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THE INDEPENDENT ENGLISH LANGUAGE NEWSPAPER WITH LOCAL, NATIONAL AND INTERNATIONAL NEWS
EDITION 623
FRIDAY 5th APRIL TO THURSDAY 18th APRIL 2019 MOVIES AT ...
EATING OUT & ABOUT
PAGES PA 25 - 27
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FORTNIGHTLY SUPPLEMENT NT
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COUNTERFEITING RAID
TOURISTS WARNED OVER FALSE EURO NOTES
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OLIDAYMAKERS heading for the Canary Islands, particularly Tenerife, have been put on the alert against false euros after police smashed the most active counterfeiting gang in Spain. They say the network was churning out so many false notes on a daily basis that they are believed to have made at least 7,500 euros profit each month. Four people have been arrested in Tenerife, all of them Italians, after raids were made in the main tourist area in the south of the island. Police believe many of the false notes will still be circulating and have warned tourists to check any ten euro or 20 euros for their authenticity. The counterfeits are likely to
have reached the other Canary islands, including Lanzarote and Gran Canaria as well as further abroad in several European countries. “Despite manufacturing them by hand on a clandestine printing press, the notes are of high quality,” said a spokesman for the Spanish police. So far, 15,500 euros worth of false notes have been seized. The gang is believed to have started by making ten euro notes and then progressed to 20 euro ones, working from Monday to Friday like an
ordinary job. Equipment was found ready to make another batch of false notes amounting to 20,000 euros. Police have confirmed Tenerife is the most affected island, with the printing press having been found in an apartment in the south of the island, understood to be in El Fraile. The false bills were introduced into the system when purchases were made in local shops, buying products with the counterfeit notes or getting legitimate change. It is suspected they made a profit each month of at least 7,500 euros. Police say it is very hard to tell from a simple glance if a euro note is false or not.
National Police advise the “touch, look and turn” method. Genuine notes have a particular feel with a firm texture but feeling rough and thick. The watermark can be seen when observing the bill against the light. When you place a bill on a dark surface, the light areas darken. “In the holographic band and patch you can see a dotted line that makes up the € symbol, as well as the value of the ticket in figures of small size. The security thread is embedded in the paper of the bill. When you look at the bill against the light, the thread appears as a dark band in which you can see the word “EURO” and the value of the bill in small print,” said the spokesman. “ When a euro bill is rotated, the image of the hologram changes, alternating between its value and the repre-sentation of a door or window. As a background you can see concentric multicoloured circles with microtexts that go from the centre to the edges of the patch. Likewise, the image of the hologram changes, when the ticket is rotated, alternating between its value and the € symbol on a multicoloured background. In addition, the figure that indicates its value on the reverse changes colour, going from purple to olive green or brown.”
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Visitor numbers still flying high in Tenerife
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Photo: www.webtenerife.com
ENERIFE continues to buck the trend of other Spanish destinations and is keeping its main markets.
In Februar y, a total of 455,213 tourists stayed in the tourist establishments of the island, which represents an increase of six per cent in relation to the previous year. Overnight stays, a total of 3,371,575 in February, increased by 3.4 per cent, while the average stay was 7.41 days (-0.19 points) and occupancy was 68.4 per cent doe the month (-3.5%), according to the Receptive Tourism Statistics of the Cabildo. Regarding the accumulated data of the first two months of the year, the Receptive Tourism Statistics of the Cabildo account for a total of 914,966 tourists housed, 6.9 per cent more than in the same period of the previous year. Despite the decrease in the average stay by 0.23 points (for an average of 7.70 days), overnight stays accumulate a growth of 3.8 percent, with a total of 7,046,009 overnight stays in the two months. The occupation, situated at
67.8 percent, fell by 3.1 per cent in the island as a whole, due to the greater offer of places, which is growing above that of overnight stays. Regarding the issuing markets, Spanish tourism maintains a ver y positive evolution, with an increase of 10.7 per cent for a total of 137,806 Spanish tourists in the first two months of the year. In relation to foreign tourism, tourist establishments in Tenerife hosted 777,160 international clients (+ 6.3%) and there was an increase in visitors in practically all markets except Germany, Belgium and Sweden. In the analysis of the main tourist areas, the data of the Receptive Tourism Statistics register positive data for both the north, with 9.8 per cent more tourists, and for the south, where they stayed in the first two months of the year. year 76 percent of visitors during this period, which is settled with a growth of 6.5 per cent.
BRITISH WOMAN HURT
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51-year-old British woman was injured at around 2am on Sunday after falling in a rocky area of Costa del Silencio.
Firefighters had to rescue her because of the difficult location. She was treated at the scene for a moderate head injury before being taken on to hospital. Local police helped in the incident.