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Vol. 8 Issue 179
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January 22 - February 5 2014
EXCLUSIVE
Bouncing back after the tsunami
Interview with Marbella property tsar Kristina Zsekely
The Property Queen fights back - Page 19
The final Countdown THE countdown to the ‘Big Switch Off’ has finally begun. The clock is now ticking on free-to-air British television in southern Spain after a much-publicised satellite finally started moving into place. Rumours emerged a couple of days ago that it was heading west towards its destination, and have since been confirmed by those in the know. At its current velocity the satellite would arrive at its destination by the end of month. The switch off could happen any time after that.
Woe
The satellite has been a hot topic of conversation around Andalucia since news of its launch broke last year. It has been the most commented post on the Olive Press website after it emerged that the BBC, and possibly ITV, will transmit via the new satellite. Expats have taken to the Olive Press site in their droves searching for a solution to their forthcoming woe. Most are keen to establish
Turn to page 3
HORROR: Terrible scenes at official animal centre
PITIFUL
A SPONTANEOUS protest formed outside an animal shelter this weekend after horrific scenes of cruelty were broadcast by activists in Andalucia. A petition has now been set up to demand action against those responsible for leaving hundreds of dogs in pitiful conditions at the official ‘perrera’ shelter in Mairena del Aljarafe, near Sevilla. During a short YouTube video some animals are seen close to death, next to the dead bodies of other dogs. Meanwhile faeces is strewn across the floor and scant food is scattered alongside it. The pens, each containing dozens of dogs, had clearly not been cleaned for days, if not weeks.
Massive outcry after horrific scenes of animal cruelty filmed at the ‘Auschwitz for animals’ EXCLUSIVE By Jon Clarke
SAVED: A lucky Galgo Some of the animals had open wounds, while there were signs of malnutrition and serious illness. Dozens of angry protesters gathered outside the Protectora de Animales - described by activists as ‘the Spanish Auschwitz for animals’ - on Saturday afternoon demanding action. Later that night activists
broke into the shelter, which is funded by an estimated 11 nearby towns, and set around 200 dogs free. The centre, which has been denounced on ‘numerous’ occasions by local animal rights groups, is run by a businessman - and reportedly a vet Pedro Luis Fernández Castillo, who has a private kennels next door. According to sources, the President is paid an estimated €100,000 or more each year by the different town halls for his ‘animal sanctuary’. In 2012, Bormujos and Mairena actually withdrew their arrangement with the pound, after a string of denuncias against it for mistreatment. However the president sued
them for defamation, as he did with a former member of staff who filmed alleged mistreatment last year. Last night, a website eldiario. es reported that he was well connected with links to both the police, politicians and Sevilla’s ruling classes. He is also said to have close links with Sevilla’s bullring. Last night, however he agreed to allow local charities and activists to find homes for the hundreds of dogs in the shelter. It is said to receive up to 250 dogs a month, many of them hunting dogs, with the numbers increasing as the recession has deepened. One Olive Press reader Rena
Turn to page 2
EXCLUSIVE The life and times of a perennial fraudster
Investigation into the wicked ways of Nigel Goldman
All that glitters is not Goldman - Page 6
EXCLUSIVE
A tribute to my mate Michael Jacobs By his best friend Chris Stewart
My dear friend Michael - Page 16
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CRIME NEWS
the olive press - January 22 -February 5 2014
www.theolivepress.es
Expats shocked by arrest of ‘saltof-the-earth Trev’
THE DRAMATIC arrest of a British expat at gunpoint has sent shock waves around Sabanillas, the tight-knit community in which the alleged drug dealer lives. Trevor Moore, 45, was bundled to the floor by police in broad daylight after he was stopped driving through the town last week. His arrest follows a stakeout at his house, near Casares, which lasted a number of days, during which officers were unable to launch a raid because of the mountainous surrounds. Moore is wanted in Belgium on charges of drug smuggling and money laundering for the Hell’s Angels. He is expected to be extradited this week. Residents however spoke of their shock at the arrest of ‘salt of the Earth Trev’. One said: “I couldn’t believe it when I heard he’d been arrested, he was a really nice chap and he just got on with everyone. “He’d have a laugh in the bar, always stop for a chat in the street. “He’s the last person in the world you’d expect to be involved in a dodgy gang.”
EXCLUSIVE By Claire Wilson
Another said: “It’s all anyone has been talking about, we’re all so surprised. Nobody really knew what he did, but it’s not the kind of thing that you tend to ask about round here. “He did a good job of keeping his past a secret, that’s for sure! He was such a nice guy.”
Character
Moore, originally from Solihull, is said to have been living in Sabanillas for at least five years, although the nature of his business there was not clear. Since his arrival he has settled into local life, and became a well-known character within the community. His girlfriend of a couple of years, Hazel Rolf, has not been seen since his arrest, and has even taken down her Facebook profile. Rolf, 42, ran the popular La Barca bar for a
More victims appeal to the Olive Press to help track down Peter Ian Greenberg, after more cars go missing
ALIASES: Greenberg, aka ‘Green’ and ‘Berg’ is currently being sought
MORE victims of a dodgy car transporter exposed by the Olive Press have come forward. Two Britons are desperate to track down Peter Ian Greenberg after he lost five vehicles being transported on the same consignment. Greenberg - who lives in a rented home in Nueva Andalucia and uses two aliases ‘Peter Green’ and ‘Ian Berg’ - refused to comment on the case. However, this is despite Essex-based Sarah Coleman paid ‘Green’ €660 to transport her UK-plated Toyo-
ONE OF THE COMMUNITY: But few friends knew what Moore (centre) did couple of years, but sold it on about two years ago. The pair have no children, and were not living together. Following his arrest, he was taken to a top security prison near Madrid after appearing at a closed door hearing at the National Criminal Court, which handles all extradition cases. He has been held on a European arrest warrant issued by a court in Belgium.
The document alleges he was involved in smuggling several large consignments of cocaine from Ecuador to Belgium for the Hell’s Angels gang. Moore is also accused of money laundering and being a member of an organised armed gang. Spanish police launched an investigation into his whereabouts in June last year after they were informed he could be living in the country.
New hunt for car trickster By Claire Wilson
ta Granvia back from Spain four months ago, but has since been told the vehicle has gone missing. “Green has washed his hands of it. He refuses to reimburse me as he said he is merely an agent and it is the driver’s responsibility to ensure the car is repatriated.” Coleman told the Olive Press. “I’ve had no luck with the driver, a Dutch man named Karel Wiggins, as he’s gone awol. The only means of
contacting him is via his Facebook page, which says he is now living in Ibiza! I’ve had no response from him.” The only lead she has had came from a friend who believes she has seen her Toyota driving around Benidorm, where she used to live. “My friend said she had seen my car, or at least one very similar, driving around town. It’s a very distinctive car, it was a Japanese import, and there are not many of them about, certainly not in Spain!,” she said.
Coleman has reported the car stolen to police and the DVLA in the UK, but other than that her hands are tied.
Disasters
“The UK police can do nothing about it as the crime took place in Spain,” she said. “The Spanish police say they are looking into it, but don’t appear to be doing anything. “I can’t even denounce him as I’m not in Spain, I’m loathe to travel over and incur all the expense just for that.” Another victim, Brian Jackson, claims his vehicle, a 2006 Renault Megane, has also gone missing, and after months of trying to resolve the From page 1 issue with Greenberg, the conman stopped taking his calls. Rena Dunne said she had Greenberg was first exposed by adopted her dog, a Slainte, the Olive Press in December from the centre seven after a reader told of a costly years ago. six month wait for his vehicle. “Back then it was clean with Chris Mullender, from Presall the animals being in ton, used Green’s company good condition,” she said. Eurocar Transporters last “I’m appalled at the deteMarch, expecting the job to rioration since, has this to take just five days. do with the crisis? But after a series of disasters, “Can a team of volunteers including the arrest of the not be found to at least keep transportation truck driver, the place clean so that furand the loss of both his car ther infection is stopped?” and its key, he didn’t see his Another expat Michelle car again for six months. Rolfe, an English teacher, According to a neighbour, added: “These animals are Greenburg has a ‘long history’ living in horrendous and of dodgy dealings, and prior atrocious conditions and to getting into the transporsociety has to be made tation business, he worked in aware of it. Something must timeshare. be done to prosecute CasHe said: “I’ve known of him tillo and make him pay for for about 10 years, and I this.” wouldn’t trust him as far as I Activists have asked for could throw him. donations from the public “I’ve heard of a number of and anyone who can offer people who have been reunithomes to come forward. ed with their vehicles, but the Further protests are becars have been damaged, or ing planned for the centre, scratched, or something has as well as other ‘perreras’ been stolen from the inside.” including one in Olivenza, He added that Green, who has near Badajoz. another company Car Transportation, was having problems Sign the petition here:” paying the rent on his home in http://www.stopmairena. Las Brisas and is facing eviction. pacma.es/“ It will not come as good news to any of his victims.
PITIFUL
www.theolivepress.es
NEWS
Maximum exposure American photographer persuades a few of his famous subjects to play a concert to launch his exhibition LOOKING to get maximum exposure for the launch of his photo exhibition in Malaga, Richard Kern knew exactly what to do. The American photographer enrolled a few of the subjects of his pictures and dragged them down for an impromptu concert. While Nick Nolte, Nick Cave and Marilyn Manson were unable to make it, he managed to persuade Sonic Youth frontman Thurston Moore, New York punk Lydia Lunch and former member of Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds Weasel Walter to play the one-off show.
Moore, who now lectures in poetry at Colorado University, flew in from New York, while Lydia Lunch came down from Barcelona, where she now lives. The one-hour show ‘Breaking Open the Head’ comprised an hour of mostly noise, screaming from Lunch, and poetry from Moore. “I am mostly here to bring a bit of noise,” Moore told the Olive Press. “It is great to be back here on the Costa del Sol. “The last time I was here was over a decade ago and we headed off to Morocco for a few days after performing. It was
CANDID CAMERA: Subjects include Marilyn Manson (top) Nick Cave and a string of nudes for which Kern is famous
SNAPPER: Kern and (right) Moore with fans a breeze.” Kern himself was overwhelmed with the huge turnout for his first Spanish exhibition ‘Famosas y Desnudas’, at La Termica, with the venue also celebrating its first anniversary. “It is great to see so many people here,” said the New Yorker, who regular takes photos for GQ and Playboy magazines. “It’s quite a surprise.” The photographer, who has also made a number of films and had 11 books published, has taken the cover photograph for a number of albums, including Sonic Youth and Marilyn Manson. “Everything started with the film Blow Up, set in London. The first time I saw gay people, someone smoking a joint and some edgy photographic content,” he said. The show runs until April 11.
HOLLYWOOD COMES The Oscars TO VALENCIA and I TWO of Hollywood’s biggest stars were spotted filming in Valencia this week. Hugh Laurie and George Clooney are shooting scenes for Tomorrowland, the next
STARS: Clooney & Laurie
science fiction adventure from Disney. Clooney plays a grizzled inventor called Frank Walker, is already being touted as one of the big releases for 2015 and features Hugh Laurie as a baddie called David Nixe. The big budget blockbuster shares its name with the futuristic themed lands found at Disney’s theme parks. Clooney was rumoured to have bought a house in the Marbella area last summer, although it has never been confirmed.
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the olive press - January 22 - February 5 2014
ONLY one Spanish film is up for an Oscar this year. Madrid-born director Esteban Crespo has been nominated in the Best Live Action Short category for his film Aquel no era yo (That Wasn’t Me). The 25-minute drama about child soldiers in Africa was inspired by an article he OSCAR HOPE: Crespo (right) read in national newspaper and scene from the film El Pais. The film was shot for just Best Fictional Short Film. €40,000 euros and received The Oscars will take place last year’s Goya Award for on March 2.
PALS: Cruz with director Almodovar
Penny in directors debut
PENELOPE Cruz will codirect and produce a film Ma ma by one of Spain’s most prominent auteurs, LAbased director Julio Medem. An ‘intimate woman’s drama, laced with moments of comedy’, Ma ma revolves around Magda, a woman battling inner turmoil. The movie will be shot in Spain this spring starring Cruz, alongside Luis Tosar, and Asier Exteandia.
New Astra 2E satellite ‘likely to reach its destination in a few days’ From page 1
how they can carry on watching the at-risk channels following the satellite switch off, which could happen at any time from once it is in place. “The countdown has definitely begun,” explained Mike Crompton of IPTV company Mediastreamz. “It is going to be just a matter of weeks now before most people’s TV screens start looking pretty sad.
Solution
“I hope they have some solution in place.” The satellite is being introduced to substitute the old Astra 2D satellite that rapid declined in performance after a few years in use. The BBC has already made an announcement that it will be using the more powerful UK spot beams which means British viewers in Spain are likely to lose the signal.
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the olive press - January 22 -February 5 2014
NEWS
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High time! architects Isabel Perez and Pepe Bernal and Ana Lescheria of the PSOE, as well as Maica Machuca, who organised the social media campaign. The campaign saw more than 2,000 people sign a petition against the six 50-story skyscrapers.
Carola Herrero, president of the commercial association of Marbella’s old town, thanked the guests for their support and in particular the media for their help. “The overwhelming support of all the political parties, as well as the ordinary people in Marbella, has shown that they want Marbella to keep its unique character,” she said.
Almoraima battle
OPPONENTS of the controversial scheme to sell La Almoraima estate to developers were hopeful of victory this week. Campaigners against the ‘elite tourism’ macroproject were hopeful that a plan to re-zone the entire estate within the Alcornocales Natural Park would stave off its sale. The move by the Junta will put the entire 14,000 hectare estate, a paradise of oaks, ancient pines and wild olives, within the park boundaries, dramatically restricting its development. The rules would almost certainly prohibit the building of a five-star hotel, golf courses, polo
Junta takes on the government over the massive €300 million euro ‘elite tourism’ plan By Giles Brown
fields and a private airport, all of which are in initial plans for the estate. The plan came just as the PP government in Madrid announced that it had put out the project to tender for an estimated €300 million. The news has been warmly greeted by both the Town Hall of Castellar de la Frontera, which wants to see sustainable investment at La Almoraima, as well as environmentalists, outdoor enthusiasts and ordinary people who were incensed by Madrid’s decision. Among those opposed to the scheme, which the Olive Press first reported on in November, IMA were bestselling authors Guy Hunter Watts, LA ALMORA Geoff Garvey and Chris Stewart who accused the olive press the government of ‘selling off the silver one more time’. Last night expat Hunter Watts added: “This should make it unlikely that investors will risk investing in this development.” La Almoraima makes up some 10% of Los Alcornocales Park, but some of the estate was outside the park’s boundaries. The Ministry of the Environment has responded that it still intends A MARBELLA company based in Puerto Banus is keen not to be to go ahead with the sale and has mistakenly associated with the paintball battle report (OP Issue criticised the Junta for its actions. 178). Environment Minister “Marbella paintball.com, located in Puerto Banus has never exMiguel Arias Canete has acperienced any accidents as safety standards are a priority,” incused the Junta of ‘sabotagsisted a spokesman. ing a great urban plan that “Established for the last two years, Marbella paintball.com, lowould be great for a deprived cated next to Puerto Banus , is the only permanent legally existarea of Spain’. ing paintball facility in Marbella.” Madrid may well decide to In the Paintball battle article the OP revealed how a British man challenge the expansion of in had an accident while paintballing, the courts. Jason Bowers claims that since the incident at Paintball MarbelA big demonstration against la site, which is in fact located in the Monda area, not the one in the sell off has been anPuerto Banus, the company has ceased trading, with a new businounced for January 26 in ness opening under different ownership at the same premises. Castellar de la Frontera. The Olive Press is happy to confirm that Paintball Marbellla loA petition against the decated in Monda,should not be confused with Marbella paintball. velopment can be signed at com, located in Puerto Banus, a separate company with no conwww.change.org nection to the case.
SAVE
Safe and in Puerto Banus
5
News IN BRIEF
In a spin
Scrapped: Skyscraper scheme
CONVICTED sex offender Mike Souter is to appeal against his conviction. The 60-year-old, who worked as a travel journalist in the Costa del Sol, was sentenced to 22 years in prison in October last year. In a ‘catalogue of abuse of the grossest kind’, he was found guilty of 19 counts of historic child sex abuse against seven different boys aged between 11 and 16, between 1979 and 1999. Souter - who denied all counts - was also convicted of a further seven counts relating to the making and pos-
Child abuser to appeal session of indecent images. Judge Mark Lucraft, who sentenced Souter, branded some of his evidence as ‘bizarre’ and his attempts to blame his victims, the police and the judge himself of conspiring against him as ‘pathetic’.
Oor Robbie would be cockaleekie! TAMISA golf hotel is throwing a Burns Night spectacular, with traditional fare and entertainment. Guests will be treated to welcome drinks and canapes, followed by a four-course meal, including cockaleekie soup, haggis and neeps and Angus steak. Tickets are just €39 a head, and all wine is included. For more info call 952 585 988.
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MARBELLA’S anti-skyscraper group has celebrated the decision of the town hall to scrap plans for their connstruction. Members of the group - ‘Plataforma Marbella Contra Las Rascacielos’ - held a celebratory meeting in the town’s Hotel San Cristobal. Guests included tourism expert Pablo Hohenlohe, and former head of La Consula Rafael de la Fuente,
the olive press - January 22 - February 5 2014
SPAIN leads the eurozone with 132 bike share programmes. Italy has 104, Germany 43 and France 37. London´s Barclays Bike hire scheme is one of the most well known.
Life sentence A MAN was sentenced to life in prison by a Mumbai court after being found guilty of raping a Spanish woman at knife point in her apartment in Mumbai’s Bandra a year ago.
