The Court of Appeal confirmed the condemnation of the actions of millionaire property speculator Aprígio Santos at Quinta da Rocha that he controls through his vehicle Butwell Trading and Investment Services SA.
The Court of Appeal upheld the conviction that the habitat at Quinta da Rocha alongside the Ria de Alvor must be completely restored to its original condition. The appeal court went one step further and ordered the permanent suspension of activities in the protected areas, increasing the original 10 years to ‘for ever.’
This time the company belonging to Aprígio Santos did not appeal the ruling so this latest judgement hopefully is the final chapter in a long and complicated struggle to bring the environmental vandal in line and force him to follow the same rules that everyone else has to follow.
Santos now has six months within which to submit detailed plans on how he is going to restore the area that has been damaged, a not inconsiderable task.
Environmental pressure group A Rocha which has coordinated the efforts of the Monitoring Group of the Ria de Alvor to defend the interests of the local people and combat illegal destruction of protected areas, stated that with this judgement the legal battle is over - after six years.
In another case concerning the same type of destruction of natural habitats in the Ria de Alvor, Aprígio Santos was sentenced in February 2012 to two years in prison, suspended, for crimes against nature and for disobedience over the development, as judged by the Criminal Court of Portimão.
The businessman who runs Butwell Trading and Investment Services SA, which in turn owns Quinta da Rocha, was also ordered to pay a fine of €150,000, payable to ALMARGEM (Association for the Defence of the Algarve's Cultural and Environmental Heritage.)
