The former vice-president of Monchique council at last has been called to court facing charges of embezzlement and falsifying records between 2004 and 2009.
António Mira also appears to have failed in his duty to submit his annual earnings to the tax authority for at least 16 years.
The figure Mira has been charged in Portimão court with filching €332,000, but Monchique Mayor Rui André has suggested that the amount could be far higher.
Curiously, Miras’ defence is that he fiddled invoices, altering legitimate ones and then creating fake ones which then were paid into a different account, to raise cash sums with which to pay council staff ‘off the books’ for overtime worked and for work carried out when they should have been taking holidays.
Mira admits falsifying invoices and claims he did not appreciate the consequences of his actions and that he did not take any money himself.
The tax office will be interested to hear of council staff in receipt of envelopes containing cash as no social security will have been paid by the council, nor presumably by the recipients, nor will income tax have been deducted unless the staff members registered Mira’s largesse on their annual tax returns.
It is unlikely that mayor Rui André knew of this fiddle as he only took office in 2009, and it him who went to the authorities.
Mira said in court that other councillors knew that he was arranging these overtime payments but that they did not necessarily know how he was managing to release significant amounts in cash, nor did they question him on the matter.