Caught out A PENSIONER facing child rape charges who fled Britain using his elderly brother’s passport has been arrested in the Canary Islands.
Drug driver
BED AND BARD: Burns guests can stay overnight
A DRIVER stopped by Mijas police was apparently so drugged that he passed out in the officer’s arms. He admitted he had smoked two joints and then collapsed.
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FEATURE
the olive press - January 22 -February 5 2014
www.theolivepress.es
the Olive Press INVESTIGATES
OPINION A gentle giant has gone IT is a very sad month for Andalucia. One of its greatest writers has passed away at the premature age of 62. the Michael Jacobs wrote the definitive tome on the region, but also carved out one of the true masterpieces on life in Spain. His moving, thought-provoking book Factory of Light will inspire FREE Hispanophiles for generations to come. ion: Abort the to k This timeless classic, based in a rural backwater of Jaen, Bdaacrk ages showed Andalucia in its very best, most animated form: A land of open-minded and eccentric people, a place of mystery and beauty. It is as wonderfully written as Jacobs was funny in real life. This gentle giant - who defended Andalucia’s green spaces and culture to the hilt - was as humble and depreciating as he was upbeat. It is little surprise that the town of Frailes declared two days of mourning over his passing. The Olive Press salutes him.
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WHISPER it quietly but there was a little ray of light last week for those who believe in government by the people for the people. Faced with an outpouring of outrage from a true cross section of Marbella, mayor Angeles Munoz backed down and cancelled the proposed construction of six 50-storey skyscrapers in the town. At a meeting to celebrate the victory - with the Olive Press the only English language newspaper invited to attend - campaign organisers commented that it had been a true demonstration that ordinary people can influence politics. It was a sentiment that rang true days later when a controversial scheme was stopped in Burgos after huge protests. Meanwhile the planned scheme for ‘Elite Tourism’ at La Almoraima estate has also been scuppered, after pressure from local people and environmental groups. It is easy to be cynical and say that in Spain it is all about corruption and croneyism, but these victories go to prove that sometimes, just sometimes, people power can win the day.
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A campaigning, community newspaper, the Olive Press represents the huge expatriate community in southern Spain - 200,000 copies distributed monthly (130,000 digitally) with an estimated readership, including the website, of more than 500,000 people a month. Luke Stewart Media S.L - CIF: B91664029 Urb Casares del Sol, bloque 21, portal 70, bajo b, Casares 29690, Malaga Printed by Corporación de Medios de Andalucía S.A. Editor: Jon Clarke jon@theolivepress.es Reporters: Newsdesk Newsdesk@theolivepress.es Claire Wilson Claire@theolivepress.es Giles Brown Giles@ theolivepress.es
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The only good thing to come out of the Mairena dog shelter scandal is the spirit of the Spaniards insistent that its owner will not get away with it. As Ghandi said: “The greatness of a nation can be judged by the way its animals are treated”. So it is reassuring to see that Spain is becoming more aware of animal welfare issues than it was a decade ago. Animal rights and animal cruelty can be contentious topics, but none of use have the right to treat them badly. How the dogs ended up in the shelter, and how conditions degenerated to that level still remains a mystery, but we can only hope the supposed safeguarder of the animals is brought to justice. Locking him in a cell full of human waste and corpses seems like an appropriate punishment.
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He was one of Andalucia’s best known expats, a loveable rogue who was said to have mended his ways. But recent ventures have put paid to that, with clients of Nigel Goldman demanding to know where their money has gone. The Olive Press reveals how he went from boarding school rower to one of Europe’s leading fraudsters and how it has happened for a FIFTH time
T was characteristic of the larger-than-life fraudster Nigel Goldman that when the Olive Press recently reported how he was being sought in a three million euro financial scandal, that he ‘liked’ it on his Facebook page. The perennial joker, who regaled the coast with stories and jokes at fundraising galas, on radio shows and in his regular restaurant column in the Euro Weekly News, could never quite face up to the truth. Somehow he liked to believe that he was one of the chosen few, a friend to the stars, including Joan Collins, Anthony Worrall Thomson and James Hewitt. And that he was something of a celebrity himself. Driving a top-of-the-range Mercedes and living in a palatial home in Elviria, near Marbella, ‘Sir’ Nigel, as he insisted on being called, liked to give the impression of being a staunch pillar of the community. The truth however is rather different: For Goldman is a fraudster, who simply cannot help himself. Over nearly three decades the portly businessman has made and good friend Barry Nathan. lost millions of his – and more crucially – other people’s money… It was with Nathan that he also became best known as the coast’s and then made light of it. leading bon viveur. Accompanied by Nathan, Nigel indulged his Indeed, in his bestselling autobiography High Stakes, he wrote of taste for fine dining, styling himself as a Marbella Michael Winner the loss of 14 million euros: “It was my clients’ money. But I wasn’t for his regular column in the Euro Weekly News, a paper he tipped going to let that small detail worry me. I was out to enjoy myself”. as the coast’s ‘key’ business. The book, published in 2004, tells the story of his rollercoaster Described as the ‘gourmet dining correspondent’ he would review ride in which he conned hundreds of victims over 10 years and any restaurant that advertised and when not at work, would spend landed up in prison twice. his time hanging out in James Hewitt’s seminal restaurant Polo More crucially it ends in Spain a decade ago, having fled the UK House, boasting how the ex of Princess Diana was a ‘close chum’ over a third scandal in which the ‘shit hit the fan’ of his. and he ‘fuc**d the bank’ again. It certainly worked with the ladies. Rarely without So, one might well ask why anyone would consider a glass of champagne in his hand and a floozy on “It was my clients’ putting their money in the hands of such a shady his arm (his Facebook page is literally littered with money. But I wasn’t advisor? photographs of a string of louche looking women) A basic search of the internet throws up some eye- going to let that small he was seen as the archetypal playboy. catching information on Goldman, who was born detail worry me. I was And he wasn’t scared to travel to see ‘his girlwith a silver spoon in his mouth and attended a friends’, dating a Scottish food blogger Annie out to enjoy myself” 30,000-euros-a-year school, known as the ‘Jewish Manson, better known as Annie B, from Vejer de la Eton’ Carmel College. Frontera, as well as more recently the glamorous There are the eight entries on the Rip Off Report Suzanne Couling, from Berkshire. website alone, not to mention countless other pages, including Somewhere in the ether, he had mysteriously ‘acquired’ a knightone for another book by him on gambling scams. hood and insisted that the prefix ‘Sir’ went before his name. He But the Costa del Sol is a long way away from Britain and, as many boasted how it got him upgraded on flights and he even had it people say, people often ‘leave their brains at the airport’ when etched on his credit cards and his bank statements. they arrive here. After winning a trading competition on Talk Radio Europe’s previBut the sad truth is he was built up by a succession of radio shows ous guise REM, in which he turned 100,000 euros into 2.7million, and his regular newspaper columns, that also included his ‘Guru’ he pretty much had it made. The die had been cast. articles in the magazine Smart Gambler plus a regular appear- In the words of one leading media owner, Goldman had ‘been ance in Talk Radio Europe’s Viewpoint programme along with his given a second chance, and somehow we all fell for it’. He started by offering his services as a financial advisor and trader, via a string of companies including Petersham coins and CLOSE PALS: Goldman and stamps, Harvard Private Client and, most recently, International Barrie Nathan Financial Investments (whose acronym ironically spells ‘IFI’). Promising guaranteed returns of over 10% on investments, he backed it up by insisting he had millions invested in the gold and coin market, as well as numerous property schemes in Spain and Morocco. Unsuspecting clients were quickly bowled over and sent money to a string of accounts in Spain, Germany, the UK, the Isle of Man and even Tangiers, and were assured by the smooth-talking Goldman that they were investing wisely. As had been his modus operandi in the UK, he snared his clients via costly advertising and trade shows, where, as he wrote in his book, you found investors with ‘defenselessness, greed and gullibility’. His main thrust for business in Spain appears to have been via his
FEATURE
www.theolivepress.es
the olive press - January 22 - February 5 2014
7
From ‘Jewish Eton’ to fraud on a massive scale
T
HE son of a respected London dentist, Nigel Goldman attended Carmel College, known as ‘The Jewish Eton’, alongside BHS boss Sir Philip Green. But apart from rowing, he spent more time learning about coins than studying. By his early 20s he was living in a luxury hotel suite and driving a metallic green Porsche thanks in part to making £10,000 at roulette. “I’m making a good living. I’m dressing well. I’m drinking well. I’m screwing well” he wrote in his book High Stakes. However, his high flying lifestyle attracted the attention of the authorities and in 1980 he
PALS: Goldman liked to schmooze at events with friends Michelle Euesden from Euro Weekly News, Nick Holland Morgan and (right) with James Hewitt at Polo House. (Left) his mock up of how he portrayed himself and girlfriend Suzanne
was fined £60,000 for VAT fraud. Goldman then formed Leander Commodities to deal in precious metals. But the market crashed, and faced with angry creditors he cleared the office safe of cash, valuable coins and even a few gold bars and fled to LA. He reinvented himself in the US as an English gentleman and managed to secure an investment of $2million from a Henry Bloomberg, who was subsequently arrested for a bond scam. On seeing Bloomberg in handcuffs being detained by FBI agents, Goldman quickly fled home. The 80s were good to Goldman. He drove a bright red Lamborghini but was being constantly monitored by HM Customs and Excise as part of Operation Grandslam, one of the largest operations ever mounted, and was arrested in 1986 and sentenced to 12 months. On getting out he set up Rare Coin Investments (RCI) and despite starting off with good intentions, he soon reverted to his old ways, employing high pressure salesmen in a classic boiler room-style operation. By 1992 RCI was raking in thousands each week, with most of the money going to fund his team’s lifestyles. The trail came to an end at Snaresbrook Crown Court in 1996 where the court heard how he ‘systematically
radio show on Spectrum FM giving financial advice, market news that Goldman had been planning his departure from Spain for and share tips in a five minute slot each day, plus an extended 30 some months and knew the ‘gravy train was coming to an end’. minute show on Friday. The writer, who invested 20,000 euros with Goldman, smelt a rat He would then meet clients at a number of upmarket hotels and came down to Marbella last summer to confront him. around the region to ‘help them’ invest their money. But, while he wanted to know what had happened with his money One couple based in Mojacar, in Almeria, told the Olive Press this Goldman was more interested in ‘loading’ his investment and getweek how they met him with his girlfriend Suzanne at the five star ting more from the former chef, from Cornwall. Parador after his regular show, which was recorded in the nearby “He said he was going away in mid October and that he would be Spectrum FM studio. rid of me then. I didn’t really know what he meant. I do now,” said Immediately offered a ‘glass of something’ they were schmoozed Whitton, who has cooked at Kensington Palace. in the classic way of a fraudster and promised an amazing ‘miniCuriously when the Olive Press had probed Goldman on the submum’ monthly return of 11% on their investment. ject in November, he had insisted via email that Whitton was ‘un“We met him a few times before investing and really thought he reliable’ and had been making up claims of sex abuse about him. was kosher,” explained the retired purchasing manager, 63, from “He has made false allegations against me of being involved in Accrington, who has asked to remain anonymous for legal reasons. a child abuse ring in Morocco,” he said. “I believe he is of the “He was sold as this seriously knowledgeable moneyman on opinion that I have ‘done a runner’ with his funds. This is plainly Spectrum FM and he would roll up in his black Mercedes and untrue, and I would urge you to be very careful of this individual.” always had a nice room at the hotel.” Another client, a publisher based in America, beHe continues: “He would brag about his money lieves that the wheels started to come off when and last time we saw him boasted about having re“He has grown a Goldman started to invest his clients’ money into cently bought 12 beachfront apartments in Tangia Ponzi scheme run by a now disgraced firm MMS. moustache and lost er. He said he was hoping to make loads of money First investing with him in 2008, the businessman five kilos. When he from them. I think he was planning to move there.” has stayed in close contact with Goldman, and by realised he had been The end result of a couple of meetings and a meal his own admittance has made a ‘healthy profit’ recognised, he fled” out with the victims was a number of transfers befrom him. tween 2011 and 2013 that amounted to 146,000 He said: “Goldman introduced me to a company pounds. called MMS (Montague Morgan Slade) which I In return they received a ‘guaranteed income bond’, which paid know handled large sums of his clients’ funds. back 11% a month and always did, with often a bit more, until “I would suspect this is where the problem lies, as this firm relast year. ceived a lot of bad publicity recently for running a Ponzi scheme, “We invested into a range of his products, including his ‘Fantasy and one of the directors ended up in prison. I believe a lot of GoldPortfolio’, which is precious metals, I think, and more recently IFI,” man’s clients funds ended up in this scheme.” added the expat, who has now reported his dealings to the police. He added: “I made a healthy profit from his trading and I am scared Things seemed to be fine until in October their monthly payment that I may be asked to repay my profits to make good the losses did not arrive. suffered by others, as is what happened in the Madoff case.” “When we contacted him he said something about an embargo over Lawyer Antonio Flores from Lawbird, in Marbella, who is representa tax bill from 2008 and all his assets had been frozen. We have ing a number of the victims, fears that the scandal has all the heard nothing since and are very worried about our investment.” hallmarks of a Ponzi-type scheme and so far all that is known is Another victim Geoffrey Whitton, 48, based in Madrid, believes the ‘tip of the iceberg’.
and deliberately defrauded investors of massive sums of money. In some cases their entire life savings.’ “Meanwhile he had an expensive apartment, a Ferrari, first class trips abroad, handmade clothes and racehorses,” summed up the judge. “This was a highly intelligent man who knew exactly what he was doing, an expert in his field, who was motivated entirely by greed.” The jury agreed and he got six years for deception. On release in 1999 where could he go? The Costa del Sol, of course.
GLAMOUR: With Suzanne and (top) his book High Stakes and (bottom) his Marbella home in Elviria
He said last night: “We believe the fraud is already well over three million euros. We have so far spoken to 10 victims and we know of another who gave him 850,000 euros alone. “He was very good and his schemes were not just reserved for the British expats. One German expat walked in here the other day having invested 50,000 with him.” So where is Nigel now? When the Olive Press visited his four bedroom Elviria home this week, he had clearly moved out. While the letterbox still bore his name, neighbours insisted that he has not been seen for months and he had ‘fled’ even leaving three of his cats. “The police were around one day asking questions and the next day he had literally gone,” revealed expat Jennifer Cook. “There was always a string of people coming in and out and Nigel gave the impression he was a fixer. He could sort anything out.” It seems he is currently dividing his time between the UK and Morocco, where he has invested millions in real estate deals. According to one Olive Press reader, who bumped into him in at hotel lobby in Fez, last week, he was ‘very unhappy’ to be recognised. “He has grown a moustache and lost five kilos” he said. “And when he realised that he had been recognised, he fled”. The case is being partly handled by the Guardia Civil in Mojacar and by the National Police in Marbella. While they are being tight-lipped about the case at present, lawyer Flores believes that an arrest warrant will be issued within weeks. “And then the heat will really be on,” he said. It seems that although everyone may well deserve a second chance, Goldman has more than blown his and, with the authorities now actively looking for him, his champagne lifestyle may once again be over.
8
GIBRALTAR NEWS
the olive press - January 22 -February 5 2014
www.theolivepress.es TEAM SPIRIT: That’s the lads of Gibraltar gaelic football team
Great in defence! Gaelic football tournament takes place on MOD land
THE ongoing political dispute between Gibraltar and Spain led to a Gaelic football tournament taking place in the most unlikely of venues - on a Ministry of Defence pitch! The local Gibraltar GAA club usually play their matches on pitches across the border in Spain. But because of the delays caused by the introduction of border checks, however, they decided to hold the tournament on ‘home’ soil provided by the MOD. The competition involved Sevilla, Gibraltar and Marbella, who play independently in an Andalucian league, but band together to field a team in the Iberian league.
ON the Rock
The Olive Press guide to What’s On in Gibraltar over the next two weeks 20073660 or Roy Tel: 20075995 January 22 – February 1 January 23 Pantomime, King Arthur. Trafalgar Theatre Group Ince’s Hall Theatre. 7.30 pm. Saturdays matinee 2.30 pm For further info contact email: measeed@hotmail.com
January 22 – February 4 Exhibition of work by local artists. Fine Arts Association First Floor Casemates Mon to Fri 11 am to 1 pm. 4 - 6 pm. Sat 11am -1pm
Jazz Night. O’Callaghan Eliott Hotel, 9 pm For further info, contact Tel: 20070500
January 26, February 2
Promenade Market. Ocean Village, 11am – 4pm For further info, Tel: 540023166
January 27
Gibraltar Scrabble Club. The Rock Hotel, 3pm For further info, contact Vin Tel:
January 27 - February 6
Gibraltar International Chess Festival. Caleta Hotel For further info: Gibraltar Sports & Leisure Authority or visit: www.gibraltarchesscongress.com
February 2
History Alive. Historical reenactment parade Main Street to Casemates Square, 12.00 noon
Chief Minister looks to the future
CHIEF Minister Fabian Picardo was one of the lead speakers at a recent business conference in the British Virgin Islands. Mr Picardo stressed the importance of bringing administrations into the 21st century in terms of both technology and attitude. He also revealed that he was about to launch a platform of e-government using information and communication technology. His aim will be to make public services more accessible, as well as information more available to citizens. which will intentionally make the Government more accountable. Picardo said he intends to introduce a new identity card that will allow for even greater e-government applications to be accessible to citizens.
