Arrested a 64-year-old man from Potenza (Italy) who was living in Marbella. Wanted for alleged document forgery, fraud and identity theft.
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Marbella businessman Fernando Moreno died during the bungled kidnapping and ransom attempt. It’s taken just six days for the National Police to establish what happened, with the arrest of one of the accused on Monday and a second on Tuesday, resulting in the case being solved yesterday, according to Diario Sur newspaper. The Interior Minister, Alfredo Pérez Rubalbaba, has congratulated the force on their rapid solution of the case.One of the accused is an ex employee of Fernando Moreno, and was aware of his worth and daily routine. He made an agreement with a Colombian friend to carry out an express kidnapping to obtain money, and they joined forces with two more Colombians to carry out their plan, initially asking for two million €, an amount which fell to 600,000 €. The precise circumstances of the victim’s death remain unclear, although the autopsy revealed the 76 year old died from suffocation, it’s still unclear whether his death was intentional or accidental.
Police in Marbella could not believe what they saw. A scene more at home in a Quentin Taratino film than on the local N340 road. A man driving his car against the traffic at 120 kms/hour with a woman hanging on for dear life on the bonnet.
It happened at 4am in the morning last Tuesday, but details have only now been released. Diario Sur newspaper reports that witnesses said the driver was zigzagging and appeared to be trying to get the woman to fall from the car bonnet. The police patrol radioed for support in an attempt to block the way of the car which refused to stop to their sirens. After a long chase with the woman hanging on to the windscreen wipers, a second patrol car managed to stop the vehicle. The 31 year old Brazilian woman told the police that the driver, a 34 year old Spaniard, was her boyfriend and that he had been trying to kill her. He has now been arrested accused of attempted murder.
June 5, 1990, Monzer Al Kassar and his wife opened an account, number 1964, at the Audi Bank in Switzerland. Al Kassar and his wife used their real names and both signed the documents, highly unusual for a bank account that would later be used in an illegal arms deal. The initial purpose of the account is unknown. The bank records from this account and others would later become evidence used by a Swiss prosecutor to freeze Al Kassar's proceeds from the illegal sale of Polish arms to Croatia and Bosnia. Subsequent events provided the necessary ingredients for an embargo-breaking arms deal: a war, an attempt by the international community to stop it, and a broker able to work around it. Croatia and Slovenia declared themselves independent from Yugoslavia in June 1991. A bloody civil war ensued. The United Nations Security Council voted on September 25, 1991, to impose an arms embargo on Yugoslavia, whose constituent republics were not yet recognized by the international community as independent countries. Bosnia declared its independence in March 1992, which was followed by an even more bloody and complicated civil war. Like many other states, the Swiss Federal Council adopted the arms ban -- U.N. Security Council Resolution number 713 -- on December 18, 1991, making the embargo Swiss law (RS 514.545). This later formed the basis for Swiss legal proceedings against Al Kassar. U.N. embargoes mean nothing unless they are adopted by the legislatures of individual U.N. member states and enforced by their respective legal systems.
Shortly thereafter, a Croatian couple, Snejana and Zeljko Mikulic, holders of an account at Die Erste Bank in Vienna, ordered $2,649,000 in bank transfers to the account of Bassam Abu Sharif, one of Yasser Arafat's closest advisors, at Arab Bank in Geneva. A Die Erste Bank document states that the transfers were for a shipment of sugar, powdered milk and tea to Croatia. A few days later, Sharif began a series of transfers, ultimately totaling $2.3 million, to account number 1964 at Audi Bank, the account belonging to Monzer Al Kassar. In turn, Al Kassar transferred $2,549,135 to the Luxembourg bank account of Cenrex, the Polish state arms company. On March 10, 1992, a Honduras-registered ship, the Nadia, docked at Ceuta, Spain (a Spanish territory in Morocco) for supplies. When port officials examined the cargo documents, they found the papers in order. The 27 containers of arms and ammunition were being sent by Cenrex in Poland to the defense ministry of Yemen. After the ship was allowed to proceed, it headed not to Yemen but to Rijeka, Croatia, where it unloaded. In 1992, Spain arrested Al Kassar on charges of piracy and providing the arms to the Abu Abbas-led PLF terrorists who hijacked the Achille Lauro cruise ship and murdered American Leon Klinghoffer. Western intelligence agencies concluded that Al Kassar flew Abbas to safety aboard one of his private planes after the hijackers surrendered. One prosecution witness, Ahmed Al Assadi, while spending time in Vercelli