An official at Loulé court has been arrested for taking money in exchange for information about seized properties.
As part of the same Judicial Police investigation, a group of three men were arrested for financial crimes involving vehicle loans.
According to the prosecutor, one of those detained is a businessman who is suspected of corruption, criminal association, fraud, forgery and money laundering.
The authorities alledge that the court worker provided privileged court information about properties that were to be 'auctioned off' but in fact were sold on at bargain prices. Court worker Jorge Gomes then sold information about properties for around €2,000 a time.
The businessman is suspected of leading the group involved in purchasing vehicles in a complex €1 million scam involving forged documents to obtain loans from banks and financial institutions.
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Add to this mix the contempt so many Portuguese criminals have for their complacent Police. They well know that, as with the Sicilian Mafia, if their criminality is kept within their friends and family no-one else needs to know. Regardless whether they are major politicians and businessmen or just a gang out stealing hubcaps.
But as always there is a deep welling of hopelessness when we hear of 'professionals' within Portuguese law enforcement - judges, court officials, police and lawyers - collaborating with each other to break laws. As with the poor Irish girl Ellie Gannon whose 'kidnap by Portuguese father' case is, years later, still dribbling through the Portuguese courts. Yet again featuring a bent court official.