AS part of its drive to modernise and improve patient care the Gibraltar Health Authority (GHA) recently opened a new Day Surgery Unit in St Bernard’s Hospital. Day surgery allows a patient to come in to hospital for an operation and return home the same day. The unit employs the most up-to-date surgical and anaesthetic techniques to ensure rapid recovery and minimal complications. In the UK around 70% of all surgery is carried out this way
Day surgery unit opens and the NHS is trying hard to improve this number to be more in line with practice in the USA and Canada where the figure is closer to 90% Importantly, the GHA will be able to greatly reduce the
NEW FACILITY: Day Surgery Unit
chance of operations being cancelled due to lack of beds ensuring people are not put through the inconvenience and distress this causes. To ensure the GHA offers the most up-to date practices and the best possible day surgery care to its patients, the old area has been completely redesigned and modernised with facilities for 15 purposebuilt day surgery beds for patients to be prepared and recover from their operation. Special seating areas with TV and reclining chairs will allow people to complete their recovery from anaesthesia safely and in comfort. Care will be provided throughout by a dedicated day surgery team.
GIBRALTAR NEWS
www.theolivepress.es
9 News IN BRIEF
Environmental training THE Department of the Environment is organising a two-day training course on sustainable construction. Experts from the Green Register will be visiting Gibraltar to deliver the course, which will be held at the Caleta Hotel.
NEW FLGHTS: Leaving from Gibraltar to Morocco from April 17
Marrakech Express
IT is one of the most exciting new airline developments this year. A brand new company Your Flight is to launch direct flights from Gibraltar to Morocco this Spring. The airline, set up by four local businessmen from the Rock, is offering the route up to twice a week from April 17 to Marrakech. Costing just £99 one way, the flights, operated by Royal Air
Maroc, will leave the Rock on Thursdays and Sundays. Best of all, there will be ‘no hidden extras’ with passengers able to take up to 23 kilos of luggage.
Winner
Your Flight also hopes to offer other destinations, including Fez, Agadir and Casablanca, in the future. A service to Tangier is
planned for late 2014. Director Paul Lopez told the Olive Press: “It has been in the planning stages for two years but now is definitely the right time to launch. “Until now you have to fly on Ryanair via Sevilla or go on a more expensive service from Malaga, via Casablanca or Madrid. “We are onto a winner here. We expect it to do very well.”
What lies beneath? A BANNED process to scrub ship hulls to increase speed is adding toxic cocktails to the waters off Gibraltar, threatening sensitive marine life. The procedure - which is banned in most European ports - involves the mechanical scrubbing of the hulls to remove fouling and increase the vessel’s speed. Research shows that more than a ton of toxic anti-fouling paint is removed during cleaning. This toxic material - including heavy metals and herbicides banned for use on land - is released into the water threatening marine life. ‘Fouling’, the growth of marine slime, weeds and barnacles on hulls, can increase fuel bills for ship-owners by as much as 20% - or as much as € 20,000 more per day.
Scrubbers
Cleaning should be confined to dry docks, where toxic waste can be carefully disposed of, but Gibraltar and Algeciras are among a very small number of European ports where it can be done in the water. An estimated four large ships are cleaned every day by diving companies operating out of the two ports. Scrubbing a large hull removes up to two tons of anti-fouling paint, of which about half is made up of toxic biocides. Anti-fouling paints usually contain more than 30% of copper compounds, and in some cases up to 10% of powerful herbicides such as Diuron. These compounds persist for long periods in the sediment of the bay.
Underwater cleaning of ship hulls may be adding tons of previously unsuspected toxic waste to the waters off Gibraltar EXCLUSIVE by Mark Garside Figures for the levels of Copper, Zinc and Diuron are supposed to be monitored under EU Directives, but figures for the bay area are not currently available. Marine ecologists are concerned about the effects of the pollutants. Besides copper and zinc, ‘boosters’ included in anti-fouling paint make it even more toxic. Marine ecologist Dr Simon Bray, said:: “Heavy metals such as copper and zinc from ship antifouling coatings can accumulate to toxic levels in fine sediment. “Research has shown that there can be long term “reservoirs” of such material which can be released through physical disturbance such as dredging. “Sensitive species and communities may be affected..”
Monkey matanza? DR John Cortes, the Minister for the Environment, has insisted that the Government will not resort to large-scale culling to tackle the persistent presence of Barbary Macaques in urban areas. The monkeys regularly come into town to loot bins and forage for food, prompting fears of attacks and wide concern in the community.
Solar stop THE Gibraltar Bus Company is trying out a system of solar powered lights in bus shelters at the Market Place terminal. Once the Government technical teams have reviewed the new lighting system, it is scheduled to be fitted on most bus shelters around Gibraltar.
the olive press - January 22 - February 5 2014
9
10
the olive press - January 22 -February 5 2014
AXARQUIA NEWS
www.theolivepress.es
We’re off the map!
News IN BRIEF
Landslide death A BRITISH man died when he was buried in a mudslide while renovating his retirement home near Torrox. Andrew McGaughey, 65, died after the ground gave way beneath him as he filled in a ditch at the property.
NERJA Town Hall has demanded that the Junta pulp a tourist guide for the province that surprisingly omits the town. The guide highlights the nearby towns of Torrox, Frigiliana, Velez-Malaga and Almuñécar which is in the next door province of Granada. It does mention the Nerja caves, but makes no mention of either Nerja and the famous Balcon de Europa. The publication is being handed out at the annual tourist fair Fitur in Madrid this week. Bernardo Pozuelo, Nerja’s Tourism Councillor has written to the Junta demanding that the brochures are withdrawn. He said “It not only harms Nerja but also the image of the guide as well.” Pozuelo, a member of the Partido Popular, also questioned if the omission of Nerja was due to the socialist Junta making a political point. He demanded that the guides be pulled off the stands at Fitur.
Brit jailed
LOST TOWN: Nerja is nowhere to be seen on guide given out at Fitur fair
A COURT in Motril has sentenced a British man in Almuñecar to seven months in prison for the possession of child pornography. Police recovered a portable computer and another cloned computer with five external hard discs, as well as CD’s, and cameras with images.
No fairway to treat nature
Charity dinner THE Association of Families of suffers of Alzheimer will be holding its sixth annual charity dinner on February 8. The dinner will take place in the El Cruce restaurant n Velez-Malaga.
Nature lovers still hope to bunker plans for a golf macroproject to be built near natural park
A NEW petition has been launched to fight a controversial golf development near Nerja. The huge La Coladilla ‘macroproject’ that includes 1000 luxury homes, a fivestar hotel and an 18-hole golf course has been given the go ahead after a decade
By Giles Brown of legal wrangling. But the massive €165 million scheme, built beside one of Spain’ most beautiful nature parks, has received considerable opposition from locals and green groups.
The scheme, promoted by George Soros and the Med Group, has finally been given the go ahead after Nerja Town Hall overturned a Junta ruling on appeal at Spain’s Supreme Court. The development - planned for north of the famous Nerja Caves, bordering the
Worried about losing BBC, ITV and Channel 4? BEATEN: Moya
Politician attacked
satellite TV audio video Tel: 951 310 437 CC Puerta de Banús, Local 3, Marbella 29660 www.tvonespain.com / info@tvonespain.com
beautiful Sierra de Tejeda, Almijara and Alhama natural park - was stopped in its tracks in 2006. The 1000 square-metre site was originally purchased for 15 million by multinational developers Medgroup in 2002.
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VIRGIN LAND: The Coladilla area to be developed
POLITICIANS of all parties have condemned the brutal attack of Salobrena PP spokesman, Juan de Dios Márquez Moya. Two masked men assaulted Moya on the doorstep of his home in Lobres, inflicting a savage beating which left him with several injuries, including a broken jaw. Moya was initially treated at the hospital in Motril where he was visited by Salobrena mayor Gonzalo Fernández Pulido. Pulido expressed his ‘revulsion at the ‘cowardly and unspeakable action’. Moya was later transferred to aspecialist clinic in Granada where he continues his recovery. The Guardia Civil are continuing their search for the two attackers.
It soon had permission from Nerja Town Hall but Junta planning regulations put a stop to the project and since then it has been going through the courts. Now Spain’s Tribunal Supremo has ruled that the project can go ahead. Nerja Mayor Jose Alberto Armijo has highlighted “the impact that this large golf complex project, defended for many years by us, will have on Nerja. “Justice has spoken and Nerja town hall was right.” The Junta is studying the
MONEYMAN: Soros
decision in preparation for launching an appeal due to the environmental impact on the area. In the meantime, an internet campaign set up against the project has received around 1000 signatures. Located on the Change. org website, the petition is named ‘Ayunamiento de Nerja. Paralice el proyectado campo de golf con 1000 viviendas’.
GREEN NEWS
www.theolivepress.es
ONE of the largest gas-powered ships in the world is set to operate in waters between Portsmouth and Spain. Brittany Ferries said the new £225m Frenchbuilt ‘cruise-ferry’ will be the cleanest and most environmentally-friendly ship in British waters. Compressed natural gas emits 25% less carbon dioxide (CO2) than marine fuel oil and burns with no smoke. Mike Bevens, group commercial director, said the vessel - due to be ready in 2017 - will mark ‘a new era’ in ferry travel. “Brittany Ferries and STX France have been
A MAN has been arrested after de- harriers stroying 18 nests of threatened Mon- nest on the tagu’s harriers. ground The birds of prey are a threatened species in Spain and build their nests on the ground, rather than in trees. The nests were located on four separate farms in the Archidona and Antequera areas.
SPAIN has now become a wolf stronghold - with more than 2,000 specimins on the prowl. But as a result of this population explosion - there is an estimated 250 breeding groups - there has been an increase in the number of attacks on farm animals. In the past two months alone around 100 cattle and sheep were killed in
Rajoy targets Tokyo PRIME Minister Mariano Rajoy has agreed to strengthen cooperation with Japan in areas requiring cutting-edge technology, such as renewable energy and medical services, in a bid to spur growth in both economies. The agreement between Rajoy and Japanese foreign minister Fumio Kishida also included a deal to energise people-topeople exchanges between the two countries, mainly among young people. The talks came a day after Kishida and his Spanish counterpart Jose Manuel GarciaMargallo vowed to work together in helping firms from their respective countries expand into the vast Spanish-speaking market in Latin America. Kishida visited Spain for two days ahead of his visit to France to discuss defence strategies.
11
This ship is not all at CO2!
Harassed harriers’ UNDER THREAT: nests destroyed These
Wolves muscle in, but some canine culprits are giving shepherds a real headache
the olive press - January 22 - February 5 2014
Six pack!
Butraigo, at the foot of the Guadarrama hills - Spain´s newest national park, about 60km from Madrid. Juan Carlos Blanco, a wolf specialist and adviser to the Spanish Environment Ministry said: “Guadarrama can support two, even three, packs. We think there are now six packs within 100 km of Madrid. When they arrive in a new area the shepherds do not know
what to do. “Then they find ways to protect their flocks with dogs or fences. It’s a natural event and the wolf will not go away now. Maybe hunters will exterminate one pack, but others will take its place. Wolves are very flexible and resilient.” Wolves are a protected species and most countries offer to compensate
SCOOTING FOR JOYS: Many advantages on these green machines
farmers for the animals they kill. But many are now being hunted illegally and poisoned. Farmers and shepherds invest in fences and fierce dogs to protect their animals.
Comeback
Electric scooters branch out
COOLTRA, the leading scooter rental company in Spain, has widened its electric scooter rental coverage in Spain with the opening of a new office in Granada The firm hopes to promote electric mobility in the province, offering clients the best electric scooter rental facilities and services in Spain. Cooltra aims to promote and encourage the use of electric vehicles in Granada with a fleet of over 30 Govecs Go! 3.4 eScooters. Cooltra Granada also provides full urban eScooter mobility services, with several rental plans to choose from: short-term, eRenting (long term), corporate, and even tours. The eRenting service offers a host of advantages: zero noise and particulate pollutant emissions and important savings in fuel costs, among others. There are already several charge points available and there are plans to install more in the city and the surrounding area.
Officially, 130 wolves have been killed since 2005 in Spain, but the real numbers are unknown. In the 19th century the European wolf was almost driven to extinction as hunters made a living from the bounties paid by villagers. But conservationists are surprised at how fast wolves have returned during recent years, populating areas where they were last seen more than 100 years ago. They have been seen within a few kilometers of major cities such as Berlin, Rome and Athens. Last month one was found near the Dutch hamlet of Luttelgeest, just 50 km from Holland’s densely populated North Sea coast.
co-operating for two years on a study regarding the feasibility of powering a cruiseferry by liquefied natural gas “ he said. As well as emitting less CO2, compressed natural gas is also free of sulphur and is very low in nitrogen oxide emissions, the company added. The ferry’s construction price is not much less than the price of a cruise ship and it will be built in the same St Nazaire shipyard as Cunard’s Queen Mary 2. Brittany Ferries said the ship will carry 2,500 passengers when it enters service in spring 2017.
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the olive press - January 22 -February 5 2014
12
NEWS
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Green for go!
A NEW bowling club is set to open at Hotel Saydo in Mollina, near Antequera. The bowling green will be officially inaugurated by Fernando Castro, the owner of Saydo Park and mayor Francisco Cabello on February 7. The recently formed Saydo Bowls Club hopes to play both Spanish and visiting teams, as well as encourage new players to take up the game. For further information www.saydobowls.com
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Benefits cheat ordered to sell Marbella home
A BRITISH man has been ordered to sell his Spanish home to repay Mon -
almost £26,000 of benefits he falsely claimed in the UK.
Nigel Hadley, 61, from Pembroke Dock, moved to Marbella in 2000, buying a fish-
erman’s cottage two years later, which he then failed to declare. He admitted three counts of benefit fraud at a plea hearing at Swansea Crown Court. The court heard that Hadley had left the UK to set up a catering firm in Spain, focusing on the market for film schools. “But in April 2010 he suffered a serious stroke and was unable to work and essentially stayed on in Spain until his money ran out,” Mr Davis said.
False Claims
SHARP END: Razor wire encircles Melilla
Mass invasion as 60 migrants scale fence
AROUND 60 African migrants have managed to scale the controversial razor wire fence separating Morocco from the Spanish
Minister’s 4G pledge THE government has promised that 75% of Spain’s population will have 4G coverage by 2015. Industry Minister Jose Manuel Soria Soria said that it would be brought about by freeing up the 800 MHz frequencies currently used by digital channels.
enclave of Melilla. It came after a total of 450 migrants had attempted to cross the fence, leading to clashes with border guards with six police officers injured. Around 20 were quickly rounded up in local apartments, but some 40 have so far not been accounted for. Melilla and Ceuta are the EU’s only land borders with Africa and thousands of migrants attempt the dangerous journey every year. In 2013, Spain was heavily criticised by human rights groups when it reinforced Mellilla’s 12 kilometre long fence with razor wire.
He returned to Britain in January 2011 where he claimed employment support allowance and later applied to his local council for housing benefit and council tax benefit. In all three cases he failed to inform the authorities that he had a property in Spain, despite being asked verbally and on claim forms. Judge Keith Thomas, sentenced Hadley to nine months in prison, suspended for 18 months. He ordered him to pay back the full £25,960 claimed in benefits through the sale of his only asset, the Spanish property.
CHEAT: Hadley
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olive press - January27 22--December February 5112014 thethe olive press - November 2013
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LETTERS
the olive press - January 22 -February 5 2014
POTTED POINTERS ANDALUCIA RESERVOIR LEVELS This week: 77.67% full Same week last year: 72.64% Same week in 2003: 56.94% AIRPORTS Gibraltar 00350 22073026 Granada-Jaen 958 245 200 Jerez - 956 150 000 Malaga - 952 048 844* *For English press 9 Sevilla - 954 449 000 EMERGENCIES Police 091 Guardia Civil 062 Medical service 061 Fire 080 EURO EXCHANGE RATES 1 euro is worth 1.35 American Dollars 0.82 British Pounds 1.48 Canadian Dollars 7.46 Danish Kroner 10.49 H Kong Dollars 8.34 Norwegian Kroner 1.72 Singapore Dollars
Sky-high joy for Marbella I WAS thrilled to read tha skyscraper plans for Marbella have been scrapped (People power’ blocks skyscraper scheme OP online ) The idea behind skyscrapers in Marbella shows that a certain section of the population puts money before the environment, the future of coastal towns and destruction of the Spanish heritage. We have to compete with our own resources that are unique due to natural beauty of the area. Skyscrapers in Marbella are out of any rational point of view. There are places where extravagant buildings are a necessity to attract visitors, but they do not have mountains, the rich vegetation around our Sierra Blanca, the weather and easy access to the city. We need to improve our infrastructures, not to destroy the environment and the views of our natural resources for the future generations. Javier Cabrera, Marbella
Warning word I have been following the Nigel Goldman story with interest since it first appeared ( Where’s Naughty Nigel? OP 177) I believe it is correct for this story to be published by the responsible Press if it’s in the public interest.
