Man banned from public service jobs after skipping work every day for a decade

Carlos Recio left work after clocking in at 7:30am before returning to clock out at 4pm

Carles Recio has been handed a nine-year ban from civil service jobs (La Sexta)

A Spanish civil servant who skipped work every day for a decade has been banned from taking a public post for nine years.

Carles Recio, an archives director for Valencia’s provincial government, turned up to his office each morning at 7.30am to clock in, before heading out for the day and only returning to clock out at 4pm.

He managed to keep up the charade for 10 years and only lost his €50,000-a-year (£44,000) job when colleagues finally raised their suspicions last year and he was finally fired.

“I’ve been working like a dog,” he told Spanish TV channel La Sexta when the allegations were first aired. “Working like a dog so that others can reap the rewards of my work.”

The civil servant said he carried out all his duties outside the office, though investigators failed to find any record of work he claimed to have done. A tribunal rejected his explanation.

He later claimed he worked off-site as he was a victim of harassment by colleagues.

But an attempt to bring criminal charges against Mr Recio were dropped by state prosecutors, who decided his 10-year absence did not constitute a crime.

However, a civil court found him guilty of “clearly intending to not go to work and carry out his work duties for a continued period of time”. The court did not disclose if he had to pay back any of his salary.

The judges also criticised Valencia’s local government for its “passive attitude” in allowing Mr Recio to continue without censure. The civil servant “became comfortable in the situation that benefited him”, they said in their verdict, according to Europa press agency.

Earlier this year, Valencia authorities were forced to cancel an art show titled, “Love for Valencia: the works of a man who never worked”, after it emerged Mr Recio was the artist behind the exhibition.

He used a fake identity to book to show, which described Mr Recio as “the most slandered writer in modern-day Valencia”, according to El Pais.