prison for participating in the hijacking, changed his story and refused to go to Spain to identify Al Kassar as the person who supplied the hijackers' weapons. After Al Kassar's arrest, another accuser, Ismail Jalid, fell to his death from a fifth-story window in Marbella, Spain, in what the coroner called "an alcoholic coma." During the 1995 trial, in a highly publicized standoff with police, a third witness's children were kidnapped by Colombian drug traffickers shortly before he testified. The witness blamed Al Kassar, who denied involvement and stated, "I have nothing to do with the kidnapping and I hope that it is over as soon as possible. Children are sacred for Arabs. No one, not even your worst enemy, deserves this." Al Kassar was later acquitted of all charges. While building the case, Spain requested that Switzerland seize Al Kassar's bank accounts. Swiss officials then opened their own preliminary inquiry into money laundering, lack of vigilance in financial operations, and fraudulent documents and foreign certificates. Following this inquiry, Swiss authorities began to investigate Al Kassar's arms sales using Swiss banks.Questioned on December 9, 1993, by Swiss prosecutors, Al Kassar explained that he was a diplomatic representative of Yemen in Poland and therefore could not answer questions about government-to-government affairs. A search of Al Kassar's Spanish address revealed documents confirming his relationship to the Croatian Zeljko Mikulic and containing the codes used for the ship's contents: "Tea" meant TT pistols (Tula-Tokarev pistols, developed in the U.S.S.R. in the 1930s and subsequently manufactured by other Eastern Bloc countries), and "tea bags" meant bullets. Bassam Abu Sharif was questioned by Swiss officials while passing through Geneva in 1994. He claimed that he had only met Al Kassar once in 1979 and twice thereafter. He explained that he had been asked by the Yemeni government to use his bank account to transfer money for an arms sale organized by the Yemeni ministry of defense to buy arms for Bosnia and Croatia. He said that he learned only later that Al Kassar had organized the sale.
A Determined Swiss Prosecutor Freezes Al Kassar's Millions
Geneva Cantonal prosecutor Laurent Kasper-Answermet upheld his 1992 freeze on $6 million belonging to Al Kassar, arguing that his financial investigation found the funds to have come from criminal activities. The financial side of an arms deal leaves a paper trail, whereas arms hidden in shipping containers, guerilla armies and corrupt government officials leave none. In 1998, a Geneva appeals court upheld the seizure but released $3.7 million not directly linked to the arms deal.
"If Yemen does a deal with Bosnia and Croatia, how can I control it?" asked Al Kassar, dismissing accusations that he is an embargo-busting arms dealer. Under existing legal controls, his question is reasonable. The case is the first of its kind in Switzerland and is expected to set a precedent. The arms did not touch Swiss territory and did not involve Swiss citizens or the country in any way other than through its banking system. Switzerland is not directly affected by the small-arms trade but has an interest in maintaining the respectability of its banking system. Such cases, as well as that of Leonid Minin ,an Israeli citizen arrested in Italy for selling Ukrainian weapons to Liberia and Sierra Leone, are pushing existing legislation in new directions in an attempt to discourage the illegal arms trade. Al Kassar has lost successive court appeals and has one final chance to have his $2.3 million returned in an appeal to a Swiss federal court.
Irishman is among three men who were shot and wounded in Marbella in Spain, it has emerged.Police responded to reports of an assault with a firearm in the Avenida del Prado area at 11.40pm , the Spanish newspaper El Pais reported.The three, aged 39, 45 and 73, were taken to the Hospital Costa del Sol in Malaga, the paper said.
One of the men, aged 45, has already been discharged and the older man was expected to leave hospital today.The third man, aged 39, suffered a gunshot wound to the shoulder. El Pais said the reasons for the attack were not yet known.
Police and forensic experts inspect the scene of the shooting in Puerto Banús last night 
The victim was said by witnesses to be a man in his 30's from Liverpool who has been resident in Marbella for some years. A man in his 30’s, first reported to be Eastern European by some sources, but now considered to be British by most media, has been injured in a shooting incident in a cafeteria in Puerto Banús, Marbella. At least five shots were fired in the port at 7,30pm last night, according to emergency service sources, with four of the shots hitting the man in the face after a first shot to the knee. He is reported to be seriously injured. Witnesses described the victim as a tall and athletic blonde man, and say he is British, from Liverpool, and has been living in Marbella for several years. They say the shooter, who is also thought to be British, talked to him for some time before opening fire.
