La Manga Club in Murcia filed for bankruptcy protection

La Manga Club in Murcia filed for bankruptcy protection. Owned by George Soris’s company MedGroup, the company says that they will continue to trade, but will take ‘very strong measures’ to make the company viable.They purchased the club from P&O for 102 million pounds in 2004. It includes three golf courses, 28 tennis courts, 8 football pitches, a spa, 1,800 private villas and apartments, and a 5 star Hyatt Regency hotel. It’s one of the most...

Leighton Richardson released from custody after being held since Christmas Eve.

Leighton Richardson arrested in Tenerife after his girlfriend was found dying in a pool of blood at her apartment has been released from custody after being held since Christmas Eve.Before making his bail decision the judge studied police information which – despite earlier reports – said no baseball bat had been found at her flat.But while investigations continue Leighton Richardson, born in Wrexham and who grew up in Mold, remains a suspect.He...

Leighton Richardson has been arrested following the brutal murder of Lisa McConway

Leighton Richardson has been arrested following the brutal murder of Lisa McConway, 28, from Dublin, who was beaten to death with a baseball bat in Tenerife on Christmas Eve.Richardson was arrested yesterday morning by Spanish police and is to appear at a closed hearing before a magistrate will decide whether or not to press charges.He is understood to be the father of Lisa McConway's three-year old son. It's believed the boy was in the apartment...

severe fall-off in bookings is alarming tourist authorities and businesses.

The severe fall-off in bookings is alarming tourist authorities and businesses. Figures from the Spanish tourist industry reveal that the number of Britons who visited Spain in November, for example, was down by 15% on 2007. The fall has closely tracked the decreasing value of the pound. Britons began to turn their backs on Spain in September, when numbers were down 5%, reaching 7% in October. Last month's dramatic decline came after the pound had...

Spanish anti-Corruption prosecutor is to investigate who sold funds organised by the disgraced New York broker, Bernard Madoff, in Spain

Spanish anti-Corruption prosecutor is to investigate who sold funds organised by the disgraced New York broker, Bernard Madoff, in Spain. The prosecutor wants to establish if the agents acting here took an active part in the fraud which has been carried out, and it means that the Optimal and Banif funds from Santander will be under inspection along with all those who distributed the fun...

New owners of the Hotel Los Monteros, sacked 72 of the hotel’s 180 workers

The new owners of the Hotel Los Monteros, the Russian petrol group, North West Oil, are reported by El País to have sacked 72 of the hotel’s 180 workers, some 40%.Gonzalo Fuentes, the Regional Secretary of the Commerce Federation of the Union Comisones Obreras, said that the workers...

arrest of 20 members of a suspected international counterfeit money distribution network, operating in Spain and Portugal.

code-named ‘Margarita-Kuskus,’ in Alicante, Valencia, Murcia, Malaga, Almeria and Lugo provinces, has led to the arrest of 20 members of a suspected international counterfeit money distribution network, operating in Spain and Portugal. The operation, carried out in collaboration with the European Union's criminal intelligence agency (Europol), also resulted in the seizure of 150,000 fake euros in 50 and 20 euro denominations destined for distribution...

purple €500 notes are so rarely seen that they have earned the nickname “Bin Ladens”.

Spain is estimated to have one of the biggest black economies in Europe, accounting for between 20 and 23% of annual GDP. Spanish tax authorities are investigating 12,000 big transactions involving €500 notes.It is, perhaps, the strangest idea yet for pumping extra liquidity into Europe’s troubled banking system. Spanish officials were yesterday reported to be looking for ways of encouraging Spaniards to remove the estimated 108m €500 notes they...

Spain’s government is to help home-seekers buy or rent one million homes in the next four years.

Spain’s government is to help home-seekers buy or rent one million homes in the next four years, it said on Friday, as it seeks fiscal catalysts as well as props for the hard-hit housing sector.Under the plan, which was approved by the cabinet on Friday, Spain will spend 10.1 billion euros ($13.4 billion) to help the poorest families, the elderly, young people, the disabled and victims of domestic violence find a home through a system of subsidies...

75-year-old woman was killed last night when the bedroom roof of her cave house collapsed in on top of her as she was sleeping.

75-year-old woman was killed last night when the bedroom roof of her cave house collapsed in on top of her as she was sleeping. The incident occurred at around 2.30am at number 19, calle Castellana, Rojales (Alicante), a small town with a population of just over 7,000 inhabitants some 4km inland from Guardamar del Segura. The rest of the property was unaffected. Emergency medics were unable to revive the victim, who was pronounced dead at the sc...

legal firm in Murcia is offering properties for sale at really bargain basement prices

legal firm in Murcia, acting under instruction from several banks and almost bankrupt real estate developers, is offering properties for sale at really bargain basement prices. Some of the deals on offer are the result of property being embargoed, whilst others are due to an excessive building programme. For example: a brand new home with three bedrooms and all the attendant services, set on the coast and near a golf course, is being priced at just...

