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FLOG IT: Mark Stacey in Javea
Going going gone!
RAID your jewellery boxes and plunder the garage because Flog It! is coming to the Costa Blanca! Mark Stacey, renowned British auctioneer, will be in Javea on September 14 to value your trinkets and even give you a juicy offer. The TV personality has appeared on Bargain Hunt, Flog it!, Put Your Money Where Your Mouth Is and the Antiques Road Trip - but this trip will be raising funds for charity Guardian Angels. “Six years ago Mark came over and we had over 400 people through the door,” Sue Nutbrown, president of Guardian Angels, told the Olive Press. “If your items are worth something, Mark will make you an offer and then livestream you its auctioning back in the UK.”
Help
The charity afternoon will take place at the Palacio de la Paz, 20 Calle de la Salvia, and floggers will be charged €5 for a valuation. Guardian Angels operates from Gandia down to Torrevieja guiding families, particularly expat Brits, through separation and divorce. “Our work is so important. In the UK families tend to have aunts and uncles around for support, but in a foreign country situations can get complicated,” Sue said. “We try to help in any way we can.” Sue said the event six years ago raised €6,000, which went to everything from ‘counselling’ to ‘medical care’ and ‘repatriation’. Pianists Lola Smolokowski will appear ‘jingling the keys’, while animal shelters and children’s charities would also be on site.
COSTA BLANCA
Your expat
voice in Spain
Vol. 1 Issue 12 www.theolivepress.es August 29th - September 11th 2019
Rental websites which scammed British holidaymakers out of thousands FINALLY shut down following Olive Press exposes
A FRAUDULENT villa rental website that tricked British holidaymakers out of thousands has finally shut down following an extensive Olive Press campaign this year. Dreamvillasspain.com was behind countless tales of heartbreak as it seduced holidaymakers into purchasing villa rentals that never existed. The first case was reported by the Olive Press to the Guardia Civil in April when professional chocolate taster Angus Kennedy turned up at a villa he had paid for in Mallorca. He was met with bewildered German owner, Klaus, who had no knowledge of ever putting his house up for rental. It soon dawned on Angus he’d lost
2
CRIME
Your reporters, here to help on the Costa Blanca Introducing News Editor Laurence Dollimore and Reporter Joshua Parfitt Contact them with any stories or news on 951 273 575 or email newsdesk@theolivepress.es (Personal contacts on page 6)
mother to lung cancer a few THE Olive Press is helping years ago. victims take legal action “My nephews and nieces were against a holiday rental com- really looking forward to it as pany that scammed holiday- they have never been abroad,” makers thousands for rental Deleslie told the Olive Press. villas on the Costa Blanca. “I spent two years saving up It comes as the paper was for this trip, and we just can’t contacted by new victims of afford to pay for new villa. Dream Villas Spain, following The kids are devastated.” last issue’s report on the plight We helped the family make of the Bolton family, who lost a police denuncia, after De€2,000 on a Moraira rental. leslie said she will lose ‘more Petra Deleslie, 42, has now than €12,000’ as flights were contacted us after losing already booked and her bank €6,000 booking a villa in Mo- were unable to claim their raira later this year for her ex- money back. tended family of 18. She showed the Olive Press We agreed to help after she emails asking Dream Vitold us she was ‘desperate’ llas Spain for a refund, after for a break after losing her
SEL-FISH JAVEA Town Hall has begun legal proceedings against the owner of a property who cut off public access to a heritage fishing ground in Balcon al Mar. The unknown owner, who has a luxurious four-storey villa overlooking Cala Ambolo, built a ‘stone staircase’ with ‘metal railings’ that cut access to the Llavadora del Pinet fishery. Councillor Isabel Bolufer said
VOX’S top candidate for Benidorm mayor has been replaced
revelations he received a Socialist win
after A BRITISH for expat is being handed two-year prison sentence tigious British gong by the Queen a presfor her domestic violence in February services to tourists in Alicante. Candida Wright will receive an MBE 2018. for banher charitable Perez Brigido was work as an interpreter Davidparty THE socialist (PSOE) largest hospital in the Marina Alta, in election,thedespite the ned will hold on on to from the Valencian May 16. government sentences sometimes two-year in the upcoming The if58-year-old, known as ‘Candy’, the regional elections, in Spain according being waived volunteered with HELP of Denia & has to a market research company. Marihas no previous na Altaconsince it launched in 1984. Sigma Dos accused revealed PSOE will During that time she has helped victions. take between expats 29-30 seats, whito have through cancer, bereavement, bureaucrawas found Brigido Perez le the Popular Party (PP) will cy and court battles. ex-wife, his see its representation ‘repeatedly fall abused’ from As the president of the charity, she runs her threw 31 seats to 22-23. after he ‘shoved and the helphair desk at the Marina Salud hospital But with the her totalground, seats inpulled to the in Denia. Valencia’s Generalitat at 99, face’. “The punched her in the most exciting thing was the pink inandneed PSOE will again to form dis- I was posted with the card vitation alsoa found judge The the coalition abroad words to Brits reach the absolute conned BP (Buckingham had Palace),” Candida told majority of 50 SCAM: Dream Villas Spain site graced seats. far-right politician theand Olive‘dePress. The poll suggests returns from 2014 to 2017. frequently the PSOE‘insulted’ will “I thought it meant British Petroleum at which ‘general manager’ Ro- There is no availablemake phone was who a pact meaned’ with Valencianist the woman, first.” she joked. sella Alba Gutierrez has shut Compromis web- (17-18 stress seats)post-traumatic and number (the one on the The expat, left with who has lived in Spain for 45 left-wing populist Spain’s Companies House site has been disconnected) Podemos years, received a ‘Points of Light’ (6-7Alba award seats). disorder. and reveals that Dream Villas and the name Rosella The regional elections will fall Spain, which is registered as Gutierrez appears nowhere on Mayin 26 the same day as the Digital Dream SL, was incor- the list of employees. European elections. porated in 2014 for ‘data pro- Another victim told the OliSee our election cessing and web hosting’. had on ve Press this week she guide page 6 Based in Carrer de la Fe, in as Palma, Mallorca, it filed tax
the Town Hall began proceedings after learning that the owner had intentionally reformed the stairs, closing access to the ancient site from Calle Samuel Adler. “These works represent a very serious attack on a heritage that corresponds to us all,” said a spokesperson for Jávea Oceanographic Research Institute (IROX).