Police think that what was the third shooting in the town in less than a month, was a possible settling of criminal scores.
The man was shot as he left a cafeteria in Calle Ramón Areces, to walk to his car, a dark blue British registered BMW which he had left illegally parked with the windows open.
Connecticut police have helped unravel a complex crime involving a rare and expensive Ferrari that was stolen in Spain in 1993.Car smugglers falsified documents and records for the car, valued at between $4 million and $5 million, and sold it to a car enthusiast to Sharon, police said.Troopers from the State Police Motor Vehicle Fraud Task Force started their investigation in to the rare Ferrari 250 PF in June after learning that the car was registered in Connecticut. It turns out, police said, that the Ferrari was reported stolen in Spain in 1993. The original Police report identified the victim from Switzerland.
The car was then smuggled into the United States through New Jersey. It was registered and titled in New Jersey in 1994 with a false Vehicle Identification Number, police said. There were multiple paper sales and transfers over the next several years in New Jersey, police said.The vehicle was ultimately sold to an apparent unsuspecting buyer in Connecticut, who bought the car in New Jersey in 2000 for $550,000.00, police said.The buyer added the Ferrari to a collection of exotic vehicles, police said.According to exotic car enthusiasts, the 1958 Ferrari 250 PF is valued between $4 million and $5 million.Interpol and original owner assisted in the investigation.State Police investigators obtained copies of all Spanish and Swiss documents relating to the stolen Ferrari and they were all translated to English.The original owner from Switzerland never accepted the insurance claim because he believed that the Ferrari was so rare and valuable that it would eventually turn up somewhere in the world intact, police said.State Police Investigators submitted a search and seizure warrant to Superior Court for the subject’s residence in Sharon, where they located the stolen vehicle Thursday. The investigation is continuing.
Gangland war against Dublin criminal John Gilligan has shifted to Spain’s Costa del Sol. Gardai believe that the attempted murder of a former member of Gilligan’s drugs gang in Andalusia was linked to threats against the crime boss. Peter Mitchell was shot outside a bar on a complex in Puerto Banus, near Marbella.Two other people wounded in the shooting were innocent bystanders from Ireland, says the Republic’s Department of Foreign Affairs. One of the two other victims was a 73-year-old Irishman.Spanish police were waiting yesterday to interview 39-year-old Mitchell, who is expected to make a full recovery from his injuries. Mitchell, who fled to Spain in 1996, had been one of a number of gangsters targeted in a major state operation against the Gilligan gang.Security sources in the Republic last night linked the murder bid on the Spanish coast to a new campaign by rival Irish criminals against Gilligan and his associates.Earlier this month it was revealed that Gilligan was receiving 24-hour protection inside Portlaoise to safeguard him from other prisoners.Rival criminals are angry over his recent interview in Irish pop magazine Hot Press, via a mobile phone. This contributed to a security crackdown, which has affected the operations of other gang leaders inside.A Gardai source said: ‘Up until then, a number of jailed criminals were still able to run their empires from inside. Now they can’t communicate with their teams and they blame Gilligan for that.‘Gilligan was badly beaten up by a young Dublin criminal in front of other inmates. And these rivals are not just prepared to go after him it seems; they have the team and the firepower to hunt down the remaining members of his old gang, most of whom are now in Spain.’In recent years the Irish underworld, alongside the Russian mafia and British gangsters, have fought for control of the lucrative drugs trade in southern Spain.
Read more...Police in Spain are investigating if an overnight shooting in Marbella is linked to a gun attack on an Irishman in the Costa del Sol this week.A 42-year-old man and one other person were shot in the early hours of this morning, outside a disco bar.
On Thursday night 39-year-old Peter Mitchell, a former associate of convicted drugs dealer John Gilligan, was shot in a bar in Puerto Banus by a masked gunman.
He remains under guard in hospital in Spain after narrowly surviving the assassination attempt, while two other men caught up in the shooting received minor injuries.
70 Spanish nationals have been arrested in a major investigation into tax and fiscal fraud involving a bank in Liechtenstein. Four of the detentions were in Marbella, Fuengirola, Torremolinos and Benalmádena and officers have also visited a private bank located in Nueva Andalucía.
