtained now can end a case; the same report requested at trial arrives too late.
Time limits. Spanish law caps the length of an investigation and requires reasoned applications to extend it. In fraud cases needing banking evidence, letting that clock run out is one of the commonest ways a winnable case is lost.
Fast-track trials. Certain offences caught in the act are dealt with by an accelerated procedure that can produce a sentence within days, with a reduced penalty offered in exchange for an admission. Whether to accept is a decision made quickly and under pressure, and it is exactly the moment when going without a lawyer costs most.
Minor offences are resolved in a single hearing. They look trivial, and in one sense they are, but they leave a record and can have administrative consequences for a foreign national.
Enforcement. A conviction does not automatically mean prison. Suspension of sentence, and the effect of a conviction on residence status, are worked out at this stage and often matter more to the client than the offence itself.
What decides it
Not in the courtroom. In the first fortnight.
In fraud cases, in traceability: complete bank statements rather than screenshots of an app, contracts with their annexes, emails with original headers, and advertisements captured before they are taken down. Fraudulent listings and platforms disappear within days, and with them the clearest evidence of the deception.
In assault and public order cases, in speed: the witnesses to an August incident on the seafront will be a thousand miles away by September. Identifying them and securing their details in the first forty-eight hours changes the outcome; doing it a month later achieves nothing.
And in every case, in one early decision: whether to give a statement, when, and how far. The right of defence exists from the moment an offence is attributed to you, not from the trial, and the Constitutional Court has placed access to the essential elements of the file before the first questioning.
Private prosecution
If you report a crime and go home, you are a witness. The case is driven by the public prosecutor, who is carrying hundreds of files and acts on grounds of general interest, not on yours.
Spanish law offers something else. Appearing as a private prosecution, with your own lawyer and court agent, makes you a party: you see the whole file, propose lines of enquiry, appeal decisions that go against you, frame your own charge and claim your own compensation, which can exceed what the prosecutor seeks.
In a fraud case this is usually decisive, because the key step is not taken automatically. Identifying who held the receiving account, and finding the other victims of the same scheme, requires somebody to draft and justify that application. If nobody makes it, it is not done, and the file is closed for want of an identifiable suspect when in truth nobody looked.
There is also a practical benefit. Compensation is dealt with inside the criminal proceedings, with no separate civil claim, which saves years.
How we work
Everything in English, in writing. Every significant ruling is explained to you in an email you can actually read. You are entitled to a court interpreter for hearings, but your relationship with your own lawyer should not depend on one.
The file read before any statement is given. We enter an appearance and examine the proceedings first. Only then do we advise on what, if anything, to say.
You do not need to be in Spain for most of it. Much can be done by your lawyer under a power of attorney. Your presence is needed for your statement and for trial, and in some circumstances video link can be requested.
Honest prospects at the first meeting. If we think recovery is unlikely, or that the case has no criminal merit, we will say so before you spend anything.
Fixed fees by stage, quoted in writing before you commit.
Who we act for
Retired residents who have been defrauded of savings, and who often delayed reporting out of embarrassment. That delay is understandable and it is never a reason not to act now.
Non-resident owners who return to find a burglary, an occupation or missing community funds. We act under power of attorney without requiring you to stay in Spain.
People arrested while visiting, whose proceedings continue after they have flown home. Leaving Spain does not close a case, and an unresolved file can produce an arrest warrant that surfaces years later at the border.
Families of someone in custody, who need to know within hours what is happening and what can be done.
People drawn into money laundering through a job that turned out to involve receiving transfers.
Related
Questions
It means an offence is formally attributed to you and you are being investigated, with the rights that carry: to be told what is alleged, to a lawyer, to see the proceedings and to remain silent. It is not a conviction and it is not a charge in the English sense. It is, however, the point at which your defence should begin, not something to sort out later.
For most steps your lawyer can act under a power of attorney. Trial in your absence is possible only in limited circumstances and is not something to rely on. What you must not do is leave without appointing a lawyer and giving an address for service, because summonses you never receive still take effect.
To appear as a private prosecution, yes, a procurador is required. For defence it depends on the type of proceedings. We set both out in the fee quote so nothing appears later that you did not expect.
It can, and the effect varies considerably with nationality, the type of residence held and the sentence imposed. It is not automatic or uniform. It should be assessed at the start, because it sometimes determines which procedural outcome is actually in your interest.
Do not pay it. There is no balance to release. Demands for a tax, fee or compliance deposit before withdrawal are a standard second stage of the same fraud, and it is frequently where the largest single loss occurs.
A written fixed quote by stage, before you commit to anything, together with an honest view of prospects. Where several victims of the same scheme act together, costs are shared.
Next step
The most important decision in the case, whether to give a statement, is taken before you walk into the room. It should be taken having seen the file.
Arrested or under investigation in Torrevieja?
Our criminal defence team assists English-speaking clients 24 hours a day. Urgent line: 669 30 21 13 — Alicante and across Spain.
Société de Conseil Juridique et Expert es un despacho de abogados con sedes en Madrid, Alicante, Londres y París, especializado en defensa y acusación penal, delitos económicos y corporativos y derecho tecnológico. Trabajamos con orientación estratégica en procedimientos penales complejos, propiedad intelectual y análisis forense avanzado, y prestamos consultoría jurídica, compliance y escudos de protección a particulares y empresas. Atendemos desde Alicante y Madrid, con consulta online en toda España y asistencia al detenido 24 horas. Resuelva sus dudas en las preguntas frecuentes o solicite una primera consulta.
Copyright © 2026 Société de Conseil Juridique et Expert S.L.