Ibiza Night Club owners raided by Organized Crime Special Response Group

Agents of the National Police Corps, assigned to the Special Response Group against Organized Crime in Ibiza, have proceeded to the dismantling of a complex criminal organization composed of Ibiza citizens who were very much related to the world of the night. It is the largest network of introduction and distribution of narcotic substances by residents on the island, according to the police stressed in a statement. investigation, which began in mid-May,...

Ocean View's "one-stop shop" property service ?

Football great John Barnes, tennis legend Pat Cash, cricket's Darren Gough and rugby's Martin Corry and Martin Offiah are just some of the high profile figures who were promised luxury apartments if their names could be used to promote overseas developments that many fear will never be built.The promises were made by a Spanish company, which was closely involved with Sean Woodhall, a 43-year-old fraudster who disappeared after a light aircraft carrying...

Spain's top-selling newspaper El Pais on Sunday revealed details of CIA secret flights taking prisoners to Guantanamo bay using Spain as a stop-over.

Spain's top-selling newspaper El Pais on Sunday revealed details of CIA secret flights taking prisoners to Guantanamo bay using Spain as a stop-over. According to the paper, the National Court of Spain is investigating the false names given by crews of several CIA-operated civilian flights that stopped over in Palma de Mallorca in 2003 and 2005.Egyptian Mustafa Osama Nasr and German-Lebanese Hamed Al Masri, who were kidnapped and tortured by CIA...

Banco Santander SA,hit by worlds largest fraud

The $7.3 billion Fairfield Sentry Fund invested solely with Madoff, taking a cut of 1 percent of assets and 20 percent of gains, which averaged about 11 percent annually in the past 15 years, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Fairfield Greenwich is one of at least 15 hedge-fund firms and private banks, including Tremont Holdings Group Inc. and Banco Santander SA, that earned similar fees for sending customers’ cash to the 70-year-old money...

Man driving his car against the traffic at 120 kms/hour with a woman hanging on for dear life on the bonnet.

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...

Jürgen Sauer is the co-founder of the Kempinski Hotel in Estepona and the owner of the Sauer real estate company.Arrested

Jürgen Sauer is the co-founder of the Kempinski Hotel in Estepona and the owner of the Sauer real estate company. He has real estate interests in Mallorca, Tenerife, Sotogrande, Mijas and Marbella. His current offices are in the annexe of the Laguna Beach Hotel. Judicial sources have told El País that he is accused of money laundering and has been granted bail at 150,000 €.German businessman has been arrested in connection with the Hidalgo money...

Fortuna Land scam was run out of offices on the Costa del Sol using companies registered in places like Cyprus and Delaware (USA).

The Spanish land investment scam run for years by Fortuna Estates has finally been busted, with the Spanish fraud squad swooping last week on several office in Mijas and Fuengirola, arresting at least 2 people, and questioning 20 others. This could be one of the biggest Spanish property scams to date, with hundreds, if not thousands of British and Irish victims. The Spanish authorities estimate that Fortuna Estates made at least 65 million Euros...

Death of the Beach Bars,500 bars and restaurants in the Malaga province alone have been built on the sand in contravention to planning regulations

Coastal authority of Andalusia has announced plans to enforce a 1988 law designed to prevent construction within 100 yards of the waterline. An estimated 500 bars and restaurants in the Malaga province alone have been built on the sand in contravention to planning regulations, authorities claim. Around 300 of them will be forced to close when their concessions end next year. Javier Hermoso, the chief of beaches on the eastern Costa del Sol, said...

It is ludicrous that people on the Costa del Sol are getting winter fuel payments

Parliamentary investigation into fuel poverty is to investigate £12 million a year of winter fuel payments made to British pensioners living abroad. Michael Jack, chairman of the Select Committee for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, said the issue had emerged as a “key” area of concern in their inquiry. He said: “For many pensioners in the UK at the moment the winter fuel payment is the difference between turning on the heating or not. With the...

British pensioners living overseas should be stopped from raking in millions of pounds in winter fuel payments

British pensioners living overseas should be stopped from raking in millions of pounds in winter fuel payments, campaigners are insisting.Charities and OAP groups will next week protest that more than £10million a year is being paid to those who have escaped the chilly UK and retired to the sun.Some 50,000 elderly Britons who have moved permanently abroad are claiming the yearly allowance, worth between £200 and £300, which is supposed to help with...