According to official sources some 200 million euros is thought to have been involved in the fraud. The 'Jade-Limusina' investigation started in April when the Tax Agency presented the anti-corruption prosecutor with a report indicating that 198 people could be involved in tax evasion. These were all resident in Spain and are thought to have had dealings with the Liechtenstein Global Trust (LGT).
This is an international case and started off in Germany where some 1,000 people are though to be involved. As it developed it saw the tax authorities in Spain working with colleagues in Australia, Canada, France, Italy, New Zealand, Sweden, the UK and USA. All these countries had instances of their nationals using the same bank to allegedly avoid paying tax to the authorities.
The case in Spain was placed under the wing of the Audiencia Nacional judge Santiago Pedraz who ordered investigations by the tax authority's own team and the anti-corruption squad of the Guardia Civil. This led to raids on around 20 companies and business advisors in Madrid, Barcelona, Málaga and Zaragoza.
The situation of the Nueva Andalucía private bank is not clear. It is believed that the Guardia Civil were at the bank interviewing officials for an hour but no arrests appear to have been made. It is also understood that the same bank could be involved in the German arm of this investigation.
LGT is not only caught up in this fraud investigation. Last week in the USA a hearing of the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations (PSI) of the US Senate also cast doubt on the bank's operations. In a statement LGT Group asserted that: ''it has always conducted its business in accordance with the applicable legal and regulatory provisions. The data under investigation by the PSI - which is based on the data stolen from LGT Treuhand in 2002 and goes back to the 1970s - is from a time when different regulations applied and when there was no Qualified Intermediary (QI) agreement in place. The specific cases mentioned in the subcommittee's report are dated and do not in any way reflect LGT's current business practices.'' Obviously following the wave of arrests in Spain and the parallel investigations in the USA the bank will once again be under the spotlight.
Tim O’Toole was arrested in Marbella as the gang prepared to transfer the shipment, originally from Venezuela, to speed boats off the coast of Spain.
The drugs were destined for all parts of Europe, with millions of pounds worth heading for Britain’s streets. O’Toole – known as the Invisible Man – masterminded the huge transport operation. Last night a British customs source said: “O’Toole was a major player as the sentence indicates. “This was Europe’s biggest cocaine smuggling network and it was the first of what were intended to be a series of large-scale shipments. “Had this not been stopped, tons of the stuff could have ended up in Britain.” Middle-aged O’Toole, from Ireland, had a luxury villa and fast cars in Marbella. He also spent time in London. He was arrested three years ago after a year-long inquiry codenamed Operation Tulle. It involved British Customs, the Met Police and cops in Spain and Portugal. O’Toole’s assets were seized when he appeared in court in Madrid. The gang’s Spanish godfather Daniel Baula Carballo was fined £290million and jailed for 17½ years. Third ringleader Gonzalo Ferreiro was jailed for 13½ years and fined £144million.
mastermind behind one of Merseyside’s biggest ever drug rings was arrested by police as he played five-a-side football with his trusted gang.While having a knockabout at Walton Hall sports centre, Fazakerley gangster David Hibbs-Turner kept six mobile phones hidden in his sports kit, ready to act at any time as the wheels turned on his multi-million pound international cocaine and heroin operation. he was convicted of ordering the assassination of fellow Liverpool gangster Michael ‘Mikey’ Wright.This week, Hibbs-Turner was jailed for life and ordered to serve a minimum of 37 years for the murder, the drugs and running an extortion racket.Now he and his 13-strong “armed and very dangerous” gang are serving more than 150 years behind bars.The operation was simple and the gains massive. Police admit the drugs they seized, worth £4m, are only the tip of the iceberg.Hibbs-Turner, 30, and his gang bought a fleet of white Vauxhall Combi vans and fitted them with secret compartments,The inconspicuous vehicles then brought drugs into the country from Amsterdam and Spain after deals with South American cartels.Hidden in some of Liverpool’s plushest addresses – Beetham Tower, Beetham Plaza, City Lofts, Royal Quay – workers in drug factories would crush up the packages, mix and dilute them and create hundreds of kilos of coke, heroin and ecstasy for the streets of Merseyside and the north west.