NEWS
www.globelink.co.uk 96 626 5000 +44 (0) 1353 699082
+34 653 42 80 74
April 25th - May 8th 2019
Gong for Candy!
two years ago from the British Ambassador to Spain. Though she is a professional interpreter, Candida often represents victims of violence in Spanish courts for free, sexual as well as offering financial support through her charity. “One of the hardest things is when someone comes to the desk saying ‘my husband died and I don’t know what to do’,” lained Candy, who lives in Ondara expwith her Spanish husband. Her two children, 35 and 25, live in Madrid and Valencia respectively. While she helps with hospital procedures, burials and repatriation, she’s often called upon to just be a ‘helping hand’ to someone in need. “You’re sometimes dealing with people who are cancer patients, or need amputations, and it just gives you a wonderful feeling to think ‘I really helped them today’.” MEETING QUEEN: Candida
CATCH THESE CONMEN
Swallow the bait
booked a villa in Marbella a surprise getaway for four friends and five 18-year-old artists have scammed a daughters as a post-A Levels CON pensioner out of €300 British present. pretending to help him reSarah Adam, based in Lon- after money left at a cashpoint don, told us she is convinced cover last Saturday. Javea THE owners of ainbike she has also been scammed. are 77, was approaStokes, Brianshop not res-for witnesses The company has appealing a British families scammed out of ‘20-something’ two byof- in theft of €40,000 for ched of stock ponded to email requests the Sa- from thousands just one minute! Spanish men outside comment. EXCLUSIVE la Nau The theft at Xabia’s Cabo deholiday bank Bikes badell in onfake Coombes By Joshua Parfitt Meanwhile, DarrenMoraira saw ninePla bikes stolen he had left €20 in claiming Dream at 4am last Wednesday mor- A from Alicante-based thenwho thieves BRITISH family the cashpoint. The booked villa, in Moraira, before transning. Press Villa Spain told the Olive a week’swithdraw holiday on the Costa ferring the deposit. they couldn’t One of the in cashing bikes, claimed a Trek LR10, the fraudsters are was Blancaand were asked shocked to see She has now confirmed worth €13,000. cash themselves drawing that their villahis on his credibility and advertised card, as avai- her “Two thieves in andtoin re-insert Stokes pro- broke lable on a completely different overfamily have been scammed users from his legitimate just a minute and a half they the holiday due for June. which stole stole. website. nine bikes,” Martin “We were this close to leaving perty business website. Stadlhofer,
Wheely fast!
40, co-owner of Xabia’s Bikes, told the Olive Press. “I’m not sure they knew what they were doing as they knocked over a bike worth €12,000 and didn’t take it—which is great for us.”
Susan Bolton, 61, soon realised she had lost the ₤1,300 deposit when Dream Villas Spain, based in Mallorca, shut off all contact. The mother-of-two from the West Midlands had spent weeks finding the perfect holiday
Animal horror
A BRITISH expat called in police after finding a group of dogs chained in an abandoned house without food. Roger Ballantine contacted the Guardia the dogs while out walking near Orba. Civil after finding Ballantine had decided to investigate ‘pungent smell’ coming from the ruin. when he noticed a Inside he found scenes worthy of kept on short chains surrounded a horror film with dogs by trash and their own excrement. “It was despicable,” Ballantine told clear that farmers have chained thesethe Olive Press. “It is four dogs.”