www.theolivepress.es
Crime seen to pay in Spain READING about the ERE scandal How the reptile fund shamed Andalucia (OP 178) makes me sick. This article should be translated into Spanish and posted to every house in Andalucia. I own a small business and have struggled to stay afloat during these difficult times while remaining on the side of the law. Crime really does pay in Spain and what makes it worse is either the people don’t give a damn, or the thieves are not brought to justice or forced to pay back what they stole. Mark, Fuengirola
Not relevant Thank you for the background to the ERE case, but in an article on fraud and corruption why is the following sentence relevant: “Slim, photogenic and a world away from the stereotypical Spanish judge, Alaya, 50, has become the focus of the My only point, to all investors and any of his associates, media or otherwise, is that there is a thing called “due diligence”, which basically means, investigation of a business or person prior to entering into any contract and to act with a certain standard of care. It is a usual business practice. Therefore the minimum due diligence all should have undertaken was to Google Goldman’s name before working with him or handing over their money. There is sufficient information on the first page to indicate giving him a very wide berth! While his activities might have been illegal it is totally beyond me why anyone would invest their money with someone with no credentials or who does not have any affiliation with a regulatory body. Will they catch up with Goldman? Yes of course, eventually! Will the investors get their money back? Unlikely! Will Goldman be going back to prison? Without doubt! Morris Klien, www.theolivepress.es
Cheery news I was cheered to read Greenhouse gases tumble as Spain eyes renewable energy dependency (OP 178). Come on, you climate change deniers, doubters and lovers of carbon and uranium. Let’s see you refute this report. It makes a change to see Spain do something right. More please! Stefano Lewinski, Madrid
Problem ahead It’s good that shop sales are rising, exports are doing well, and tourist numbers are up (Economy minister predicts Spanish job bonanza OP 178.) But I suspect any fall in unemployment figures - coupled with a rise in those employed
normally wear? What does the media make of Lanza’s overall appearance? Does Jose Antonio Grinan ‘take a good picture’? Nice to see that as well as complimenting Alaya’s competence and determination you also found time to pass judgement on her appearance….because that’s so relevant! Anthony Black, Almeria OP reporter Liam Kirkaldy replies: I was asked to write an overview of a fairly long and complicated case. Alaya is a big part of the case, and I would argue it would not have been pursued without her specifiFLASHBACK: The feature cally and, sadly, the media circus highlighting the ERE scandal in around her appearance (discussthe last issue of The Olive Press ing it in quite different terms to my own choice of ‘photogenic’ by media’s attention, with pundits and po- the way) has been a major part of litical opponents seemingly obsessed the way events have been covered. with her physical appearance and I was intending to criticise sleazy choice of clothes.” coverage, not add to it. How old is Trujillo and what does he
- will be slow for a while. There needs to be a cut in taxes, and an easing of restrictive laws. I know folk who are earning very good money by renting out their flats/rooms. But this is done by necessity without telling the authorities; I wouldn’t like to be in their boots when Hacienda catches them out! Mark Easton, Via web
Policy need In my humble opinion, with more countries opting into the EU it is now time a hard look was taken at the open borders policies with some amendments made (Romanians shun UK in favour of Spain - OP 178). We cannot all live in the sunnier parts of Europe, however much we would like. It is all to do with resources and space limitations and that is aimed at the millions of Brits living in Spain that fail to integrate, or even make the effort to do do, too. G. Cricket, Benalmadena
Law and ethics Up in smoke I love visiting Spain but corruption is rife and morals and ethics do not top many people’s agenda. Possibly this is not too different in the UK, (Spain’s Guardia Civil criticised by British motorist, OP online). However, it is ridiculous to think regular tourists to the UK come under the same level of scrutiny that various people who are pulled over by these menacing ex-army men of Spain get. UK Police may not be that clean but our system is not so distressed that officers take a bung to keep stuff quiet. It is not so much this couple’s story is a big issue, problems happen, but how many drunk and drug-riddled drivers have genuinely paid their way out of a conviction! Too many people are thinking about themselves and less about the effect on others. This story is a shame and just because it happens elsewhere to others and in other countries does not make it right.
The article Spanish smugglers escape across Gib border (OP 178) gave me an idea: why not increase the price of cigarettes in Gibraltar to around the same price as Spain, then there would be no incentive to smuggle them? I wonder if the Gibraltar Government would then lose a lot of income? Mike Lett, www.theolivepress.es
Wheely good? Spain with a population of 47 million has fewer road deaths than the UK (63 million), France (66 million), and Germany (81 million). No surprise there. A round of applause for ONLY 1128 deaths on Spanish roads! One can imagine the howls of outrage if four or so jumbo jets fell from Spanish skies every year.
Timmy Chesterson, www.theolivepress.es
Greg Baker, www.theolivepress.es
Letters should be emailed to letters@theolivepress.es. The writer’s name and address should be provided. Published opinions are not necessarily those of the Editor.
CROSSMOT 24
Across
7 Los Pilotos (6) * 8 Suficiente (6) * 9 Lío (4) * 10 Packing (8) * 11 Golondrina (7) * 13 Enojado (5) * 15 Medio (5) * 17 Más Populares (7) * 20 Dieciocho (8) * 21 Este (4) * 23 Pasar Por Alto (6) * 24 Entra (6).
Down
1 Fuego (4) * 2 Fósil (6) * 3 Thick (7) * 4 Verb (5) * 5 Polen (6) * 6 Holes (8) * 12 Escritos (8) * 14 Montado (7) * 16 Escuela (6) * 18 Tratado (6) * 19 Fiebre (5) * 22 Llaga (4). L = 198
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At one time up to 20,000 Jews lived here - now only a handful remain A MUSEUM dedicated to the culture of Sephardic Jews has opened in Granada. It gives an insight into the daily lives of the Jewish exiles and their descendants in Andalucia. The Palace of the Forgotten is housed inside the Santa Ines palace located in the Albaicin - a neighbourhood in the city’s old centre where many Jews used to live before 1492, when they were forced to convert to Christianity or flee.
the olive press - January 22 - February 5 2014
Secrets of Jewish settlers revealed
C
ordoba. Medieval Fair, in front of Calahorra Tower, January 24 from 11am. Tradespeople tout handcrafted goods and demonstrate historic customs and traditions, while food vendors give tasty samples of their food cooked according to medieval tradition.
N
erja. Flamenco Show, Quebranto (Sorrows). January 24. Calle de Granada, 45. €12 a ticket, from 9pm,
HOUSE OF SECRETS: Museum is expected to draw visitors from Israel tury, which is among the few well-preserved mikvahs from that period ever excavated in
M
alaga. Children’s play: The Coquettish Mouse, a Musical in Style. January 26. Teatro Echegaray, Tickets €6, from 1pm.
Spain, according to a statement by the municipality. In recent years, Spanish and
THE year of El Greco has kicked off in Toledo to tions will include a range of events, exhibitions mark the 400th anniversary of the painter’s death. and activities to mark the life of the Cretian artist It has taken three years to plan and the celebra- who lived in the Spanish city before his death. One hundred people will co-ordinate the bells of the 25 churches in a unique symphony directed by Valencian musician Llorenc Barber. There will also be two exhibitions, the first starting on March 14 with 80 works of art from around the world and the second on September 8, focusing on how the artist worked. Other exhibitions will open at the Prado Museum in Madrid on June 24 and the National Sculpture Museum in Valladolid on June 5. WORK OF ART: A million people are The events are expected to attract around a million visitors. expected at El Greco anniversary
A LOCAL author has written a collection of Andalucia-based short stories. John Hardy, who has lived in the Axarquia for the past 19 years, penned the 12-strong collection of crime stories using real life situations as his inspiration. Andalucian Mysteries tracks the experiences of British expats and holidaymakers living or staying on the Costa del Sol and their relationships with the local community. Some stories use fictitious names of villages, but many incidents are based on events that actually happened - some of which Hardy witnessed. The book is available for Kindle on Amazon.
uerto Banus. Reality Star Talent Contest Final, Puerto Banus Grand Cinema. January 25, from 7pm. More information 618 421 244. ranada. Romeria de San Cecilio, Sacromonte district. February 2. Procession up to Sacromonte Abbey.
Bells peal for El Greco centenary
In his crime!
P
G
Fraction
Historians’ estimates of the size of the Jewish population of Andalucia at the time ranged from 5,000 to 20,000, according to the late historian Haim Beinart of the Hebrew University in Jerusalem. Today, only a fraction of that number lives in Andalucia. The museum contains Judaica artefacts, archaeological findings such as ceramic utensils, furniture, artworks and other valuables recovered from Jewish homes. The artefacts were donated to the museum by the Crespo Lopez family. The museum will feature the restoration of a mikvah ritual bath from before the 15th cen-
what’s on
Portuguese municipalities have invested millions in preserving their Sephardic heritage. This includes the inauguration and elaboration of a network of Jewish sites, financing for Jewish study centers and the opening of several museums. Tourism bosses have described these efforts as having the potential to draw visitors from Israel and North America, while politicians and activists often describe these actions as owing to an emotional attachment and moral debt. Earlier this month, Spain’s ruling party submitted a bill which would make Jewish descendants of Sephardic Jews who were forced into exile eligible for Spanish citizenship.
Advertorial
Second weavers winter sale
FOLLOWING last year’s successful winter sale local weavers Lanas del Rio are repeating the formula at Diana Paget’s charming country house on the La Almuña country estate near Gaucin. The event will be held on Saturday 1st of February between 11am and 5pm. The owners of Lanas del Rio, Paul and Dawn Sutcliffe will be offering pure wool blankets, capes, serapes, scarves and other woven goods at amazing prices. As last year, Paul and Dawn will be joined by several other local artesans selling high quality products at sale prices. These include Vinos Roland from Jubrique with a selection of superb wines, Celeste Rawlings with handmade natural soaps and body care products, Jane Jewson with fine photography and prints, Stephanie Thompson will be selling her handmade greetings cards and artwork and Murphy will be there with his marmalades and amazingly tasty sauces. Diana will be cooking wholesome hot lunches with Mick’s Bloody Mary Bar seeing to the liquid side of things. Live music will be played all afternoon by local maestro Marcus Myers. If the weather is good the event will be outside, if it rains everyone will have plenty of room in Diana’s spacious house. This is going to be a good
TRADITION: Still weaving the old way
day out, don’t miss the chance to chase away the cold with some warm woollens, good wines and all the rest. To reach Diana’s take the A405 south from Gaucin towards Algeciras, pass the 6km marker and take the next left into the Almuña estate, the house is about 500 metres on the right, there will be signs. For information call Paul or Dawn on 952117591, visit http://www.lanasdelrio.com/ or email . Also follow Lanas del Rio on facebook.
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the olive press - January 22 -February 5 2014
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la cultura
www.theolivepress.es
My dear friend Michael I
HAVE just lost a dear friend, Michael Jacobs, who lived in the village of Frailes, in the province of Jaén. Sometimes though, I find myself wondering if he was not just a figment of my imagination. What I would love to do is to write novels, but I have never had the nerve: to create characters, situations and stories from one’s own imagination is just too daunting a prospect, and I fear I would not be adequate to
Driving Over Lemons author Chris Stewart (inset) writes for the Olive Press about his close friend Michael Jacobs (above), who died this month. A brilliant writer, his sad death from cancer at just 62, led to two days of official mourning in his adopted village of Frailes and comes as a huge loss to Andalucia. Overleaf, the Olive Press demonstrates why the task. So I stick to doing what I do, which is just writing about things as they happen, and describing those characters who swan into my orbit. And, as luck would have it, Michael Jacobs swanned into my orbit… it would be about a dozen years ago now. Ever since then he has given me – apart from everything else he brought to the party – an inexhaustible fund of material, for not even in my maddest moments could I have dreamed up a character as extravagantly, extraordinarily eccentric as Michael. Doctor Jakes, as I liked to call him, was a true ‘erudito’, a scholar, who wore his erudition lightly. In some distant past he studied Fine Art under no less a figure than Anthony Blunt, at the Courtauld Institute, and this left him with a refined - if not highly iconoclastic - appreciation and understanding of art. The elegance and sensibility so evident in his writing on art though, belie a man whose soul brimmed with madcap humour and zest for the wilder side of life. Michael was a scholar who liked the idea of being a clown, whereas I am a clown who would have liked to be a scholar. Often we would walk for hours in morose silence, each wishing we were the other. But whereas I could not write erudite to save my life, Michael was capable of the most ravishing humour in his writing. He couldn’t help it in fact; even in a serious essay on Pacheco and Velázquez, his subtle wit bubbles irrepressibly through, making the piece un-
mistakably his. He first came to Spain during La Movida in the 80’s, when he learned an expressive and idiosyncratic Spanish. From then on he travelled ceaselessly throughout the land, crystallising his insatiable curiosity, powers of observation, and genius for friendship into a number of books: ‘Andalucía’, still far and away the best guidebook on the subject; BEST: Andalucia guide Between Hopes and Memories; The Shadow of the Phan- Solitude’. The principal charactom Palace, and many more. ter in ‘The Factory of Light’ was He wrote 29 books in all… ‘and Manolo ‘el Sereno’, Michael’s no two with the same publisher,’ close friend and mentor until he he liked to joke. One of his first died in January of 2013. As well efforts was ‘Nude Painting’, a as the numberless friends he survey of the nude in a thou- had in Spain, the town of Frailes sand years of pictorial art. He is bereaved; the Ayuntamiento described it as ‘hack work’ and declared two days of mourning said the only time he ever saw and flew the flag at half mast. a copy was in a Travelling with Woody Allen film, Michael was Travelling with where a heap of like hanging on Michael was like them, remainthe coat tails dered, appeared of a whirlwind. hanging on the in a bookshop. It was hard to coat tails of a Nobody ever forkeep up but it whirlwind got Michael, no was worth it, matter how brief for he made the encounter; things happen; so, walking with him anywhere, like a rogue electron, events, say through a remote village in stories and adventures would the wilds of Bolivia, I would not crystallise around him. be at all surprised to hear the fa- I have never met anybody else miliar ‘Maiquel! ¿Qué tal? What with quite this quality, and it’s a are you doing here?’ His capac- quality I shall miss more than I ity for friendship was boundless; can say. But it’s not the only one; he was interested in people, and I shall miss Michael’s wonderhe had a way of listening to them ful humour, warm or acerbic at that made them feel fascinating. will; I shall miss his energy, his In 1999 the scholar-gipsy absolute honesty, his piercing made a tentative attempt intelligence and refusal to take to settle down. He bought a himself seriously; I shall miss house perched above being infected with his insatiable the village of Frailes, and appetite for life, his exuberant when he wasn’t travelling enthusiasm for embarking upon in Spain or his beloved the adventure of each new day. South America, he lived But don’t take it from me; there. read his books, and you will But he didn’t just live there: see these qualities come shinhe became a part of the vil- ing through. I’m reading them lage; he animated it and – again, and realising what an in his wonderful book ‘The incomparably good friend and Factory of Light’ – he recre- travelling companion I have lost. ated it, imbuing it with the magical realism of Gabriel Michael Charles Jacobs b. García Márquez’s Macon- 15th October 1952 d. 11th THE CLOWN AND THE SCHOLAR: do in ‘A Hundred Years of January 2014. Chris and Michael in Sevilla
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the olive press - January 22 - February 5 2014
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the olive press - January 22 -February 5 2014
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In the most innaccessible, rugged corner of Andalucia, Michael Jacobs found a stunning retreat to create his masterpiece Factory of Light, one of 29 books he wrote in a career that spanned four decades. Here the Olive Press presents some excerpts from the book following his untimely death from cancer at 62
The sleuth in the south
A
S I walked every day up the street I and about his eccentric nephew who had marsometimes indulged in a fantasy of ried the family maid, and had staged his own mine that had been growing ever since funeral in the village while still alive. The place my return to Frailes. I had begun think- was apparently still owned by the latter’s ing of myself as a detective determined to two bachelor sons. They were said to spend uncover secrets in a village I still perceived several months of the year there with their mother, but I had yet to find any in terms of some deep, all enevidence of this. Their house compassing mystery. seemed as permanently closed The main focus for these imagMy curiosity as to as the other two buildings, one inings remained for the time what lay inside had of which, featuring twin towers being the trio of distinguished been heightened and neo-Renaissance detailhouses around the parish by suggestion of a ing, appeared so pock-marked church, near the top of my daily royal connection outside as to have been abanclimb. doned altogether. My curiosity as to what lay inStrangely enough it was the side them had been heightened when Merce suggested, during the sum- last and most damaged of these three palamer, a royal connection with the most intrigu- tial houses that would prove my point of entry ing of these structures, which she referred to into this enigmatic trio. I was passing by it one as ‘the House of the Armandos’. Since then the morning when I saw an open door, through stories I had heard about this particular build- which I glimpsed a vestibule decorated with HOME: The village of Frailes and (top) ing had accumulated. There was talk about a hunting trophies, ceramic tiles, and a founMichael hard at work in his pinny man who had been confessor to Alfonso XIII, tain. A tall and distinguished middle-aged couple were standing there. The husband beckoned me in. He introduced himself as José Luis, and presented me to his elegant and nervously smiling wife Matilde, who could have been the subject of an English society portrait from the 1920s. The two of them, I soon learnt, were Alcalaínos who had taken the near-unprecedented step of moving from Alcalá to Frailes. ‘We came here because of this house,’ José Luis explained. ‘I’ve known and loved the building since I was a child. I finally managed to buy it several years ago.’ Only recently, however, had they been able slowly to begin its restoration. The original owner, a local doctor called Fermín Medina, had sold it to them as a very old man, and had then immediately regretted having done so. ‘He said he wanted to die in the house of his dreams,’ José Luis told me, ‘so we allowed him to do so.’ Dr Medina had barely altered the house since the time he had had it built, in the early 1930s, and the new owners were themselves keen to maintain the place’s faded, old-fashioned character. ‘I hope you don’t mind the mess,’ murmured Matilde after the husband had volIN CAMERA SITU: Michael Jacobs inside the Factory of Light cinema unteered to show me around.