The gang are also thought to have controlled patches as far afield as eastern Scotland and Dublin.The extent of the operation was highlighted when officers seized nearly £163,000 found in plastic shopping bags in a cupboard under the stairs at one of Hibbs-Turner’s Liverpool homes.But the drug baron, who also had a home in Marbella, simply walked away from the cash – never bothering to turn up at a hearing at Liverpool magistrates court, where he could have tried to reclaim it. This, police say, is a mere glimpse of the money he was making.At another address, on Cornwallis Street in Liverpool city centre, detectives found 50kg of drugs – worth more than £2m – together with a silenced Steyr machine gun.That was forensically linked to at least six shootings in Merseyside and was just one of an arsenal of weapons uncovered throughout the 20-month investigation.
With his trusted lieutenants, brothers Stephen and James Kelly, by his side, Hibbs-Turner was able to disappear for months when the heat got too much.But from September 2004 to his arrest on February 16, 2007, he and his gang were being watched.
A small team of the best surveillance officers in Merseyside police were put together after they scratched the surface and were shocked at what they found.
Police admit they had no idea of the scale of the operation, and without calls from the community concerned about dealing, the gang may not have appeared on their radar until much later.DCI Brian Gaddas, of Merseyside police’s Matrix team, said: “This was a highly organised and dangerous criminal group who had little respect for authorities or even other criminal groups in Merseyside, and ruled through fear and intimidation.“These convictions are the result of an extensive and complex investigation which has now totally dismantled this group. I have to praise the small group of detectives who were able to collect evidence of such gravity that almost all of the defendants saw they had no choice but to plead guilty.
“They worked long and hard in the most hostile environment building a case while putting their own lives in danger on a day-to-day basis. The fact none of the targets had any knowledge whatsoever of their existence is testament to their professionalism.”Twelve members of the gang admitted conspiracy to supply drugs of class A and B, with three also pleading guilty to firearm charges.
Two members, Michael Kinsella and a man who cannot be named for legal reasons, were convicted after a 17-day trial.
Ringleader David Hibbs-Turner, 30, of Fazakerley, was the mastermind of the operation, spending substantial periods of time in Amsterdam organising deals, fake passports and properties.Joint second-in-command brothers Stephen Kelly, 30, of Princes Dock, and James Kelly, 24, of Stalmine Road, Walton, were both jailed for 14 years. They ran much of the day-to-day operation and were seen turning up at an array of luxury pads in top-end cars to organise the cutting, packaging and distribution of the drugs.Lee Cole, 27, of Rice Lane, Walton, received 15 years after also admitting firearms offences. He was involved in the operation both in Liverpool and Amsterdam. He was previously jailed for two years for supplying heroin, as well as a six-month sentence for importing cannabis.Wesley Barton, 23, of Oakhouse Park, Walton, was directly connected with a drugs factory at Royal Quay. He received 15 years.Michael Kinsella, 30, of Holy Cross Close, Liverpool city centre, worked in both Merseyside and Holland. He was involved in sending money and delivering large quantities of cocaine. He was jailed for 10 years and has previously served seven years for possessing heroin and coke with intent to supply.
David Surridge, 21, of Ruskin Street, Kirkdale, was jailed for 15 years. He bought hydraulic presses and delivered drugs.Stephen Phillips, 19, of Glenista Close, Walton, was connected with several of the raided drugs factories. He received 10 years.
Anthony Wignall, 31, of Granton Road, Everton, was jailed for 11 years and three months after being caught making regular journeys to Amsterdam and sending money to Holland.
Michael Riley, 27, of Bianca Street, Bootle, travelled to Holland at least six times in 2006, carrying money out to Hibbs- Turner. He was jailed for 10 year.
Adam Joynson, 19, Willowdale Road, Walton, was jailed for eight years. He sent out substantial amounts to Holland.
Nicholas Miller, 20, of Betula Close, Walton, was involved with the Rice Lane drugs factory and was locked up for nine and a half years.
Jamie Quirk, 26, of Bulford Road, Walton, was jailed for 10 years. He sent money to Amsterdam.
