Valencia concentrates the criminal work of its whole province in one place, and it is where a growing share of the region’s online fraud and digital evidence cases end up. We act for British and Irish clients before its courts in English.
This is a city with a large and settled foreign community, a port, a university and a substantial rental market, and the criminal caseload reflects all four. Very little of it looks like the resort work of the Costa Blanca.
In brief. English-speaking criminal defence in Valencia: arrest, bail, online fraud, digital evidence, occupied property and road traffic cases in Spain.
Valencia has its own Provincial Court (Audiencia Provincial de València) and is the seat of the High Court of Justice of the Valencian Community. The criminal work of the judicial district is concentrated in the city’s justice complex (Ciudad de la Justicia), where the Investigation and Criminal Sections now sit together within the Court of First Instance (Tribunal de Instancia) created by Organic Law 1/2025.
Serious offences are tried by the Provincial Court, with appeal to that court or, in the cases the law provides, to the Civil and Criminal Division of the High Court of Justice, and with a further appeal to the Supreme Court (Tribunal Supremo) where the grounds allow. For a defendant, knowing which of those bodies will decide the case matters from the first hearing, because it dictates how the evidence has to be built.
The cases that bring foreign clients here are markedly different from those on the coast. Investment and online fraud, disputes over rented and occupied property, protective orders made overnight, road traffic prosecutions and drug cases account for most of the work, and a growing proportion of them turn on digital evidence rather than on witnesses.
Our nearest office is in Alicante, with a second in Madrid, and we travel to Valencia for hearings and trials. Elsewhere in the region we act in Denia and Javea and Benidorm, and our provincial hub is the page on the English-speaking criminal lawyer in Alicante.
Each is defined in the Criminal Code and each takes a different route through the courts of the district. Several of them exist in Spain in a form that has no exact British equivalent.
Fraud is deception sufficient to make another part with property to his own detriment. Article 248 expressly covers fraud committed by manipulating a computer system or by a similar artifice, which is how most online investment and payment cases are charged.
Unlawful access to an information system, interception of communications and disclosure of another’s personal data are charged separately from any fraud. Article 264 covers deleting or altering another’s data or making a system unusable.
Entering or remaining in another’s dwelling against his will is an offence under Article 202. Occupying a property that is not a dwelling, or one that is unoccupied, is dealt with under Article 245.2 and carries a fine. Owners letting property in the city meet both.
These proceedings move very fast, with protective measures decided at the duty court that take immediate effect on the home, on contact with children and on communication. Breach of such an order is a separate offence even where the other party consented to the contact.
Consent is defined in Spanish law by the presence of an outward act expressing it freely. These cases are decided on the quality of the evidence and on the strict handling of medical, forensic and digital material, and they are conducted with particular attention to confidentiality.
Driving above 0.60 mg of alcohol per litre of exhaled air is a criminal offence, not an administrative fine. Article 384 covers driving after a ban, after the loss of all licence points, or having never held a licence, which catches many recently arrived residents.
Theft turns on a threshold of 400 euros: below it a minor offence (delito leve) punished by a fine, above it a full offence with a custodial range. Force against property makes it robbery; violence or intimidation brings it within Article 242.
Possession for personal use is not a criminal offence, and genuine shared consumption among users, in private and without profit, falls outside Article 368. Supply does not. These cases turn on the lawfulness of the search, the judicial authorisation for it and the purity analysis.
Where someone entrusted with managing another’s property exceeds his powers and causes loss, the offence is breach of trust rather than fraud. It is the usual charge where a manager, agent or business partner has dealt with money that was not his to deal with.
These are the statutory ranges. The sentence imposed depends on participation, whether the offence was completed, and the circumstances found in the individual case.
| Offence | Article | Statutory penalty | Usual route |
|---|---|---|---|
| Fraud, including computer fraud | Art. 249 CP | 6 months to 3 years | Abridged proceedings |
| Aggravated fraud | Art. 250 CP | 1 to 6 years and a fine | Ordinary proceedings |
| Unlawful access to an information system | Art. 197 bis CP | 6 months to 2 years | Abridged proceedings |
| Entering a dwelling against the occupier’s will | Art. 202.1 CP | 6 months to 2 years | Abridged proceedings |
| Occupation of a property that is not a dwelling | Art. 245.2 CP | A fine of 3 to 6 months | Minor-offence trial |
| Driving above 0.60 mg/l of alcohol in exhaled air | Art. 379.2 CP | 3 to 6 months, a fine of 6 to 12 months or 31 to 90 days of community work, plus a ban of 1 to 4 years | Fast-track trial (juicio rápido) |
| Breach of a protective order | Art. 468 CP | 6 months to 1 year | Fast-track trial |
| Supply of substances seriously harmful to health | Art. 368 CP | 3 to 6 years and a fine | Ordinary proceedings |
Two provisions matter to anyone facing a first prosecution in Spain. A custodial sentence of up to two years imposed on a person with no previous convictions here may be suspended under Article 80, normally on conditions including payment of compensation. And under Article 89 a sentence of more than one year imposed on a foreign national not lawfully resident may be replaced by expulsion. Neither is automatic and neither can be promised in advance.
