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Issue 617
12-18 AUGUST 2011
Demand for justice by Jack Troughton ANGRY COUPLE Andrew and Kate Wilford are demanding the Spanish government take action after their plan for early retirement was shattered in an alleged property scam. They have written to President Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero asking what “an innocent victim” must do to obtain justice after losing some 300,000€ in an ‘off-plan’ property scandal they believe extends across the popular Spanish Costas. And in bid to overcome the seeming inertia, Andrew copied the letter to include UK Prime Minister David Cameron, The British Embassy in Madrid, campaigning MEP Michael Cashman, newspapers in the UK and Spain, and ITV’s Homes from Hell. The couple bought a Murcia home ‘off-plan’ with developers Trampolin Solera. But on completion in January 2008 discovered not only had the company – now in administration – taken out a “huge” builder’s mortgage on the property with CAM Bank, the home had been sold a second time to a third party. “I was absolutely shocked to find this appalling situation. I was paying 280,000€ for it, CAM Kate Wilford valued it at 397,000€ and had
agreed to pay this whacking great mortgage on it to the developer,” said Andrew. POCKET He accused the development company Trampolin Solera – and linked companies such as Trampolin Hills and Trampolin Royal Dreams – of being able to pocket a potential 100 million euros by mortgaging some of the property it built, while bankers had earned commissions based on inflated valuations. Speaking from his home in Colwyn Bay, Wales, Andrew told RTN: “I have been fighting and fighting to get this thing before the courts – if this was the UK the guys involved would be in prison. “I alerted the police and the government three years ago. What has happened with Trampolin is mirrored across the Costa Blanca, Murcia and the Costa del Sol. “We trusted the Spanish but I think corruption and fraud are running through the very veins of the country. The way they have treated people over property is deplorable – and sending ministers to the UK to try and sell property is disgusting.” Continued to page 3