Caracuel is reported to have referred to the immigrants as ‘a threat’ and as ‘invaders’ of the town, leader IU to comment ‘We cannot doubt that this type of sale is illegal, but the way of combating it is not adequate’.The Defensor del Pueblo, the Spanish Ombudsman, has asked for an explanation from Marbella Town Hall following a spate of immigrant arrests in the town. The PP local councillor for citizen safety, Francisca Caracuel, has ordered a zero tolerance policy for those who sell their wares by foot in the town, and this has resulted in 500 arrests in a few months. Most of the sales were of counterfeit goods, and 50,000 such items were recently crushed by a steam roller in Puerto Banús to underline the policy. However 17 Chinese beach masseurs have also been arrested, and criticism of the harshness of the police has come from the IU left wing.The Ombudsman, José Chamizo, met with the left wingers and a local Senegalese association last September and called on the Town Hall to ‘only apply the law’. Some claim that in fact things have improved considerably for the immigrants compared to the time of the GIL administration.
Two recent court cases in Spain have seen immigrants charged with such sales being released, given that profits made were minimal and the activity was necessary for their survival.
The bail conditions against Juan Antonio Roca, the ex Marbella Municipal real estate assessor in the case known as ‘Saqueo 1’ have been increased today to three million €. The Roca family had already paid the lower level of bail, set at 450,000 € in the case, but today Roca finds himself sent to prison again, with bail now set at 3 million €.This is separate from the 1 million € which it took his family 17 days to raise in the Malaya case.The Saqueo 1 case is also known as the 'false facturas' case and is linked to the alleged diversion of public funds from Marbella Town Hall to private companies between 1991 and 1995 amounting to 27.6 million €. The late Mayor Jesús Gil and six others were charged in the case, where Roca is accused of money laundering, defrauding Hacienda, bribery, the alteration of prices in public auctions and tenders, the misuse of public funds and even a charge against damaging flora and fauna, amongst others.Today the National Court judge, Pablo Ruiz, accepted an appeal presented to him from the legal department of Marbella Town Hall which said they feared that Roca was a flight risk. The Town Hall say that it is ‘curious’ that the Roca family could find such amounts of money as had paid, 1, 450,000 € despite having all his assets supposedly frozen in the Malaya case.Roca’s defence team said they did not understand why their client was seeing his bail conditions revised, considering that Roca’s circumstances had not changed.
His return to prison brings a rapid end to his week of freedom on bail during which time he made many claims to the press, including one of innocence.
Juan Antonio Roca, is in the National Court on Wednesday morning in the so-called Saqueo 1 case, in which he is currently released on 450,000 € bail. He has also had to pay 1 million € bail in the separate Malaya case.The hearing on Wednesday at 10am comes under article 5050 of the Criminal Judgement Law which consists of a revision of his bail conditions in the Saqueo case. The appearance comes following a formal appeal made against bail by Marbella Town Hall legal department, in which they ask for a reconsideration of the bail granted.
Both sides will be able to question Roca during the hearing, and then the judge will make a ruling. Already Roca’s defence team has said they do not understand why the hearing has been called as nothing has changed in the Saqueo case and there can be no destruction of evidence. They also claim there is no ‘social alarm’ and no risk of flight.
The Saqueo 1 case is also known as the 'false facturas' case and is linked to the alleged diversion of public funds from Marbella Town Hall to private companies between 1991 and 1995 amounting to 27.6 million €. The late Mayor Jesús Gil and six others were charged in the case, where Roca is accused of money laundering, defrauding Hacienda, bribery, the alteration of prices in public auctions and tenders, the misuse of public funds and even a charge against damaging flora and fauna, amongst others.
Viva is down to one office and sells 200 homes a year if it is lucky. “It’s as if we’ve been hit by a tsunami,” says McCarthy, who is focusing on Hot Properties, a magazine he has set up to help people sell privately. “The property boom was over by 2004. Chris McCarthy, a Briton living in Marbella, set up Viva Estates, an estate agency aimed at selling property to the hordes of his fellow countrymen keen to buy on the Costa del Sol. At its peak, the company had 15 offices across southern Spain and was selling 2,000 properties a year. Last year, it was oversupplied, overpriced and illegal, then came the Spanish property market collapse, the US sub-prime crisis, Northern Rock, followed by UK house prices falling, rate increases, the mortgage freeze and the stock market collapse. It’s been like wave after wave hitting us.” Spain – and especially the south coast – consistently tops the list of the most popular overseas buying destinations for Britons, with an estimated 65% of the properties sold each year on the Costas going to UK buyers. With the British market in trouble, the Costa del Sol is feeling the draught. While the value of their own houses in Guildford and Birmingham is at a standstill or even falling, people are less willing to invest in a holiday home abroad. Other places popular with Brits, such as Florida and the Caribbean, are also beginning to hurt. Even in the south of France and Italy, markets are taking a knock, thanks to the strength of the euro, which has risen 15% against the pound since September, adding to the cost of buying. Couple this with tighter mortgage conditions for borrowers at home and abroad, and the picture is far from rosy. “There has definitely been a slowdown in the normal sales rates that one might expect,” says James Price, head of international residential development at Knight Frank. “It’s taking longer to get people to commit. There needs to be a compelling reason for them to buy abroad.”