Mother in law killer I was convinced I had misheard him the first time, but clearly I had not. There really was somebody known as ‘El Matasuegra’, the ‘mother-in-law-killer’. Of all the local nicknames I was gradually learning (and everyone here had one. this being the only way to distinguish between the countless Custodios, Mercedes, Manolos, Pacos, Pepes, and Antonios), ‘El Matasuegra’ stood out even in such company as ‘El Follao’ (‘The Fucked’), ‘El Escandoloso’ (‘The Scandalous One’), ‘El Tira-peos’ (‘The Fart-thrower’), and the name unfortunately applied to one of Frailes’s bakers, ‘El Mucoso’ (the ‘Snotty-nosed’). Nicknames of any sort, let alone these ones, were generally best not used in front of the person in question, even though they were freely bandied about by everyone else, and had often been passed down from one generation to the next irrespective of how appropriate they still were, or whether their origins were remembered at all. A subdued, dappled light cast a nostalgic glow over rooms more resonant of the past than any I had so far seen in Frailes. As we paused in a sitting room painted in a sombre ochre, I could easily picture members of the village hierarchy playing cards around the velvet-lined table, or discussing politics while reclining on the now peeling leather armchairs. During the post-war ‘years of hunger’, when most of the villagers lived in claustrophobic, low-ceilinged dwellings without electricity or running water, the house of Dr Medina must have represented a world of unimaginable luxury. The extreme contrast between rich and poor that had once existed in Frailes was further emphasized when we reached the attic. Though now a storeroom in which a stuffed vulture loomed over a mountain of books and pamphlets, this had served before as a granary for the wheat regularly given to the doctor by his patients. ‘That was the only way,’ said José Luis, ‘that
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Klaus and his effect
The head of the ‘rural accommodation agency’ was a German called Klaus, who had been living in Almeria for more than twenty years. ‘I’m thinking of moving my agency over here,’ he told me. ‘This is an area that is almost virgin as far as rural tourism is concerned. It has great potential.’ Depressing thoughts of a future Frailes given over to ‘rural tourism’ and in the hands of opportunistic outsiders fortunately receded as the wine took over.
Matters turned out exactly as I had predicted, with rather unfortunate effects in the case of Klaus. This essentially serious man became drunk in a way the Spaniards describe as ‘pesado’ or ‘heavy’. After a good four of five whiskies he became quite fanatical in his advocacy of rural tourism. ‘What this area lacks is a proper tourist infrastructure, an information office, restaurants with reasonably priced set menus, decent places to stay, the possibility of guided tours through the Sierra.’
Klaus carried on obliviously: ‘There are so many houses in this area that would be perfect as holiday residences. All you have to do is to strip away the concrete floors, the hideous modern tiles, and the other ghastly recent additions, and you’d be left with picturesque old homes that would attract the foreign tourist market. And the example of places such as these would make other villagers think twice before they carried out some unsuitable modernization, or put up a corrugated iron barn . . .’
‘But we don’t want our village turned into a museum!’ interjected Merce. ‘You’re just incurable romantics!’ Klaus shouted, before stumbling off ostensibly towards the toilet, only to disappear completely. He would never again be seen in the village. With his departure I could relax more in my newly acquired status as Frailes’s only foreigner. At last I could indulge in selfdeluding fantasies about having become the great Gerald Brenan of the Sierra Sur.
IDYLL: Rows of vines near Frailes
most of them could pay for his fees.’ As the tour continued, I felt at last that I was That there was something unquestionably special about Frailes became beginning to make some headway with my clear in the immediate wake of my first encounter with Miguel, when villagstill half-hearted researches into the more ers kept on turning up at our house carrying gifts of food. hidden areas of Frailes’s past. The main The first one to do so was our neighbour with the drill, a cheerful man with a revelations concerned the heated rivalry thick moustache and bright pink cheeks, who arrived bearing a basketful of between Dr Medina, a lifelong liberal, and tomatoes and cucumbers as abundant as a Rubensesque still life. the staunchly conservative family of Dean A few hours later, on my return from a short walk, I was told that someone Ezequiel Mudarra, the royal confessor re- else from the village whom I had just had a brief conversation with on the sponsible for the construction of the neigh- street had made a donation of two giant marrows and a large jar filled with bouring ‘House of the Armandos’. Dr Medina goat’s cheese marinated in oil. had unashamedly built his own house in the The following morning Miguel himself knocked at our door, weighed down hope of outstripping in grandeur the home of by pears, watermelons, and squash, ‘all grown in my garden’. Within a few his enemies opposite. His Republican views days I was envisaging the whole house being gradually taken over with prowere fortunately in his favour at the start of duce from every single household in Frailes. Hospitality is endemic to Anthe civil war, when the House of the Arman- dalucía, but the sheer accumulation of gift-bearing visitors was something dos was ransacked and left almost as a shell, entirely new to me, as were such other experiences as our first visit to the while Dr Medina’s was spared through being supermarket, when we ended up receiving far more than we had bought. We had gone inside to look for figs, but, on discovering there were none for used as a hospital. The tensions between the two families were sale, were sent with an assistant to a nearby garden, where we were told to highlighted by a grim anecdote told to me at help ourselves to as many as we wanted. the end of José Luis’s tour, when I was shown the former consulting-room, which the time of the building’s foundation. still contained the doctor’s desk and Once, as I scoured the walls in a futile swivel chair. It was while sitting before search for masonry breaks, revealing these that Ezequiel Mudarra’s brother inscriptions, and other such historical met a gruesome death. A few months and archaeological clues, I met for the into the civil war, a group of Republifirst time the parish priest, Alberto, an cans had taken him forcibly to the barenergetic young man whose energies ber’s, where his neck had been ‘acwere unfortunately devoted largely to cidentally’ cut. Being an old man, the finding money to ‘prettify’ the building skin on his neck was tough and resisin his care. tant, and the job was botched, so he As he described to me his current was dragged over to Dr Medina’s. But project of replacing the old tiled roof by now there was nothing that could with a brand new prefabricated one, I be done to patch him up, so they finknew I was dealing with someone with ished him off there and then with a the same lack of architectural sensishot to the back of the head. bility as the village mayor. A month or ‘This is what happens in civil wars,’ so later I walked by the church to find José Luis stoically noted. that the old roof had been taken down After hearing this story I often wonovernight, apparently without any ofdered what other tales of the past lay ficial permission. buried in the buildings that lined my El Sereno was incensed when I mendaily route. On a few occasions I broke tioned this to him on reaching his my journey to look inside the cheerhouse that morning. fully simple parish church, hoping to ‘To think of all the time I spent lookfind further traces of the village’s hising for suitable old tiles when the roof tory. But recent modernization had needed restoring before!’ he comsucceeded in eradicating all evidence plained, as we reflected over break DOG DAYS: A village lunch with the of the past, including, I was told, some fast on the continuing disappearlate Gothic vaulting dating back to characters in his book ance of Frailes’s past.
the olive press - January 22 - February 5 2014
19
Property
20 20the olive press - January 22 -February 5 2014
News IN BRIEF
Retail up INVESTMENT in Spanish retail property doubled in 2013 to €1.44bn, with crossborder investors accounting for 70% compared with an average of 48% for the European market as a whole.
To the rescue
IBA Capital Partners, a Madrid fund manager with €500m to invest in Spanish real estate, has acquired Madrid’s ABC Serrano shopping mall out of a bankruptcy The acquisition was its second in 2013.
On radar HEDGE FUND philanthropist George Soros and global fund manager Pimco are now actively pursuing Spanish real estate investments, signalling a return of more conventional investors to the market.
French shopping FRENCH property group Unibail-Rodamco is to invest €130m to redevelop the Glòries shopping centre in Barcelona’s 22@ innovation district near the heart of the city.
www.theolivepress.es
Holiday homes shocker!
Controversial crackdown could stop owners from renting their homes out and Brit holidaymakers may have to pay hundreds of euros more BRITONS with holiday homes in The Spanish authorities are expectSpain and France could be prevent- ed to ban unlicensed rentals next ed from renting them out to tourists spring. under controversial new laws. Ryan Levitt, of holiday rental The latest rules - which are still in website housetrip.com, warned: the planning stage “This law is closing - could also add hunthe door to working dreds of euros to the and middle-class Under new rules, cost of breaks for mil- those with second families who want lions of visitors from to book a break to homes will need Britain. Spain at an afforda licence, which Experts say families able price. could incur a fee would be the hardest ‘“Instead of behit as they would no ing able to share a longer be able to pay whole house with cheaper rates direct to owners - but friends, you face being stuck would have to stay in apartments, with your kids in a cramped hovillas or hotels operated by major tel room.” firms. More than a million properties
NICE PAD: But British families may have to pay the price if new laws are introduced to stop owners in Spain from renting
in Spain are owned by Britons. Many are inhabited all year round by expatriates, but hundreds of thousands were bought as holiday homes. Until recently, it has been relatively simple for British owners to rent out their properties in the two countries. But under the new rules, those with second homes in Spain will need a licence from the local council, which could incur a fee. They will also have to meet strict conditions, such as being con-
tactable 24 hours a day to deal with problems such as water leaks or power blackouts. Owners will have to pass regular safety inspections and obtain hygiene certificates. Failure to comply will lead to hefty fines. According to La Caixa bank, around three-quarters of overnight stays in Spain last year were in ‘unregulated premises’ such as privatelyowned villas or apartments. Most of these visitors booked directly through the high number of online holiday rental firms which
SAFE AS HOUSES: Overseas investors still have eyes on Spain
Investments at the double
INVESTMENT in Spanish property during 2013 was double that of the previous year, due in large part to the influx of foreign buyers. A total €4 billion was invested, marking a return to the heights experienced before the crisis in 2008, according to CBRE data. Investment funds from the UK, France, the United States and Latin America were largely behind the increase in the number of people buying Spanish property which has been seen over the past 12 months. Property specialist Jose Ruiz said that while Spain still faces significant economic difficulties, it ben-
efits from being a destination that is popular with tourists, in addition to also being attractive among those individuals who want to settle abroad permanently.
Islands
The Balearic islands are predicted to be of continued and increased interest to investors. Data from the National Statistics Institute revealed property prices in the area grew 4.4% in the third quarter of 2013 compared to the same period last year, an increase that was largely attributed to burgeoning interest from overseas investors.
Blackstone back for more BLACKSTONE GROUP has offered to pay €43 million for a portfolio of homes for sale by Spain’s “bad bank. U.S.-based private equity firm Blackstone is bidding for the 620-home Dorion portfolio, as well as 1,200 garages and storage units built between 2007 and 2011 in Madrid and Barcelona. The deal has not closed and further details were not provided. However, Blackstone is believed to be the lead bidder.
Rental market
Blackstone made its first deal in Spain last summer, when it purchased 18 apartment blocks in Madrid for €125.5 million ($166.1 million). Spain’s rental market is growing, with the rented homes proportion expected to grow to 25% from its current 18% according to property specialists Idealista.
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the olive press - January 22 - February 5 2014
21
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the olive press - January 22 -February 5 2014
22
Property
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Colonial investment
INVESTORS from Spain, Andorra and Peru are investing a combined €500 million into bank-owned Spanish property developer Colonial in the latest sign that the real estate business may be slowly reviving. The Villar Mir group, a family-owned company con-
trolled by the chairman of Spanish builder OHL, will invest €300 million in Colonial. Peru-based Grupo Santo Domingo will invest €100 million and Andorran company Amura Capital another €100 million, if the board approves a debt restructuring
House prices boost SPANISH house prices rose 0.7% in the third quarter from the second, the first quarterly increase in three years. House prices dropped 7.9% in the third quarter from the same period last year, according to data released by the National Statistics Institute, but this was a significant improvement from a 12% annual decline in the second quarter. Spanish house prices have fallen continuously, on a year-to-year basis, since early 2008, and are now down 35.3% from the peak they reached in late 2007, INE estimates show. Other estimates, including some by privatesector economists, say house prices may have dropped more than 40% in the period.
The Property Insider ale by Adam Ne
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and recapitalisation plan in an extraordinary shareholder meeting.
Bubble
Dozens of property firms collapsed in Spain after a property bubble burst and the country’s banking system - highly exposed to the real estate market - took a €41-billion rescue loan from Europe in the wake of the crisis. Colonial’s shares are owned by banks, which took it over after it struggled with debts following the downturn. Spanish property prices rose on a quarterly basis in the third quarter of 2013, the first such increase in three years. Prices have slumped some 37 percent since mid2007. Several banks have sold or contracted out property management businesses this year, capitalising on interest from foreign investors hungry for deals.
Is the bottom behind us?
ITH average house prices across Spain now close to the same level they were a decade ago, the jury is still out on whether the property market is still suffering or slowly recovering. According to Spain’s Ministry of Public Works, house prices nationwide have fallen by 29% from their all-time high, making today’s average per-square-metre price for homes, currently around 1.500€/m2, about the same as back in 2004. Other sources estimate the drop to be as much as 50% since the bubble burst in 2008, leading many to ity. Viewings and transactions by foreign buywonder how much lower they can go. ers are up and some vendors, especially in Some experts are now cautiously expressing sought-after areas, are becoming more conoptimism 2014 may be the year that Spain’s fident about achieving their asking price. As real-estate market starts to turn around. the sales cycle of a second-home market is While national demand remains stymied by slow, it will take at least another 12 months the difficulty in obtaining finance, uncertain to see if this constitutes a real trend. economic prospects, and the fact that aver- Spain’s fortunes have never been a reliable age prices are still beyond many Spaniards’ barometer of property values or of the marreach, foreign buyers – both on an individual ket in prime locations, especially Marbella. and institutional level – are making up a Most of our clients hail from Northern Eugrowing share of sales. rope and many are not dependent upon a Over the last year, overseas mortgage to buy a home in investment funds snapped the sun. They are looking up the real-estate divisions for properties that offer the They are looking of some of Spain’s bigkind of lifestyle they want, for properties gest banks, such as Banco whatever happens with that offer the Santander, La Caixa, and Spain’s economy – which, kind of lifestyle Bankia, and now plan to sell according to the governthey want their portfolios by ensuring ment, grew by 0.3% in the prices are as competitive as last quarter of 2013, for the possible. first time in six years. At the same time, foreigners accounted for If the market in the Costa del Sol continues more than 15% of all sales nationwide in the its current trend, we may look back in a couthird quarter of 2013, a jump of four percent- ple of years’ time and see 2013 as when age points over 2012. the bottom was reached. Without the help A report released by Bankinter, the country’s of a crystal ball, however, we shall just have tenth-largest bank, in December forecast to wait and see. that, after a particularly bad year in 2013, Adam Neale is the owner of Terra Meridiana, sales should start to pick up in 2014 and a real estate agency based on the Costa del 2015, although prices could still fluctuate. Sol covering areas such as Marbella, EstePremium areas, like Madrid, Barcelona, and pona, Sotogrande and Benahavís. Adam the Costa del Sol that have limited supply has more than a decade of experience in and attract affluent cash buyers will likely be the sales and rental markets and, as Propamong the first to recover. erty Insider for the Olive Press, will be providIn the areas we cover, like Marbella, Estepo- ing useful advice for buyers, sellers, tenants na and Sotogrande, we have started to see and all those interested in living in southern signs of a recovery, at least in terms of activ- Spain. Terra Meridiana. 77 Calle Caridad, 29680 Estepona. Tel: +34 951 318480. Office Mob: +34 678 452109 Email: info@terrameridiana.com. http://www.terrameridiana.com
Property
the olive press - January 22 - February 5 2014 2323
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Private Viewing
After a difficult 2013 when the recession finally took its toll on her company, Kristina Szekely is getting back into the groove that she has ploughed for 30 years on the coast. Jon Clarke meets her as part of a new regular property feature ‘Private Viewing’ NOBODY can describe Kristina Szekely as a slacker. After 30 years of selling real estate in Marbella, she can still be seen, practically daily, working out of her office in the marina Puerto Banus… and often very late. The international face of the Golden Mile – who has appeared on countless TV programmes on Marbella, the most memorable on a Piers Morgan documentary – she can talk property until the paint dries. A livewire of energy, she has even been seen to jump up to chat to potential clients browsing at properties in her window display. “I am just as enthusiastic about selling property now as I was three decades ago,” she admits, likening herself to journalist as she ascertains what clients are after and what would best suit their needs. “It’s the challenge I like and I enjoy helping people get what they want,” she says. “Of course, at the end of it
The Property Queen fights back
