Orihuela mayor José “Pepe” Vegara is due to appear before Orihuela Criminal Court No. 1 on Friday, where he faces trial over an alleged tax fraud case dating back to 2005.
The Public Prosecutor’s Office is seeking a seven-year prison sentence for Vegara, together with three other businessmen, over an alleged scheme involving false commercial documents and tax deductions linked to ITV Vega Baja, the vehicle inspection company with which Vegara has long been associated.
The case concerns events that took place nearly two decades before Vegara entered frontline local politics and became mayor of Orihuela. Prosecutors allege that the defendants used false invoices to reduce the company’s tax liabilities for the 2005 financial year.
According to the prosecution, the alleged fraud meant the Spanish Treasury failed to collect €917,935. That figure includes €760,539 in corporation tax and €157,396 in VAT.
The alleged scheme centred on the supposed purchase of 100,000 promotional diaries or planners from a supplier. These were said to have been intended for distribution to ITV customers. Prosecutors claim the invoices linked to that transaction were used to create deductible expenses and reduce the tax owed by the company.
Vegara is accused in his capacity as a businessman, chief executive and representative of ITV Vega Baja. The prosecution alleges a continued offence of falsifying commercial documents, along with two offences against the Public Treasury relating to VAT and corporation tax fraud. Similar details of the prosecution case were reported when the trial was first scheduled in 2025.
The hearing has already been delayed three times. It was first postponed in January 2025 after Vegara’s lawyer was unable to attend. It was then suspended twice in November 2025 because of a medical issue affecting the judge, who delayed the proceedings for a further six months.
Vegara has repeatedly denied wrongdoing and has maintained his innocence since the case became public. He previously rejected the possibility of a plea agreement with prosecutors, as any such deal would require an admission of guilt, something he has refused to accept.
The mayor has not yet commented publicly ahead of Friday’s court appearance. Sources within Orihuela’s PP-Vox coalition government have previously argued that the case is unrelated to the town hall, stressing that the alleged events occurred in a private business context long before Vegara became mayor.
His defence is expected to focus partly on his state of health at the time of the events under investigation.
The case first became politically sensitive when Vegara was preparing to stand as the Popular Party’s candidate for the 2023 municipal elections. He went on to become mayor with the support of Vox, but the pending proceedings were not made public by him during the campaign.
The Valencian branch of the Popular Party opened a disciplinary file after the trial date was confirmed, a procedural step included in the party’s statutes. PP officials have previously defended Vegara’s presumption of innocence, while opposition figures have called for political accountability over the case.
Although the allegations relate to 2005, the trial places renewed pressure on the Orihuela mayor and on the local coalition government. For Vegara, who has built much of his public profile on his business background, the hearing marks the most serious legal challenge of his political career so far.
