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SOUTH EDITION roundtownnews.com
Issue 705
19 - 25 APRIL 2013
Off-plan victory offers hope by Jack Troughton
One of the Rosette winners from 2012
APAH Fun Dog Show
ON SATURDAY 27 April, A.P.A.H. will once again, hold the first of its two annual Fun Dog Shows and Barbeque at El Rancho. Registration for the show begins at 1.00pm and the judging is due to start at 2.30pm. A.P.A.H. hopes that lots of people will keep the 27th April free, so they can come along, bring their dogs; if they have any, or come on their own and enjoy a lovely afternoon, whilst helping to support the work that A.P.A.H. carries with abandoned dogs and cats.
PROPERTY VICTIMS are celebrating a “landmark” court victory over shamed CAM Bank over the failure to protect cash deposits for their dream homes in the sun. An eight year battle involving 1.5 million Euros ended when the bank – now Sabadell CAM – lost its appeal at Albacete over a failure to issue 47 buyers with legally required Bank Guarantees. And the court’s decision offers hope to others who lost money in failed off –plan projects to what was described as “a feeding frenzy of sharks”. The action was brought by the Finca Parcs Action Group against the bank, the sole financial body backing the project, and developer Cleyton GES over the Las Higuericas Finca Parcs development near Agramon in Albacete, just over the border with Murcia. Found guilty of “malpractice” by a lower court in Hellin last June, the bank launched its appeal but it was dismissed by judges last week. It has the right to appeal to Supreme Court. However, the losers will be refunded their principal losses and re-
ceived both interest and costs when the time allowed for any further appeal expires and the case becomes “firm” – or after the highest court makes a ruling. A second case involving another 13 of the action group’s members will soon be before the Hellin court involving 500,000€ - CAM has chosen not to defend the action – and there is a third case involving a similar amount of money in the pipeline. The Albacete Appeal Court upheld the Hellin judge who ruled the bank “failed in its legal obligations to control the use of off-plan deposits paid in advance” and showed an “absolute disregard” to the obligations imposed on financial institutions by the law “and this behaviour can only be described as malpractice”. And the appeal court ruled that: “CAM knew perfectly well that the payments by the plaintiffs into ordinary current accounts were payments by buyers in an off-plan property development in which it had assumed the role of guarantor under the law, Ley 57/1986”. And it noted that CAM did issue guarantees to other purchasers of property at Finca Parcs. Continued on page 6