“Super-prime property appears to be relatively unaffected by the tightening of lending conditions,” says Price, although he thinks even the top end of the market in most countries will begin to slow as turmoil in the financial world hits confidence. He warns: “The next 12 months will see a gradual slowing of price growth in the main international buying destinations, especially France, Italy and the Caribbean.” So what is really happening in the six most popular overseas destinations, and what should you do?
Ángeles Muñoz, the Partido Popular Mayor of Marbella, presented a document at a press conference on Tuesday, which comes from the Tribunal de Cuentas, the National Court of Auditors, and is their report on Town Hall accounts between 1991 and 2006. It covers the time when the town was run by first the GIL Party, and then by the tripartite government led by Marisol Yagüe, with the Partido Andalucista, and former members of GIL and PSOE.The court notes hundreds of millions transferred to municipal companies without any type of controlEFE notes that the report highlights payments made for building work which had either already been previously completeor had not been carried out, and also noted prices paid well above the market price. Property expropriations were also well below market price. The court said 653 million € was transferred to municipal companies during that time ‘without any type of control,’ and conclude that those years of government saw ‘the structuring of an administrative organisation which allowed funds to be misappropriated from Marbella Town Hall,’ with the governing team at the Town Hall abusing their majority position on municipal bodies to do so.Other irregularities noted in this damning document include contracting of personnel and staffing levels, the lack of any specific budgets, and negotiating planning agreements with property which no longer belonged to the Town Hall.There was news earlier this month of a new court investigation into the false Bills which were issued during the GIL administration in Marbella, where three ghost companies invoiced the Town Hall for work which was never carried out. The investigating judge has already charged ten people for misuse of public funds and forgery.
Marisol Yagüe,ex Mayor of Marbella was the first suspect to appear before the Malaya judge, Óscar Pérez, on Monday, in his final round of court declarations before the corruption case is handed over to the provincial court in Málaga for trial. As with all the suspects who will appear before the judge, Yagüe was formally notified of the charges against her, but, in her case, refused to answer any questions.Also before the judge on Monday was the former Deputy Mayor, Isabel García Marcos, who told journalists as she left that she has nothing to hide, and said her former colleagues who appeared were optimistic and unworried, because ‘they can at last express themselves and because what they say is noted down, not what is invented.’ She spoke of the judge as a ‘professional with manners,’ which she referred to as an ‘important difference.’ The EFE news agency interpreted that as a comparison with his predecessor at the head of the Malaya case, Judge Miguel Ángel Torres.Four former Marbella councillors were also in court on Monday, and another six come before Óscar Pérez on Tuesday. It is the first time that defence lawyers have the chance to ask questions or to request new evidence.It’s understood that around 60 suspects have so far been called in for the final round of declarations.
Viva Estates agency that claims to be the Costa del Sol’s largest has laid off 120 of its 160 staff.has shut 95 per cent of its offices in a bid to fight the current recession.
The company has seen sales figures drop by over two thirds since 2003.
In 2007 the agency achieved just 550 completions, in comparison to 1,500 in 2003.
In a desperate bid to save the business, it has shut 13 out of its 14 offices, including flagship branches in Puerto Banus, Fuengirola and Alhaurin, and cut back on its huge UK advertising bill.
Blaming the collapse on the internet and the corruption scandals that have engulfed Andalucia,
“The boom brought a lot of cash to the Costa del Sol and every Tom, Dick and Harry coming in to try and make money.
“But most clients now use the internet and where offices were getting an average of 60 walk-in clients a month five years ago, last year they got just six
“With various town halls raping their coffers to the tune of hundreds of millions of euros it has not helped.”
The company is now functioning on a skeleton staff of 40 from the main office in El Rosario, between Marbella and Calahonda.
“I am optimistic that we will still be here when the market comes back. I lived through the last boom, when no-one had any money and everyone drove old bangers.
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