Emilia gets reprieve – jail sentence exchanged for a further month of community service
thinkSPAIN , Friday, February 1, 2013
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 A YOUNG mum facing jail six years after using a credit card she found in the street to buy food and nappies has been pardoned by the government.
Emilia Soria, 28 – who was 22 at the time of the incident – was initially sentenced to community service and a 900-euro fine for having spent 193 euros on essentials for her daughters, then aged one and three.
She had nearly finished her community service and paid off more than half the fine when the trial came to an end recently and she was told she would have to go to prison for a year and 10 months.
Originally this was two years and four months, but six months of the jail term was swapped for unpaid work sweeping the streets in her home town, Requena (Valencia).
A devastated Emilia, who is now married for the second time and has a third daughter with her new husband, said she 'could not bear' to explain to her small children that she would have to go away and leave them.
She was also petrified of being sent to prison because her cousin had been murdered by other inmates in Picassent jail, near Valencia.
A petition on www.change.org/PorEmilia had over 42,000 signatures two days ago, and is now up to 165,000.
Emilia said: “I know I did wrong, but I didn't go out and buy luxury goods or actually steal a credit card from someone. I found the card in the street and used it out of necessity, because I had no idea when there would next be any money to put food on the table.
“I actually found another purse, two years ago, and didn't even open it – I handed it straight in to the Guardia Civil. I've learnt my lesson, and I'm paying for what I did because I'm paying back the fine in instalments and only have a month's community service left to do.”
The young lady had been out of work for three years when she found the credit card, because of being a full-time single parent, and her only income was a tiny maintenance payment from her ex-husband, which was not even enough to feed her children.
Emilia had suffered domestic violence at the hands of her former husband, who has an injunction preventing him from contacting her.
Her solicitor, a specialist in international criminal law, found a technical fault with the sentence due to time delays, and managed to get the remaining year and 10 months exchanged for 30 more days of community service.
In Spain, where a custodial sentence is less than two years and involves a first-time offender, the person does not have to go to prison.
But Emilia's total sentence was two years and four months, which meant after exchanging six months for community service she would have been expected to serve the rest behind bars.
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