An anonymous phone call to the Local Police in Rincón de la Victoria led to the discovery of a woman who was providing meals to schoolchildren at her home in urbanisation Añoreta.
Plainclothes officers began a surveillance operation in the vicinity of two schools in the area and after a few days they detected a woman using a vehicle, designed to carry five passengers, to ferry groups of up to seven children to her home after school.
The woman was intercepted at the gates of her home and she confessed to having been providing meals for children aged between four and ten years for several months.
At the time of the interception there were fifteen children at her home.
A second woman was also at the home and she confessed to helping with the serving of the meals. There were tables and chairs set out for the meals and a fridge full of food for the week.
The home owner, a 38-year-old Spanish woman, readily admitted to having provided the meal service for several months as a means of income, at no time trying to claim that the children were guests or were involved in a party.
She said she offered parents a homemade meal service which was cheaper than that provided by the schools but declined to disclose exactly how much she charged parents for the service.
The woman is now under investigation for the transportation of minors without using the appropriate security measures, carrying out an activity without the appropriate licence and offering food without compliance with mandatory health checks. She could be facing a fine of between €6,000 and €9,000 for the administrative offences.