A person arrested must be released or brought before a judge as soon as the urgent enquiries are complete, and within seventy-two hours at the latest. In Valencia that usually means the duty court at the justice complex the following morning, where bail, protective measures and the route the case will take are all decided at once.
Article 520 of the Criminal Procedure Act applies from the moment of detention. You must be told in writing, in a language you understand, what you are accused of and why. You have the right to silence, the right to have someone informed of your detention, the right to be examined by a doctor, and the right to appoint a lawyer of your own instead of the duty lawyer.
The two rights that decide most cases are a confidential interview with your lawyer before questioning and a free interpreter throughout. Where the case rests on digital material, the third priority is preservation: messages and account statements that would answer the allegation are routinely deleted while the matter is still being described as a misunderstanding. Our guide to arrest and police custody rights in Spain sets out the position.
Article 520 gives you a private consultation with your lawyer before questioning. It is the one moment, before the file hardens, in which you can explain what happened without it being written down against you.
Interpretation, and translation of the essential documents, are free and are not a courtesy. If the interpretation is poor, that has to be recorded at the time rather than raised months later.
Devices, messaging threads and account histories should be preserved intact and untouched. Deleting anything, even something harmless, is the single easiest way to lose a case that was otherwise defensible.
An order made at the duty court takes effect at once and governs where you may live and whom you may contact. Breaching it is a separate offence even if the other party invites the contact.
Each stage has its own competent body, its own deadline and its own opportunity for the defence. A fast-track road traffic case and a computer fraud case take entirely different paths through the same complex.
The Investigation Section sitting as duty court takes the urgent steps, hears your statement if you give one, rules on bail and on any protective measures, and decides whether the case suits the fast-track procedure (juicio rápido) or must be investigated in the ordinary way.
The court gathers the evidence: forensic and medical reports, banking records, seized devices and expert analysis of them. The defence proposes its own lines of enquiry, contests the official expert evidence and watches the statutory time limit on the investigation and any extension of it.
The prosecution files its accusation and the defence its pleading, with its own evidence and any preliminary objections. Trial follows before the Criminal Section, or before the Provincial Court where the offence is serious enough, and every refusal of evidence is recorded for the appeal.
Appeal lies to the Provincial Court, then to the Civil and Criminal Division of the High Court of Justice and, where the law allows, to the Supreme Court. At the enforcement stage we apply for suspension of a custodial sentence, for payment of a fine by instalments and for review of the compensation ordered.
A conviction here outlasts the case: an entry on the criminal record certificate, a driving ban that affects your work, conditions attached to a suspended sentence. These are worth contesting properly rather than closing quickly.
Owners dealing with an occupied flat, a tenant who will not leave, or an allegation made against them by an occupier. The criminal and civil routes are different and choosing the wrong one costs months.
Allegations built on messages, transfers and account records. How that material was obtained, copied and preserved is a defence question, and it has to be raised at the time.
Spanish procedure allows a victim to appear as a party, propose evidence and pursue full compensation instead of depending on the public prosecutor’s view of the case.
Computer fraud, unlawful access and digital evidence in Spanish criminal proceedings.
How bail and remand are decided in Spain and how those decisions are challenged.
How criminal defence fees are set in Spain and what a defence normally involves.
It depends on the procedure and on the workload of the court, and no honest answer fixes a date. As a general indication, fast-track trials are resolved within days or a few weeks of the arrest; an ordinary abridged procedure is measured in months; and a case built on banking records and analysis of seized devices runs considerably longer. The law does set outer limits on the investigation stage.
It is in force from the moment it is notified to you and it governs where you may live and whom you may approach or contact. Breaching it is a separate offence under Article 468 even where the protected person initiates the contact, and that is the mistake that most often turns a defensible allegation into a conviction. The order can be reviewed, but only through the court and only with evidence.
Partly. A person under investigation is normally required to appear to give a statement and a defendant is normally required to attend the trial, but between those points you may be represented by a lawyer and, where the procedure requires one, a court representative (procurador), and you must give an address for service. Appearance by video link is possible where the court agrees.
They are seized as evidence and copied forensically, and the copy rather than the device is normally examined. How the copy was made, by whom, and whether the scope of the search matched what the court authorised are all proper questions for the defence, and they have to be raised while the process can still be reconstructed. Our page on cybercrime defence in Spain explains how this evidence is handled.
Yes. Spanish procedure allows a victim to appear as a private prosecutor, which means being a party to the case rather than a witness in it: seeing the file, proposing evidence, arguing the classification of the offence and claiming full compensation. Where the money has moved through accounts, early tracing and an early application for restraint of those funds matter far more than the eventual sentence.
Only after the file has been read. Spanish procedure allows an agreed plea (conformidad) and, in the fast-track procedure, a reduction of one third within the limits the law sets. Where the evidence is overwhelming and the resulting sentence can be suspended, that may be the best outcome available. But judgment follows immediately and is effectively irrevocable: you cannot appeal later because you have changed your mind.
If you have been arrested in Valencia, summoned to the justice complex, or served with a protective order or a complaint, the conversation that helps is the one before a statement is given. We attend courts in the Valencia judicial district from our offices in Alicante and Madrid, and we act throughout 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.
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