you are going to make money, but it Banus café near her office, she conis nice to get to know the clients first tinues: “I didn’t believe it would be and I always give the maximum. so long and so dramatic. I had lived “Like a journalist the first interview through recessions before in the is very important. People need to 1980s and 1990s but the last four or trust you.” five years have taught us a lot. She has certainly become part of “This was the worst by far and it kept the furniture, a friend of varigoing down and down. We endous mayors, a regular at ed up shrinking from 150 the town’s social galas staff to just 40.” and a key member of She was forced to The its establishment. shut her head office tsunami “I have definitely sold in Nueva Andalucia to three generations (now La Sala restauhit us hard of the same family, rant) and retrenched as it did not just my client’s to her office in Puersons, but even their to Banus. with many grandsons,” she halfBut somehow she others boasts, fully aware that has clung on, partly it gives a hint to her age. thanks to her knowlThese contacts have never edge of the business, the been more important having franchise she owns for Sojust seen her real estate business theby’s and the fact that the margo through the toughest period in its ket is finally picking up again. She is history. looking for the right person to reopen C r e a k i n g her Sotogrande office and Gibraltar through the last stays open. five years as “People have stopped asking how recession ravmuch further down the market is going aged Spain, last to go and are asking when it is going year she finally up. Some clients are even putting their came unstuck, prices up between 5% and 10%,” she being forced to reveals. downsize dra“Clients we had from four or five years matically and ago who did not buy are coming back declare herself again. There have been some big pur‘chapter 11’, chases and the market looks more unable to pay buoyant.” an outstandShe explains that it was always going ing tax bill of to be inevitably that Marbella would 250,000 euros. pull out of the recession first. Needing to “Marbella is a real pocket and a downsize and unique place to buy. Let’s face it, it lay off over 100 is January and there are people walkstaff, it is nothing around in short sleeves, on the ing short of beach, some even swimming… there amazing that are not many places in Europe like she is still in that.” business at all. An entertaining woman, who has a Speaking for keen knowledge of culture, food and the first time travel (she has been to Morocco no about her nightless than 25 times and loves Marmare year, that rakech in particular), she has an opinmade headion on most subjects. lines around Today, she is particularly buoyant Spain, she adabout the way the town hall has remits: “It was cently worked (and listened) to lolike the tsunami cal residents over a controversial had hit us.” scheme to build a series of skyscrapTalking over a ers in the town. mint tea at a While she stops short of damning GOOD LIFE: Kristina smiling again over lunch at typical Puerto the scheme that would have seen
La Sala, where her old HQ used to be
BOUYANT: Kristina Szekely is bouncing back after her crisis year (inset below) www.theol
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Szekely in crisis
Top expat agent in trouble ow €250,000 ing insists she but is not bankrup t EXCLUSIVE By Kathryn Richards
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Priors finall ‘ridiculou y awarded s’ €30,000 compensat years livingion after spending their home in their garage sinfive was demoli ce shed A RETIRED expat coup who
THE Costa famous expa del Sol’s most in financial t estate agent is turmoil. Kristina Szek le How have spen for the Span ely has filed years living t the last five ruledever, a court has now bankruptcy ish version of and admitted after their in their garage plica that the original she owes €250 aphome was tion, grant molished have ed without de- their The Hungarian,000. knowledge received “a ridiculous” agent, who in 2004, has an exclu was pensation €30,000 com- The illegal. Sotheby Intersive deal with bill Priors only from their town hall. learnt abou the Olive Pressnational, told EMBATT the plans to LED: Szek Helen and bulldoze theirt she inten to ‘battle on’ home regardless. ds insists she will rideely was ripped Len Prior’s villa 2006 two years later in May Currently down by the out the stor . in ta Jun- Their in January m with a with her credi negotiation ‘num ber of tors, she conbuilding licenc2008 after their 100 villa, one of arou firmed: “I nd illega e was revok on the hori big sales ed. area, was l homes in the zon’ what they have filed for the only one Chapter 11. call in America, in the to be 1980 dominated s and quickly estate indu the coast’s real Optimisti Bubbly andstry. c “We owe €250 outgoing, she forged a globa ,000, but am hopeful l reputatio I and it as we haveof getting out of in was frequently quote n the internatio d coming in. some big sales Until nal last week, she press. “The word had offices INJUS completely bankruptcy is and in Marbella, Gibraltar the business.wrong, it hurts been Sotogrande but has demolis struggling to “There is They ha pay her staff a big differ between some ence eral and creditors for sevfrom pi months. body going bankrupt someone Last week the and our tion.” situa- bralt office fiasco. ar was chain in GiShe added: Mrs Pri ed shut at 5pm. selling apart “We are also One Press: “T ments and think it is ridiculou I asked competitor, who optimistic how. I am keep some- mous to remain anon ry and ju y, said Ms Szek ing staff The Hung all of our WHICH TYP ely had arian agen on.” enormous overh rived on the t ar- woul E OF BIRDS saved but d find the eads and Costa del Sol FLO CKING DO WIL The couple next few months very WN TO THE L BE tough. DEL SOL THI to live in th COSTA S SUMME rage witho R? running wa Find out on Talking abo page 12 she added:
six 50-storey towers peering over the some repute. town, she is positive about the way They had been very happy in MarMarbella has dealt with the scheme. bella, a town she loves for its climate, “It is great that the local people are geography and demographics. participating in the future of MarbelShe particularly likes its diversity of la, whether it is the right decision, I population, citing a recent dinner parcannot say, but it is great that people ty where there were no less than 16 are expressing their opinion and the different nationalities. town hall is listening.” “It is a healthy melting pot and in Arriving in the town in the 1970s with Marbella you don’t have to fit into a her sister who had fallen in love with a mould, you can be creative, you can Spaniard from Toledo, she was typical dress up or down, drive whatever car of the first expats to settle on the coast. you like. Here, people are not trying to Urbane and cultured, she already keep up with the Joneses. spoke a number of languages (Eng“On top of that it is a sophisticated lish, Hungarian, Swedish, German resort with great shops, sports faciliand French) and quickly picked up ties and restaurants. And the city of Spanish. Malaga is now nearer than ever. Born in Hungary during the commu“It also has fantastic healthcare. nist era, she had managed to move to Nowhere in Europe have you got so live with her uncle in Sweden, where many good hospitals and clinics.” she received a ‘solid education’. But So what is the future for Kristina? she still remembers some of the Well firstly she is looking at a few extough times her family suffered under clusive developments again. One of the regime. these is Jardines del Principe just off “We had quite a big house, which the the Golden Mile, a short walk to Marcommunist party decided needed to bella centre and five minutes walk to be divided in half to provide room for the beach. another family. But it was still too big, “It’s a very successful project and is a so they made us do it again so we great place to buy,” she says. ended up with a quarter of our origiSecondly, she believes that aside nal house.” from the newly established Russian Despite doing well at school she market, there is going to be an inopted not to attend university and creasingly big line of Chinese looking instead took one of the first flights to buy in the town. south from Stockholm to Malaga “The Chinese tend to go to the citand fell in love with the coast. ies first but they are already Just out of her teens she there now and starting to first started work as learn about holidays and Keen a freelance property relaxing. agent – or corredor “They are also investto exploit recommending proping in infrastructure the new erty to friends and and hotels.” taking a small comEver keen to exploit influx she mission when they the new influx, she is learning bought. is about to begin ChiChinese Her first actual office nese lessons, having was opened in the early learnt some Russian 1980s behind the Skol last year. Hotel in central Marbella, “People feel comfortable if before moving to Nueva Andayou can speak a bit of their lanlucia (to the current site of La Sala guage,” she explains. “I started learnrestaurant), where her head office ing Russian after meeting a teacher was for 21 years. via tennis at the Hotel Puente RomaIt was around this time that she met no. We played and then she gave me her husband Antonio Cienfuegos, who classes. was ‘very important’ in her life and “Now I am going to do the same with who taught her to separate her busiChinese, having cut a deal with an ness from her private life. Together for agent based in Shanghai.” 20 years, until his death from cancer So, all in all, it is certainly fair to say 15 years ago, Antonio had been a dethat the Property Queen is fighting veloper, who later became an artist of back.
Top Dollar
24 24 the olive press - January 22 -February 5 2014
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FATCA –THE END OF THE BEGINNING OR THE BEGINNING OF THE END?
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ith apologies to Winston share bank account information of taxpayers Churchill, however the financial in their jurisdiction but resident in another landscape in terms of financial State. Thirty seven countries have now disclosure and the reporting of agreed to participate including most recently overseas assets has been turned on its Luxembourg, Ireland and Malta. head. Throughout 2013 tax authorities In the UK the Crown Dependencies across the world have been falling over (Jersey, Guernsey and the Isle of Man) themselves to sign up to new inter have agreed to automatically give governmental agreements information to HMRC relating for one simple reason – to the financial affairs of UK 37 countries have to enable states to get resident clients and several agreed to join information about income overseas territories including including most (earned or passive) its Bermuda, Cayman Islands taxpayers generate abroad. recently Luxembourg, and BVI have also committed Ireland and Malta The aim is quite clear, that to share information with the is to prevent tax evasion UK. through automatic exchange A few weeks ago, in November, of information between States and the Gibraltar signed its own agreement with move to implement these reforms is the UK confirming automatic exchange accelerating. of information in adherence to the FATCA Back in April 2013 the G5 (UK, France, protocol. Germany, Spain and Italy) entered into a pilot Where does all that leave you and me? agreement to for multilateral exchange of Without labouring the point it means that information based on the FATCA model. Under we have to make clear our intention to stay the G5 model States agree to automatically within the law and look for solutions that
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WORKING GIRLS: Now legally covered
The Olive Press fortnightly business section taking a look at the Spanish economy and offering tips on how to save AND make money
Red light girls get green light on tax PROSTITUTES in Ibiza have formed a sex workers’ cooperative to pay taxes and gain social security benefits – the first such group legally registered in Spain, they say. Eleven women registered with
local authorities as working members of the Sealeer Cooperative providing sexual services, said their spokeswoman, Maria Jose Lopez. “We are pioneers. We are the first cooperative in Spain that
can give legal cover to the girls,” she said. The 11 active sex workers who registered in November are women in their 20s and 30s from Spain, Italy and “the East”, she said, declining to elaborate.
Battling back! Ring smashed
SPANISH police have arrested eight people suspected of helping to steal more than $60 million from banks worldwide by hacking into credit card processing firms and withdrawing money from cash machines.
we are in a different scenario,” de Guindos said. The country’s GDP was hit hard by the eurozone crisis; since 2008 the country has lost 7.5% of its GDP. Overall analysts believe Spain’s GDP fell 1.3% in 2013 and foresee 0.7% growth in 2014. Growth in the 18-nation Euro Currency Block fell to 0.1% in the third quarter of 2013 after expanding 0.3% in Q2. Exports have helped the economy swing back, as investors are putting money back into the Spanish financial sector. Strong performance by domestic banks and lower borrowing rates have also contributed to stronger GDP. The news follows the January 1 ending of the multibillion financial lifeline from the European Stability Mechanism (ESM), with the regulator saying the country’s banks were ‘on a sound footing’
Gib’s QROPS GUERNSEY´S Concept Group, in conjunction with Redmond Trust Company, is launching two new QROPS schemes in Gibraltar. The vehicles will enable the company to re-enter the market for new QROPS business, and look after those clients affected by a 2012 QROPS delisting.
SELF assessment tax form 213 (non residents with a permanent property in Spain) should be completed by January 31. They can be filled in online, and then signed and posted.
Cheap staff LABOUR costs fell
ON THE UP: The country’s banks are now on a sound footing, claims the government
Break chancing BUSINESSES with a turnover of less than 10 million euros will be entitled to a tax break on 10% of their profits from this year. Around 385,000 will be affected by the change saving an aggregate 600 million in tax for 2014, the ministry of finance has announced. The move is one of a number of tax-related changes coming into effect this year in a bid to kickstart the floundering Spanish economy. Those looking to invest in start-up businesses - socalled business angels - will also benefit from a 20% income tax reduction on the investments from a minimum 50,000 euros. They will be exempt from capital gains tax when they leave the company if they reinvest in a new one or
BUSINESS IN BRIEF
213 deadline
More exports and investors help to boost the economy, but unemployment continues to hurt THE Spanish economy grew at its fastest pace for six years in the final quarter of 2013 - but rampant unemployment, especially among the young, continues to hinder recovery. The EU’s fourth largest economy grew by 0.3% in Q4 2013, economy minister Luis de Guindos told parliament. Official numbers from the central bank and Eurostat, the official EU statistics bureau, are yet to be released. “For the first time since the start of the crisis,
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the olive press - January 22 - February 5 2014
New law gives small businesses a real chance with a tax break on profits, affects IVA and start-up capital
one which has been recently created. The most widespread change is that being made to IVA; companies can delay its payment until after the invoice has been paid.
SMEs
The regulation applies to small and medium-sized businesses and those self employed whose turnover is below two million euros a year. Those wishing to take advantage need to register before March 31 and thereafter every December, with validation applying for three years.
for a fourth year in 2013, according to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. This has contributed to a 10% decline in households’ average income since 2008 and a record surge in exports.
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Before and after
SAVING BOOST: Tax breaks for small firms
Call 952 586 324 today or email admin@cambridge800.es Join us on Facebook: www.facebook.com/cambridge800spain or visit our website: www.cambridge800.es OLIVE PRESS – 170mm x 83mm – 9th January & 23rd January
Top Dollar
26 26 the olive press - January 22 -February 5 2014
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John Lewis on European tour
A FRUSTRATED trolley ABOUT THE TAX CONSEQUENCES good AUTOMATIC DISCLOSURE UNDER “FATCA”? deal! MERCADONA is to pay all staff a minimum €1260 a month - thanks to a new collective agreement between the store and its workers. The five-year deal will also create 1,000 new jobs, with all new staff being paid the same base rate. According to Mercadona the agreement allows the company to achieve stability through productivity, their business in the medium and long term objectives.
OF
Can you afford not to go first class? Leading provider of tax led JOHN LEWIS is making advice a new wealth management to UK Expatriates. Part of the Fiduciary push into Europe following ‘a crack- UK Retailer reports buoyant start to the start to the year’ as consumers new year, and confirms plans to increase Group anding affiliated to Gibraltar’s oldest legal practice Isolas 1892. splashed out in the post-Christmas its operation in Europe, starting with a sales. The company has announced it is launching a brand new French website and that it has other plans for expanding into Europe this year. It comes after total sales for its department stores were up 23.6% on last year in the week ending January 4, to £113.4m. The retailer’s total sales, including online, were up 15.8%, while Waitrose also performed strongly with a 9.3% increase in sales over the week. Managing Director Andy Street, also
new French website
BRIGHT LIGHTS: John Lewis
RESERVE YOUR PLACE AT OUR TAX & WEALTH CLINICS
Innovation
Director of staffing, Francisco Aparicio, said that with this agreement: “we dedicate all our efforts to improve productivity, and continue to invest in innovation, service excellence and process efficiency to ensure sustainable growth”. The company wants to increase its workforce of 74,000 people by another 1,000 between now and 2018, from the new collective agreement. The company has also established what it calls “pioneering” measures in the agreement, extending the reduced working hours to care for children until age 10, the extension of childcare leave until the child reaches the age of eight, or the possibility of extend the leave of up to three years in cases of violence.
confirmed that John Lewis is likely to open a store outside of the UK within the next decade as part of the growth plans that will see the retailer almost double in size. By 2023, Street said that John Lewis is likely to have 65 stores, compared to 40 at present, with annual revenues increasing from approximately £4bn at present to £7bn. “It will still be predominantly a UK
brand, let’s be absolutely clear about that,” he said. “I think we will have moved from taking baby steps to slightly more grown up steps internationally.” In 2013, the store made its first steps to market itself to the huge Spanish expatriate market, beginning its campaign with the Olive Press, both online and in the newspaper. Initial success of a short spring campaign was added to with an autumn/ winter campaign. The buoyant figures for the company overall come after John Lewis enjoyed a record-breaking Christmas, boosted by strong sales of kettles, coffee machines and iPads. These appliances continued to sell well after Christmas, the company said, with consumers snapping up discounted white goods, as well as smaller kitchen goods and tablet computers at full-price. At Waitrose, New Year resolutions appeared to be kicking into full swing, as customers filled their baskets with vegetables, porridge oats
and green tea. Sales of kale, the socalled super vegetable, currently flavour of the month with healthconscious celebrities, were up 58% on last year, while spinach sales rose 13%, garlic 15% and savoy cabbage 17%. Sushi sales were reported to be up 343%. John Lewis also said fashion, including its own brand clothes, had performed well, with sales up 28%. “After getting off to a cracking start immediately after Christmas our clearance sale performance continued to be strong last week, resulting in an outstanding 23.6% on last year,” said Barry Matheson, director of retail services at John Lewis. “This was despite horrendous weather conditions throughout the whole of the New Year period which did nothing to deter customers shopping with clicks or in bricks.” John Lewis now offers delivery of selected products from their website to international destinations including mainland Spain. Delivery is normally 4 - 7 working days.
Tel: 956 796 911 - enquiries@fiduciarywealth.eu or click on the “EVENTS” Spain’s the best bet tab at www.fiduciarywealth.eu for bond buyers SPANISH bonds are now a better investment than Australian Commonwealth bonds, market sentiment indicates. For all their problems of massive government debt burdens, recession, political uncertainty and high unemployment, the yield on Italian and Spanish 10-year bonds has fallen under 4%, while their Australian counterparts have been steadily creeping up, and have been over 4% per cent since November. The falling bond yields in the troubled European economies is a reflection of the growing confidence that the euro crisis is waning.
2nd December
3rd December
4th December
Chiclana
Benahavís
Antequera
5th December
Mijas
6th December
Mojácar
Advertorial
E
TAX AUTHORITIES TARGET EXPATS
expect not to pay tax FRUSTRATED THEcontact: TAX CONSEQUENCES OF tolocal either the area UK or theABOUT For an appointment in your and please Spanish tax authorities.
xpats seem to be at the very front of every new tax initiative both from their country of origin and from their new country of residence. Nowhere has this been more evident than in Spain where the authorities have lurched from previous regimes where expats were just left to get on with it and if they paid any tax it was almost treated as a windfall, to a full frontal assault where the new mandatory annual declaration via Modelo 720 requires a statement of all overseas assets when they fall into certain categories and they are valued in a particular grouping in excess of 50,000 Euros. At the same time, at a local level, police are checking those who own foreign plated cars and looking at electricity and telephone records all to find out those
Gibraltar
AUTOMATIC DISCLOSURE UNDER “FATCA”?