Guardia Civil and the National Police have seized 26,199 kilos of drugs in the Campo de Gibraltar so far this year

The Guardia Civil and the National Police have seized 26,199 kilos of drugs in the Campo de Gibraltar so far this year, compared to the 25,001 kilos seized in 2006 for the same period. More facts: during the first three months of this year they have caught more than the total for 2006; the total street value of the hashish hauls alone amount to €37 milli...

Spanish property developer said Tuesday it will hold a raffle to unload 31 apartments near Barcelona

Spanish property developer said Tuesday it will hold a raffle to unload 31 apartments near Spanish property developer said Tuesday it will hold a raffle to unload 31 apartments near Barcelona which have been difficult to sell amid a collapse in the real estate market.Tickets for the raffle cost 50 euros (63 dollars) and they will go on sale on Wednesday, a spokesman for developer Grupo de Empresas Rob told AFP.The company hopes to sell 7,000 raffle...

Spanish police said Monday they had arrested 40 people in nationwide raids as part of an operation against Internet child pornography

Spanish police said Monday they had arrested 40 people in nationwide raids as part of an operation against Internet child pornography in which 25,000 photographs and over 9,000 videos were seized.Another 35 people who are suspected of owning and exchanging pornographic images involving minors over the Internet were placed under investigation, they said in a statement.Police launched their investigation in February after receiving a complaint from...

Spain's police have unveiled the plans of the Georgian-born crime boss Zakhar Kalashov

Spain's police have unveiled the plans of the Georgian-born crime boss Zakhar Kalashov, who was trying to influence the judiciary and free him from the Spanish prison. Spanish newspaper ABC reports that Kalashov has created a whole structure which had to work on his release from prison, just the way he used to do in Russia. Oleg Vorontsov and Alexander Golfshtein were the key figures in this secret plan. Vorontsov was the first advisor of Russia's...

Michael Wilks was arrested by Spanish police after 500 kilos of cannabis worth £1.5million was seized.

Michael Wilks, 34, of Barking is being held along with four others thought to be part of a trafficking ring trying to smuggle drugs into the UK.Amanda Goodwin, 48, from Brighton, David Mead, 45, of Beckenham, Martin James Veryard, 39, and a Romanian man were also arrested.The huge stash of cannabis was found in compressed blocks in the back of a van in Benijofar, south of Alicante in Spain.After discovering the drugs armed officers swooped on an...

Seizure of cocaine worth over one million pounds from a fishing vessel co-owned by Spanish and local company.

The fishing vessel, “Venturer”, is currently anchored in Port Williams, outside the capital Stanley, next to another trawler belonging to the same company. Royal Falkland Islands Police confirmed that they had made a seizure of cocaine worth over one million pounds from a fishing...

Police in Spain are investigating $125,000 in missing designer jewelry last seen on Winona Ryder

It seems that the Police in Spain are investigating $125,000 in missing designer jewelry last seen on Winona Ryder at an event on Sunday. She was loaned an incredible Bulgari bracelet and ring to wear to a Marie Claire event in Spain last weekend. Now the jewelry is apparently missing.Supposedly...

Aifos, a holiday home developer based in Marbella, has been forced into receivership by one of its creditors

Aifos, a holiday home developer based in Marbella, has been forced into receivership by one of its creditors , the Spanish press reports.The company is reported to have 850 million Euros of debt, which would make it one of the biggest developers to date to go into administration, after Martinsa-Fadesa and Tremon. Its biggest creditor is Banco Popular, which it reportedly owes 200 million Euros, followed by Banco Pastor, which it owes 150 million...

Spanish leader General Francisco Franco's daughter has revealed that her father feared that Adolf Hitler would kidnap him

Spanish leader General Francisco Franco's daughter has revealed that her father feared that Adolf Hitler would kidnap him to force Spain into the Second World War. Carmen Franco Polo, 82, said that her father had even nominated three substitutes to assume power at a conference in 1940, just in case he was actually abducted by the Nazi leader. She has written about her life with El Caudillo in her book 'Franco, My Father', published in Spain on Friday....

Gangland leader Allan Foster is now believed to be hiding in Spain.

Former Northumbria Police officer has been found guilty of passing on police information to a murder suspect. Newcastle Crown Court was told that Det Con John Jones became the "eyes and ears" of gangland leader Allan Foster. The court heard his actions meant that Mr Foster, wanted for the killing of a South Tyneside drug dealer, could stay one step ahead of the law. Jones, from Seaham in County Durham, was found guilty of four charges of misconduct...