Mystery suicide MYSTERY surrounds the apparent suicide of an elderly British resident on the Costa Blanca. The 84-year-old expat threw herself from a bridge in Javea after being seen ‘pacing frantically’ by the railings. A neighbour, who asked not to be named, told the Olive Press he saw the woman ‘peering over the edge’ after squeezing between a fence and a steel support pillar at one end of the bridge. It was about an hour before police were alerted to a suicide attempt over the dry Gorgos riverbed while children played on a nearby football pitch. “She was holding a white paper bag and kept looking in the bag and then leaning over the edge,” the neighbour told the Olive Press. “I wanted to ask her what she was doing, but I worried she spoke only Spanish and assumed she was feeding stray cats.”
Quickly
Just after 7pm last Tuesday another Spanish eyewitness revealed she had seen the woman jump from the eastern of two bridges on
the Avenida de Augusta. for our holiday that never existed,” Bolton told the Olive SCAM: Brit family caught by “I was walking to Mercadofake villa website Press. na when I saw her take off He told the Olive Press they tations’. “I knew we had been conned had chosen her shoes, climb the railing, when I contacted them regar- different the villa out of 780 The scam comes almost two and no more,” the homes for rent on the years since woman ding an airport pick up and got site. the Olive Press told the Olive Press. “It all exclusively no response. It made me beco- They only realised they had fake holidayexposed a string of happened so quickly.” me suspicious.” websites duping Three police been scammed cars and an She added the company is now port pick-up when an air- tourists coming to Spain. ambulance raced to the scenever arrived, In a series of not responding to any calls or and he investigations ne to retrieve caught a taxi to the the body. emails. property to find the bewilde- we found dozens of tourists Police confirmed the had been scammed millions of cause Meanwhile, celebrity chocola- red German. euros from the various sites, of death as suicide, while a te taster Angus Kennedy lost “What ₤5,000 when his family dis- case is I was different in our which illegally uploaded villa spokesperson for the Town was determined to get photos from Hall said the lady was Briticovered a German man living to the house, legitimate sites. and then contac- Among sh and had lived in a block at the Mallorcan villa they had ted the press” Angus told the British those scammed were of flats next booked through Dream Villas Olive Press. Rugby Union star to the river ‘for Spain. “I think many more have been Dean Schofield, who lost many years’. €50,000 on a fake villa in Ma- Neither police or the town Kennedy, from Kent, revealed duped and the scam could be llorca. that when the family arrived worth millions.” hall would reveal her name, Spain Dream this month, the owner, who The website suggesting it was proving he used to book rate as DigitalVillas, who opegave his name as Klaus, was the trip, Dreams problematic SL, deto contact her completely baffled and knew com, claimsdreamvillasspain. clined to comment. next of kin in the UK. its goal is to ‘crea- JWe were unable nothing about the rental or te your to contact None of the residents in the dream holiday expewebsite. rience and exceed your expec- anyone at Dream Villas Spain area by the bridge knew the as we went to press. octogenarian.
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take The Olive Press helps victims action following skyrocketing reports of holiday rental scam
+34 695 55 45 44
AT LAST: Scammers Dreamvillasspain.com nailed after Olive Press campaign (inset left), while (right) victim Angus and family his €5,500 and urgently needed a the Costa Blanca, booked for this place to stay with his wife and five October. young children. The mum-of-two from Kent was all “I think many more have been set to travel with 18 extended famduped and the scam could be worth ily members for a ‘much-needed millions,” Angus told this paper at break’ following the death of her the time. mother to lung cancer. With mounting cases, this paper “My nephews and nieces were realmade a collective denuncia at the ly looking forward to it as they have Guardia Civil in Moraira on behalf never been abroad,” Deleslie told of UK-based the Olive Press. “I spent two years saving up for this victims. Soon after, the trip, and I just can’t afford to pay Olive Press for a new villa. The kids are devaswas fielding tated.” calls concern- Deleslie added the cumulative loss ing bogus rent- of flights would cost her family als from Tener- €12,000 in total. ife, to Marbella Then there was Sarah Adams, who and Moraira. booked a surprise getaway to MalOne of the aga for four friends and their jointmost heart- five daughters as a post-A Levels breaking was present. from Petra De- Both Deleslie and Adams felt their leslie, 42, and stomachs lurch as they read of the collapse scam tactics of dreamvillasspain. The British expats who are pro- the of her €6,000 com in the Olive Press. m o n t h - l o n g The way the scam operated was that Brexit and proud SEE PAGE 7 villa rental on prospective renters would receive
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an email from ‘general manager’ Rosella Alba Gutierrez offering discounts for up-front payments on respective villas. But once paid, Gutierrez would shut off all contact, as it turned out the company’s phone was a fake. For months nothing was heard until a major UK news network got in touch saying the website had been shut down. The Olive Press can also reveal a second site - named and shamed in a separate article - is also no longer live. Travelvacationtour.com operated with exactly the same layout and houses as dreamvillasspain.com, and scammed Brit Donna Archer out of €5,500 for a Tenerife villa booked as a post GCSE gift to her son and his best mate in May. It is not yet clear if legal action has been taken against the companies, as both are listed as ‘active’ on Spanish Companies House. Guardia Civil could not comment before we went to press.
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