To close the loop even further the UK has established Can youexchange afford ofnot to go first class? Leading provider of tax le information agreements wealth management advice to UK Expatriates. Part of the Fiducia with Guernsey, Jersey and Group to Gibraltar’s oldest legal practice Isolas 189 the Isle ofand Man affiliated as well as a number of offshore jurisdictions such as Cayman Islands and BVI. Even if you choose not to report on Modelo 720, and run the risk of fines and penalties, the likelihood 796offshore 911 - enquiries@fiduciarywealth.eu or click on the “EVENTS” is Tel: that 956 your investments even if these tab at www.fiduciarywealth.eu are held in a trust will come to the attention of the UK authorities and subsequently information 2nd December 3rd December 4th December 5th December 6th Decembe will be passed on to Spain. Chiclana Benahavís Antequera Mijas Mojácar Quite honestly is it worth taking the risk? Perhaps suspect that most people category please ignore this you like the idea of being would prefer the quiet life editorial. Alternatively if you hounded by a number of where their taxes are paid would like to put your affairs different taxFor jurisdictions and they are alone by area in order please call Tel: 956796911 an appointment in left your local contact: and playing Russian roulette the authorities. or email enquiries@ with your assets. However I If you fall into the first fiduciarywealth.eu Gibraltar Portland House, Glacis Road 00350 200 50982
Portland House, Glacis Road who might be exceeding
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RESERVE YOUR PLACE OUR reasonBwhy EU has made Ricardo Soriano 72 Edf. Golden 1ªtheplanta, 0034 663 AT 028 392
Of course it’s not hard to see why expats are deemed such an easy target, there is little public sympathy from their fellow nationals back at home who see them as somehow privileged deserving to be taxed and of course it is politically expedient to target expats in their new country of residence as they are unlikely to win much sympathy locally.
the rules. This is exactly the
tackling tax evasion as its number one priority and the major countries in Europe including UK and Spain have signed an agreement to exchange information to ensure that with significant cooperation it will be impossible for the expat to evade paying tax wherever they choose to keep their assets. Gone are the days when you could live in Spain, exceeding the 183 day residency rule and keep your money in a Channel Island investment account
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Frightened the Spanish tax authorities are closing in on undeclared offshore assets? Failed to complete Form 720 and you have a serious problem? Call our hotline toEvasion relieve the pain Tel: 674 632 219 The bottom line however, is that all governments are falling over themselves to
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0034 956 796 911
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Edf. Golden B 1ª planta, Ricardo Soriano 72
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assets? Failed to complete Form 720 and you have a serious problem? Cal
Regulated by the Gibraltar Financial ServicesourCommission Licence No. hotline to relieve- the pain Tel: 674 632FSC00962b 219
Top Dollar
www.theolivepress.es
the olive press - January 22 - February 5 2014
AGONY ANT
YOUR LEGAL PROBLEMS ADDRESSED
Antonio Flores of Lawbird explains how failing to pay tax due could also lead to money laundering charges
M
Tax Evasion and money laundering
ONEY laundering is the process of taking illegally obtained, or ‘dirty’ money and finding ways and means to make it seem legitimate or clean. In Spain, the 2010 Money Laundering Prevention Act made it clear that a failure to pay unpaid tax can also lead to the additional crime of money laundering.
CARWASH: Perfect for dirty
The act establishes that any money spent, invested, or given away, while tax is owed, can be construed as money laundering. The Supreme Court further ruled in 2012 that although the source of the funds is not illicit per se, it is tax fraud if someone chooses to conceal a sum of money that he should use to pay tax. However the amount has to exceed €120,000 of unpaid tax or social security payments, per year and per taxpayer. While there exists a statute of limitations on payment of taxes meaning the taxpayer cannot face criminal prosecution after four years, it would not ‘decontaminate’ the illicit origin of the funds and theremoney
fore, these could still be capable of being laundered. The new taxes are tougher on fraudsters and other forms of money predators who not only commit the crime of swindling, but automatically become guilty of committing the more serious offence of money laundering.
Defrauders
And, because they do not pay taxes on the criminal proceeds of their activities, they also become tax defrauders making them, guilty of a further crime. As far as methods of disguising illegal earnings are concerned there are many well known ways of doing it. They include payment of everyday expenses, cash paid into banks or exported, setting up of ‘dummy businesses’ (bars, pubs etc.) where usage of cash is rife, and the fabrication of commercial activity to simulate circulation of legitimate income and spending etc. The most famous is setting up a laundry or car washing facility, which of course makes the perfect irony for the term. Contact me at Aflores@lawbird.com
27 27
Top Dollar
28 28 the olive press - January 22 -February 5 2014
www.theolivepress.es
29
26 Road to Riches, by Richard Alexander
F
ROM time to time, you may have seen references to FATCA in the national press and the plans for its introduction in 2014 but what is it and how might it affect you? This is US legislation in the form of the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act which was first talked about over three years ago and when it was first muted, most reactions were that it was totally impractical and would not stand a chance of working. However, that view has radically changed; so what is FATCA exactly? In basic terms it is a requirement being placed on financial institutions to provide tax information on a cross border basis as it relates to US tax payers. A US National or Green Card holder has to report and pay tax in the US on their world wide income and gains, even if they are not actually resident in the US. It is therefore intended to be the enforcement of collecting taxes due on all investments wherever they are held, even for those relevant people who have moved overseas.
FATCA – You what? Millions of dollars have been spent so far in preparing for the introduction of the new legislation and whilst this has been delayed until January 1 2015, the reporting will be in respect of the 2014 tax year, so the clock has started ticking.
So you think you are not affected by FATCA if you are neither a US National nor Green Card holder – think again! We have effectively seen a domino effect as more and more countries have bought in to the concept of cross border tax information sharing.
Despite the initial cynicism, the ing through the US but what is success of FATCA has rubbed off more likely, is a refusal by othon other countries, most notably ers to deal at-all post implemenperhaps, the UK, which has already tation. concluded similar agreements This is the shape of the new with its Crown Dependencies and world we live in but it is fair to say that for the vast British Overseas majority of people, Territories. F u r t h e r m o r e , For those who try to ‘stay there is nothing to since the last G20 under the radar’ the time fear. If your money meeting when the may well be coming when is invested soundly and you declare OECD announced that strategy comes your income and the concept of back to bite them gains in your couna multilateral try of tax resiexchange of indence, then the formation agreement, over 60 countries have sharing of tax information will confirmed their willingness to have no effect on you. take part in a pilot scheme, For those who have chosen to try to so the momentum is gathering ‘stay under the radar’ the time may well be coming when that strategy pace worldwide. You may be wondering what the comes back to bite them, particudownside is if an institution or larly for those who are Spanish country refuses to comply with tax resident and need to consider FATCA – the result would be a their 720 filing of overseas assets withholding tax of 30% on any information which needs to be amount received from or pass- completed by March 31 this year.
Richard Alexander Financial Planning Limited is an appointed representative of L J Financial Planning Limited, which is authorised and regulated by the Financial Services Authority in the UK. Contact him at Richard@ra-fp.com
Market mumbles
with Mark Rickard
Happy spending cash
T
HERE is a quiet confidence coming into the play in 2014. Both the UK and US are continuing to deliver their respective ‘good numbers’, while Europe still struggles to display a definitively positive outlook. However, there are signs from Spain that the consumer is feeling happy about spending their hard earned cash. Retail data was up in December, and Q1 globally is being closely observed as a gauge for the rest of the year.
UK
Last Week
Last week in the UK inflation dipped to the Bank of England’s target rate of 2% for the first time in four years much to the relief of the Bank of England However the surprise of the week was retail sales which reported the High Street doing roaring trade in December with volumes surging 2.6% in the month and are up 5.3% in volume from a year ago, which is the biggest rise in a decade
This Week
Wednesday 9.30am Bank of England Minutes Wednesday 9.30am Unemployment Rate Nov previous 7.4% Thursday 11am CBI Retail
Survey Jan previous 34 Friday 9.30am BBA Mortgage Approvals Dec previous 45k
Europe
Last Week
In Europe we saw Germany put in a lacklustre performance for 2013 by growing 0.3%, less than the market had been expecting Euro zone inflation remained at 0.8% as ECB members quietly fear entering into deflationary period.
This Week
Tuesday 10am German ZEW Survey – Economic Sentiment Jan previous 62.0 Thursday 8.28am German Manufacturing PMI Jan previous 54.3 Thursday 8.28am German Services PMI Jan previous 53.5 Thursday 8.58am EU Manufacturing PMI Jan previous 52.7
Thursday 8.58am EU Services PMI Jan previous 51
US
Last Week
In the US retail sales like Britain beat expectations growing by 0.2%, but excluding autos sales grew by 0.7% Inflation grew by 1.5%, which was in line with expectations allowing the US to keep interest rates on hold while they continue to carry out their tapering programme
This Week
Monday Markets closed for Martin Luther King Day Thursday 13.58pm Markit Manufacturing PMI Jan previous 55 Thursday 3pm Existing Home Sales Dec previous -4.3% m/m Thursday 3pm Leading Indicator Dec previous 0.8% m/m
Contact HiFX to help you with your international transactions, call in at Centro Plaza, call 951 203 986 or email olivepress@hifx.co.uk
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the olive press - January 22 - February 5 2014
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OP Columnists
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press - January 22 - February 5 2014 31 31 2014 is the yearthetoolive Keep up with the Joneses, writes Belinda Beckett (aka Mistress of Sizzle)
Me & Generation Jones (We got a thing goin’ on)
I
F you were weaned on The Wooden Tops … if you never think of Cher without Sonny … if all your baby pictures are sepia toned … never mind. Welcome to Generation Jones, the new Power Demographic! Baby Boomers are yesterday’s news, say marketing gurus. Generation Jones is the hot new market segment setting the agenda from this year on. We’re one in four
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Americans, one in five Europeans and nearly all of the world’s leaders. That’s Barrack Obama, Angela Merkel, Mariano Rajoy (sorry about him) … and yours truly! Now politicians want OUR votes, market analysts want OUR opinions and everyone wants OUR money. Our number, age, affluence and influence make us an irresistible force! (You can see it al-
ready from the number of TV ads playing music from our ‘70s and ‘80s heyday.) And about time, too. There has to be some compensation for missing out on the ‘fab’ side of the Swinging Sixties - Woodstock, flower power, meditating with the Maharishi Yogi - while being eternally associated with the ‘grot’ – shag pile, hot pants and AIDS… But that’s what defines us, ac-
10 things we grew up with…
10 things we grew up without…
Black and white TV Blue Peter Disco Vinyl records The Jackson 5 Typewriters Reds under the bed The Sony Walkman The Space Race Benny from Crossroads
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Mobile phones (we waited in for a call) A gap year The Internet Live Beatles concerts Ecstasy Student sit-ins Microwaves Reality TV Electric orange juicers GPS
Paper chase lifestyle...
I
HAD an idyllic childhood, which may come as something as a surprise to those of you who have had first hand experience of the rock n roll train crash that was my life over the past decade or so (otherwise known as to friends, family and various others as my ‘Jim Morrison’ phase) I grew up in the wonderful North Staffordshire countryside, with loving parents, a large house and expensive education. (I did very little academically, but I do have good manners). I was even Head Boy at Prep school for goodness sake. I wanted for nothing. But the one thing that I never had was a paper round as, living a good five miles from the nearest
newsagents, there was no way my 11-year-old self would be able to make it there and back on my Grifter before school. So I missed out on ticking one of the boxes marked essential childhood experiences. My chance to finally knock another one off the bucket list
A
Jonesin’ (a kind of unfulfilled yearning). “Jonesers were given huge expectations growing up during the height of post-war optimism, and then not many of them were met. In a sense we feel owed.” Too right! Joneses the world over have had their retirement age extended, their pensions plundered, their inheritances squandered and their limelight stolen by Boomers. It’s time to get even. “There’s been a reticence among Boomers to let the next generation have the spotlight,” agrees Pontell. “But now people are starting to sit up and notice that this generation has the money and the numbers, and they’d better start making some inroads. There’s a huge opportunity here for media and marketers.” So let the kowtowing commence because, to coin a favourite Joneser dance tune, We’ve Got The Power. Bring it on!
Giles gets a paper round and discovers a furry feline alarm clock... came earlier this month. One of our regular distributors was taking a break in the UK, so I volunteered to help out. One of the trade secrets of being a freelance journalist is your day to day life is very much like being on active service – long periods of boredom followed by explosive bursts of violence and terror. It’s like that on deadline day at the Olive Press, I can assure you. I’ve seen colleagues with what they used to term in Vietnam the ‘thousand yard stare’ – the look combat troops used to get from seeing too much, too young... As a freelance with a trusty
Rude awakening cat calls
LSO this month, I have been standing in for the lovely Hannah Murray on the TRE Breakfast Show. I love presenting the Breakfast Show, mainly for the fact that as I’m live on air at 8am, it normally takes me half the show for the coffee to kick in and me to properly wake up. You’ve heard the oft used comment ‘I could do this in my sleep?’ On the Breakfast Show that is literally true for the first hour. My only concern however was
cording to Jonathan Pontell, the American marketing guru who christened Generation Jones. Pontell saw we had a dif ferent psyche to the psychedelic set and deser ved a generation of our own. “We were wide-eyed, not tie-dyed,” he says. “I remember some older kids in my neighbourhood of fered to take me along to Woodstock. When I announced the good news to my parents at dinner, they said, ‘Finish your broccoli and go to bed. You’re not going to Woodstock. You’re 11 years old!’” Pontell named Jonesers (as they call them in the States) after the American slang term
Freelander, I duly loaded several thousand copies of the Olive Press into the back of my 4x4 and set off for a day of delivering. All was going well until the very last drop of the day in central Marbella. Rather than find a space I decided to double park and run in with the bundle of newspapers. Which was when disaster struck. I leapt back into the Land Rover, tired and sweaty but looking forward to a hot shower and a sticky bun when I got back to my place on the lake, turned the key in the ignition, and nothing happened. I checked under the bonnet,
that I would be able to get up at 6am to drive down from the lake, as my steam powered alarm clock is suspect at times. But I reckoned without the aid of two of my cats Vader and Genghis Khat aka ‘The Boys’. After my first 6am wake up they deduced that this must be the new feeding time and since then at 5.55am every morning I am greeted by yowls, howls and the banging on the bedroom door of the terrible two. In fact, THE BOYS: Vader and I’ve dispensed with the alarm clock! Genghis Khat
but not seeing a giant ON/ OFF switch (that’s about as far as my mechanical knowledge goes) I was stuck. A quick call to my mechanic established that he was in the UK, so I did what any cool, calm, 40something, would do. I went into complete and utter meltdown. I ranted. I raved, and just short of attacking the 4x4 with a branch a la Basil Fawlty, I completely lost it. Meanwhile traffic was building up behind me and showing all the restraint that you would expect from a street full of Spanish motorists. Just before I had a complete nervous breakdown (which normally only happens on deadline day) my mobile rang. It was my mechanic. “Try changing the battery in the immobiliser on your keyring” he advised. I sprinted to the nearest Opencor, brought a battery for less than a fiver, changed it and the beast fired up first time! With whoops of joy I set off back to the lake, swearing that next time I go delivering newspapers it will be with 2 litre bottle of water, packed lunch, and spare batteries!
Famous Generation Jonesers Gary Lineker, Liz Hurley, Jonathan Ross, Ian Botham, Hugh Grant, Cherie Blair, Bob Geldof, Ben Elton, Dawn French, Jennifer Saunders, Madonna, Sting, Bono.
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the olive press - January 22 -February 5 2014
GOLF In the swing of it
Hannah’s on the ball
TRICKY SURFACE: But the device could do for golfing what snowboards did for skiing
GolfBoards could be a speedier way to get around the course SKATEBOARDERS and golfers may not normally have much in common, but an American entrepreneur hopes to appeal to both sporting types with a new device that lets you ‘surf’ the fairways. The GolfBoard - demonstrated at a recent charity event in California - looks like a large motorised skateboard, but can comfortably carry a golfer and his clubs around 18 holes, according to its makers.
Fore! Surfers on the fairway
tween playing shots. The brainchild of fitness club Snowboard founder Don Wildman, the GolfThe innovative device aims to re- Board is predicted to ‘do for golfing place the golf cart as the smart way what snowboarding did for skiing.’ to get around a course, speeding The board, 38cm wide with 9cm up the game and offering players wide tyres, can ride up to 36 holes a snowboard-style work-out in be- without a recharge.
It is designed so that, even for a heavy golfer weighing more than 110kg on a very hilly course, it can go at least 18 holes. It can reach speeds of up to 19km/h - roughly the equivalent of a golf cart. Orders for the device have been
flooding in and production is set to start this month. The venture is being funded via crowd-source investment website Kickstarter, where backers earned the right to get one of the first boards off the production line.
THE CEO of a golf accessories company has become the youngest to sign up with Bit Pay, a merchant processor for virtual currencies. Junior professional golfer Hannah Dupay, 11, produces a range of fashionable and functional golf accessories and ball markers targeting female golfers. Her Etsy store, Goodie Girl Golf, will now accept payment by Bitcoin, which will eliminate bank and Paypal fees. Bitcoin is already the world’s strongest computer network and is the most disruptive technology since the Internet. The decentralised peerto-peer payment systems has no fees and is completely open source and transparent for all to see.
Park In-bee voted tops
SOUTH Korean LPGA Tour star Park In-bee has been voted the top female golfer for 2013. The Golf Writers Association of America (GWAA) said Park received 91% of the vote, after winning the first three major championships of the LPGA Tour season in 2013. The 25-year-old went on to lead women’s golf with six wins overall. She became the first LPGA golfer to win the first three majors of a season since Babe Zaharias in 1950, when there were only three LPGA majors a year. She rose to No. 1 in the world rankings in April and ended the 2013 season at the top.
No ifs,no putts, that’s rich! TIGER WOODS has become the richest golfer in history after being named PGA Tour Player of the Year 2013 for the fifth time. He scooped $83 million, nudging his career earnings to the $1.3 billion mark. Woods who became the first athlete to break the $1 billion barrier in 2009, according to Forbes, claimed Golf Digest’s annual money title after coming in ahead of Phil Mickelson ($52 million), Arnold Palmer ($40 million) and Jack Nicklaus ($26 million). Despite losing a bevy of commercial boosters after his 2009 sex scandal, Tiger earned
GOLDEN BOY: Tiger’s the richest golfer in history
some 88% percent of his career-long stipend from endorsements. His 79 tour victories, second only to Sam Snead’s all-time leading 82 earned him more than $155 million in prize money, but this comprises less than 12% of his total career earnings.
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n Buen
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the olive press - January 22 - February 5 2014
35 33 33
Take a new car for old break...
Plan steers sales on the road to recovery
DOUBLE ACT: BMW and Iberdrola to team up
SPAIN’S new car registrations in 2013 showed their first overall increase for three years, as a government subsidy for households helped offset a decline in sales to companies. Car manufacturer association Anfac said car registrations grew 3.3% in 2013. One of the main reasons for the rise was that drivers were given a lucky break by being offered a rebate if they handed in their old car when buying a new one.
Meet the green team
BMW and Iberdrola SA are to collaborate on electric-vehicle sales in Spain as the country promotes cleaner transport to curb emissions. Iberdrola, Spain’s largest power producer, will encourage its customers to choose BMW electric vehicles, while the German manufacturer will recommend Iberdrola’s renewable energy.
Rebate
Anfac confirmed that this government programme - offering consumers a rebate if they hand in an old car when purchasing a new one - had bolstered sales to households. Car sales to individuals increased 36% in December compared with the same month in 2012 and rose 18% overall in 2013 compared with the same period a
Targets
KEY JOY: New car sales on the increase
year earlier. Spain’s government increased the sales tax in September 2012, depressing auto sales late in that year.
Sales to companies continued to decline in 2013, Anfac said. Overall, new car sales in 2013 stood at 722,703 units compared with 699,589 units in 2012. Annual car registrations last increased in 2010, Anfac said.
Cash boost for road upgrades THE European Investment Bank (EIB) has approved a €465 million
loan to support upgrades to the Spanish road network.
European carmakers are betting that battery-powered vehicles will emerge from their niche status and become massmarket products as nations strive to cut transport pollution to meet emission targets. BMW started selling its i3 in Germany last month as competitors Mercedes-Benz, Volkswagen AG and Nissan Motor Co. promote rival models. Iberdrola’s agreement with BMW, which includes projects to expand technical innovation, can be renewed annually.
The funds will finance various infrastructure works including the construction of bypasses and access roads and the upgrading and widening of national roads.
Motor
Insurance
Financing
Toll road to cost more TOLLS on the AP-7 have risen 2% meaning it will cost €12.50 to travel from Estepona to Fuengirola in the summer. A Marbella to Fuengirola journey will cost €7.45, although there are discounts available to regular users of the road. The number of users for the year fell 12.3% in 2013, although the summer average was up 8.6% year on year, with an average daily total of 35,000 vehicles on the road.
The schemes financed by this loan come under Spain’s 2012 to 2014 Infrastructure, Transport & Housing Plan. Some of the roads concerned also form part of the Trans-European Transport Network (TENT) and will therefore also receive financing from the EU Cohesion and Structural Funds. The EU contribution, including the EIB loan, will cover around 59% of the total investment.
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COTTAGE IN THE DORDOGNE This delightful project was abandoned about six years ago due to ill health. A stone-built cottage in a quiet cul-de-sac approx one mile south of Champagne. Mains electric, water, telephone line, flush WC & septic tank. Partly restored and habitable. Ground level.Living room approx 24 sq m. Good concrete floor. Beamed ceiling with termite-resistant chestnut boarding. Traditional stone fireplace accommodates a Godin wood-burning stove.Sink in corner with cold water tap. Upper level.New floor (2007) with 18mm chip board on 9” x 2” joists. Treated with Xylophene insect repellent.Bedroom approx 12 sq m. Small bathroom with WC & hip bath. Rear space for small kitchen. Internal partitions insitu & fitted with new doors (2007). Further work is required including provision of stairway down to living room. Lower level.Garage approx 21 sq m with up-andover door. Rear Garden. South facing approx 430 sq m. 15m x 28m roughly grassed in 2007. Tel: 606 849 692 - (0034) 952 937 756. Tax Fonciere: 117 Euros PA. Site plan & location plan available on request.Price: 44,950 Euros ono.
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News IN BRIEF
Papaya promise ANDALUCIA’S farmers are considering growing papayas following a workshop last month. It is currently an unexploited market, with just 300 hectares assigned to the fruit in the Canary Islands.
Thai’d down SPAIN’S vegetable growers could benefit from an European ban on Thai produce. The EU is considering the move after fruit flies were found in a consignment of imported guavas.
All at sea PRODUCERS of Hass avocados in Malaga fear they may have damaged the reputation of their products as a result of shipping the fruit before it reached optimum quality.
Yogs away Danone has launched its Danio brand of yoghurt into the Spanish market. Spain becomes the latest market for Danio, after launching in France and the UK last year.
Kiss and tell!
TONGUE TRIED: The cheap electronic device can measure grape ripeness to help winemakers decide when to pick the grapes
Spanish scientists develop electronic tongue to measure grape ripeness SPANISH boffins have developed an electronic tongue that measures grape ripeness by analysing the acidity of the fruit and the amount of sugar in it. And it means that this clever gadget can tell farmers when the grapes are ripe for picking. The scientists - at the Universitat Po-
litecnica de Valencia - made the devices to measure the maturity of eight different types of grapes (Macabeo, Chardonnay, Pinot Noir, Cabernet Sauvignon, Syrah, Merlot and Bobal) in several locations of vineyards of Utiel and Requena (Valencia). Rsearchers observed a good corre-
lation between the response of the tongue and parameters analysed in traditional tests: the acidity of the fruit and its amount of sugar. The results confirm the usefulness of these devices for controlling grape maturity and therefore, evaluate the most appropriate time for harvesting,
The 100-day pomegranates
A TEAM of Spanish researchers has produced high quality pomegranates with a shelf life of almost 100 days. The new variety also required 40% less water during cultivation, according to the scientists at Murcia’s Institute of Plant Biotechnology of the Polytechnic University of Cartagena (UPCT) . The fruits are ideal for the processing industry, to be sold peeled, washed, packed and ready for
consumption, reaching in this case a shelf life of 20 days. As a result of post-harvest treatments, the fruit is rich in healthy bioactive compounds. Murcia is one of the regions most affected by water shortages in Spain; consequently, many research groups are currently looking for strategies that can help reduce water consumption in agriculture.
Spanish apricots allowed into US FRESH apricots from Spain are now allowed into the US following changes to the fruit and vegetables regulations. The Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) says that as a condition of entry, apricots from continental Spain will have to be produced in accordance with a systems approach that includes registration of production locations and packing houses, pest monitoring, sanitary practices, chemical and biological controls and phytosanitary treatment.
researchers said. Among its main advantages, the tongues are cheap and portable. “The latter is especially useful to assess the degree of ripeness as with current methods of analysis further assessment in a laboratory is usually required,” said Ramon Martinez Manez, researcher at the Centre for Molecular Recognition and Technological Development (IDM) - Universitat Politecnica de Valencia. “These devices allow performing a continuous monitoring of the process, which would result in greater control over the product, and ulHEALTH FRUIT: Now timately an increase in compomegranate shelf life petitiveness,” said researcher Inma Campos. increased to 100 days
Gee, mine’s a double! A BARCELONA brewery has partnered with a US microbrewery in a bid to combine their expertise. Under the agreement, Due South Brewing founder and head brewer Mike Halker will move to Spain next month to brew two different styles of beer at the Edge Brewing HQ. Besides the production of new beers, other plans in the deal include introducing locals to Due South’s beers and beer dinners.
Then, Halker will return to Spain for the release of the new beers in early March. Halker said the collaboration indicates the beginning of a cultural shift in Spain, a country known more for its wine than its beer. “The American craft beer movement is gaining popularity in Europe and Due South Brewing Co. is thrilled to help expose the people of Spain to the plethora of flavour possibilities when it comes to designing unique beers,” he said.
Take your peck!
Certified
Consignments will have to be accompanied by a certificate issued by the national plant protection organisation of Spain certifying that the fruit is free from all quarantine pests and has been produced in accordance with the systems approach.
ALE AND HEARTY: The Due South Brewing Company is heading to Spain A VALENCIA farm has launched a sponsor a hen campaign in a bid to make organic food available to more people. Sponsorship is €10 and for an additional €5 you can get half a dozen eggs a week.
Baths
OK CHUCK: Fancy sponsoring a hen?
Hens at Tomba LÓlla farm are fed corn, fruit and vegetables and live in a large hen house where they can run, peck and enjoy sand baths. More information is available from www.tombalalla.com
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TRIPPY WINES: New company is organising tours to Ronda
Little ole wine drinker me!
It was beginner’s luck on a whirlwind wine-tasting trip to three vineyards for Liam Kirkaldy. . . with a helping hand from an affable Argentinian architect
F
LAVIO is not your typical winemaker. In fact, he isn’t really a winemaker at all - the affable Argentinian spends most of his time as an architect. Though from meeting him you could be forgiven for assuming that he was mainly employed as a philosopher. “People spend too much time worrying about wine. I say, if you enjoy drinking it, then it is good,” he says. “Someone could tell you that a particular bottle is bad. But imagine, sit and drink it with a nice girl and you have a good time – now you tell me how can that be a bad bottle of wine?” As something of a wine-tasting beginner, I was relieved to hear this. I had been picked up for my TrippyVines tour from my house at 6:45 so that we could go and collect my fellow guests – TOUR: Getting a potted tour of a group of five New Yorkers on holiday. The group, in their late twenties, were the south. old school friends from Buffalo, who “We went to Flavio’s for a quick visit – had chosen Marbella for a week-long but he just kept on opening bottles. Five holiday. hours later we left with the idea to start Fortunately, they knew their wines. these tours.” And, because the regular driver was on And to Kelly, the wine tour business has holiday, we had the good fortune of behuge potential. ing shown around the bodegas by Kelly “In comparison to somewhere like Kannisto, the CEO of the company. South Africa, Spain is extremely laid The company runs a laidback about its attracback, flexible tour. In fact, tions. You can wander the Americans had rearound the south withIt was only 10am out realising the cultural quested a trip to Ronda, which Kelly managed to historical significance and yet we would or squeeze in. of a place – because no On the bleary-eyed early- not have to spit the one makes a big deal morning drive up the about it. wine out as one steep, winding road Kelly “Nine times out of ten told me that he and his people coming to the might expect wife had started the tour Costa del Sol just go company because they and lie on the beach. wanted to get away from stressful caBut there’s so much more on offer and reers. TrippyVines is our attempt to make the Both South African, they moved to Spain vineyards more accessible. We wanted four years ago - first living in Madrid, but a more informal laid back tour than the then moving south for a change of pace ones that already existed.” after they had kids. The first bodega on our list was Garcia Both big wine connoisseurs, they had Hidalgo, a small family owned vineyard, thought of the business during a visit to producing Cabernet Sauvignon, Syrah
one of the Ronda wineries and Merlots. The owner, Miguel García Pereila, showed us around the fields before taking us inside and walking us through the production process. The Americans, fortunately, had a few intelligent questions for Miguel over the difference between the French and American barrels the wine is stored in (the American ones give a vanilla taste, while the French barrels are apparently spicier). After the questions we moved on to my own area of expertise – drinking. It was around 10 am and yet there was no indication that - as I had feared - we would have to spit the wine out. We knew that this was the first of three visits, so it was with some relief that I spied the arrival of Spanish ham, manchego cheese, chorizo, mini diced patties (like chorizo burgers) and an enormous tortilla. The Americans attacked the table with gusto. With our first winery out the way, and feeling elated with my new-found knowledge of wine (I assume that is why I felt so good) – it was time for a quick stop-
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Truely Scrum cious!
“The Americans were clearly drunk, but I was able to conduct myself in an air of alert, clear-headed sobriety. We went to Flavio’s for a quick visit, but he just kept on opening the bottles . . . we left five hours later.”
R
UGBY’S Six Nations tournament gets underway on February 1. A mouth-watering first day of games sees France play England in the game known as ‘Le Crunch’ as well as Wales against Italy, with Ireland playing Scotland the following day. As mouth-watering as the fixtures themselves, however, is the food and drink at Flanker, the coast’s best rugby bar. Decorated with rugby memorabilia and with big screens perfect for watching the games, Flanker is run by the genial Oscar del Barrio, a stalwart of Marbella Rugby Club for years. In addition to great home cooked food, Flanker also has its own naturally brewed beer, as well as draught Guinness and a wide range of gins. The perfect place to sit back and enjoy the games! GENIAL: Oscar with his daughter
HARVEST TIME: At El Chantre vineyard in Ronda la Vieja and (right) Flavio, with his wine (inset) above off in Ronda. Although by this point I considered myThe visit was enhanced by the evident self an expert in wine production – our excitement of the Americans – who apguide helpfully took us through the difproached the trip with the same level ferences in the slightly larger scale proenthusiasm as a group of Labrador pupduction process. pies on their first trip to the park. Next, we sat down to eat – in my case But although the group an excellent dish of pork would have happily spent chops sautéed in one of By this point spirits the rest of the day gazing the finca’s reds – while at the scenery from the were high. In fact, continuing to sample the viewing point, we had sewines on offer (the Igualarious business to be get- there was talk of do was a particular crowdting on with – it was time pleaser). getting tattoos for lunch. By this point spirits were The second vineyard was high. In fact, there was a bigger operation. talk of getting tattoos, though the plan Bodega Joaquin Fernández, looking was held back by logistical considerdown on the dusty valley below, is proud ations (there are apparently no tattoo producer of the Garnache 2010 – a parlours in the hills around Ronda). vintage which has won awards across But in any case – there was no time for Spain and even abroad. tattoos, it was time for our third vine-
HISTORIC: Descalzos Viejos goes back more than 500 years
yard, which turned out to be the general favourite. Flavio was is architect and his winery - Descalzos Viejos - is based in and around an old monastery, which had been left in ruin for 500 years before he restored and converted it. He told us we probably knew enough about wine by this point and that we should settle down to drink it – though he also offered beer if anyone fancied a change (no one did). Flavio grows other fruits and vegetables, including avocados and some delicious satsumas, and after a quick tour of the site – which includes the monks’ old quarters, we sat down and discussed wine and the world. By this point the Americans were clearly drunk, and so it is fortunate for The Olive Press that I was able to conduct myself with an air of alert, clear-headed sobriety. One was earnestly telling Flavio about his romantic dilemmas, while I also overheard another planning his new life in Spain, including the line: “Sometimes you have just have to stop existing and start living.” After a few toasts to what seemed to have been the most successful journalistic enterprise in history – and one which I felt sure was guaranteed to earn me a Pulitzer – it was time to say goodbye to Flavio and troop back into the mini van so that Kelly – who fortunately had not been drinking – could start the journey back to the coast. At 7pm I was dropped off outside my front door. I bid farewell to my new American friends and fumbled with my key in the door. I knew I should have got that tattoo. Contact www.trippywines.com
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PM backs princess PRIME Minister Mariano Rajoy said Princess Cristina is innocent of corruption allegations less than three weeks before she is due to testify as a suspect in court. “I’m convinced of her innocence,” he said.
Retiring
FINAL WORDS
SPAIN is the fifth best country in the world to retire to, according to Forbes. The 2014 ranking is headed by Panama, and the top five includes Ecuador.
Cuban trades EU countries may consider upgrading the bloc’s trade relations with Cuba, but only if Havana respects human rights, Spain’s foreign minister has announced.
Taxi talk AROUND 40 female taxi drivers from across the country met in Malaga for a national ideas-sharing forum. This was the second time the event has taken place, and delegates included working group representatives.
Banged up
SEVEN members of a nine-strong drug smuggling gang have been jailed for between eight and three years each. Based in Warwickshire and Spain, the men imported tonnes of illegal drugs into the
Covering Andalucia in 2014 with over 200,000 papers EE (130,000 digital) and around 220,000 visits to the R F website each month… The Olive Press just keeps growing!
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We’ll drink to that! SANGRIA can only be sangrIa if it is made in Spain, according to new labeling regulations passed by the European Parliament. The limits on the use of the term sangria do not prevent it from being produced in other countries, but in such cases it has to be sold under a different name. The new rules also protect the use of the term clarea, a kind of spiced wine, which can also only be produced in Spain.
January 22 -February 5, 2014 www.theolivepress.es
Still number one...
WORLD and European champions Spain remain No.1 for the 29th consecutive month in the FIFA world rankings. The top 25 was unchanged after a month that included only 18 international matches — all exhibitions. Egypt made the biggest move, rising 10 places to No. 31. Spain holds a big lead over Germany, while Argentina was third. THIRST-CLASS NAME: Sangria - a Spanish tipple
The legislation was passed by a sizeable majority of MEPs, who supported the
changes by 609 votes for with 72 against and four abstentions.
Gays are ‘defective’
AN Andalucian cleric has caused outrage by insisting that gay people are ‘defective’. Malaga cardinal Fernando Sebastian Aguilar sparked outrage over his remarks about homosexuality, which he said was a ‘defective manner of expressing sexuality’. The 84-year-old, who takes up office in the Vatican in February, further angered gay rights groups by comparing the sexual orientation to his own high blood pressure. “Homosexuality is a defective manner of expressing sexuality, because this has a structure and a purpose, which is procreation,” he said in an interview with Diario Sur. “A homosexual who can’t achieve this (procreation) is failing,” he added, before saying, “Our bodies have many defects. I have high blood pressure.” He continued: “To say that homosexuality is a defect is not an insult: it helps because in many cases of homosexuality it is possible to recover and become normal with the right treatment.”
Cardinal insists homosexuals are ‘failing’ as they cannot have children
BIGOT:Aguilar
The comments have angered gay rights groups in Spain, and appear to be in direct contrast to Pope Francis’ views after the new pontiff expressed compassion for homosexuals last year. Gay campaign group Ojala said his words were ‘medieval’ and ‘out of place in this time’. But Sebastian remained defiant and stood by his views. He claimed it was ‘one thing’ to be compassionate towards homosexuals and ‘another to morally justify the practice of homosexuality’.
... and back in top three for tourism
SPAIN has regained its position in the Top Three most popular countries to visit. It has retaken third spot, behind America and France, after losing out to China in 2010. The number of tourists who travelled to Spain until November 2013 was almost 57.6 million foreigners - already exceeding the 55.4 million tourists who visited China throughout the entire year. Tourism Minister Isabel Borrego said that Spain was a ‘world power in tourism’ thanks to its competitiveness.