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CASES of ‘werewolf syndrome’ have grown after 16 children were given contaminated medication on the Costa del Sol. Infants developed hypertrichosis - excessive body hair growth - after taking omeprazole which had been contaminated by minoxidil – the active ingredient for alopecia medication. Some 13 babies had initially been diagnosed with the condition before three more cases linked to the tainted drugs were discovered earlier this month. Officials believe the contamination could have affected up to 30 Andalucian pharmacies and more than 50 batches of the drug.
Hair
Malaga-based pharmaceutical company Farma-Quimica Sur SL has been found to be the source of the batch. The affected batch is from lot 11072/10/42 and most have been recalled while any missing packets are being tracked down. Parents have been advised to seek medical help if their child has been given the formula and check with their pharmacy if they have purchased an affected lot. Hypertrichosis, known as ‘werewolf syndrome’, is a rare condition characterised by excessive hair growth anywhere on a person’s body. Those with the condition have historically been subject to great interest and in somes cases forced to perform in travelling circuses and freak shows. Spanish authorities have said this incident is isolated to children’s formula and that adults taking omeprazole capsules should not worry about developing symptoms. When the children stopped taking the prescription their hair growth subsided.
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Vol. 3 Issue 62 www.theolivepress.es August 30th - September 12th 2019
The British expats who are proBrexit and proud SEE PAGE 7
Kick in the stomach
A RISING football star is one of at least 51 customers believed to have been poisoned at a Japanese restaurant in Mallorca. Real Mallorca B footballer Victor de Baunbag is among the dozens to have fallen ill this week after eating at Dragon Sushi on Calle Blanqerna in Palma. The Cameroonian forward, born in Madrid, is one of many who have already tested positive for Salmonella - the bacteria found in uncooked meats and seafood.
Health authorities are reportedly preparing heavy sanctions for failures in the handling of food and ‘structural deficiencies’. A top scorer in his club and standing at 6ft 2, Baunbag was last year tipped to be signed by English Premier League club Liverpool. In November, agents from the Reds said the 19-year-old’s qualities ‘could fit well’ in England and made it known that they were tracking him. The rising star will now be firmly off the pitch while he recovers from sickness. The alarm of the Salmonella outbreak was first
raised when 19-year-old Carlos Mora entered the emergency room the morning after eating at the restaurant. However it wasn’t until two days later that Dragon Sushi was closed by food safety inspectors, who ordered tests to be performed. While the current number of victims stands at 51, authorities believe that figure could climb much higher. The restaurant will remain closed until the case is complete.
Victory!
Rental websites which scammed British holidaymakers out of thousands FINALLY shut down following Olive Press exposes
2
CRIME
May 9th - May 22nd 2019
Dream Killas
www.theolivepress.es
Vox
4 blocked www.theolivepress.es
take The Olive Press helps victims action following skyrocketing reports of holiday rental scam
Your reporters, here to help on the Costa Blanca Introducing News Editor Laurence Dollimore and Reporter Joshua Parfitt Contact them with any stories or news on 951 273 575 or email newsdesk@theolivepress.es (Personal contacts on page 6)
mother to lung cancer a few THE Olive Press is helping years ago. victims take legal action “My nephews and nieces were against a holiday rental com- really looking forward to it as pany that scammed holiday- they have never been abroad,” makers thousands for rental Deleslie told the Olive Press. villas on the Costa Blanca. “I spent two years saving up It comes as the paper was for this trip, and we just can’t contacted by new victims of afford to pay for new villa. Dream Villas Spain, following The kids are devastated.” last issue’s report on the plight We helped the family make of the Bolton family, who lost a police denuncia, after De€2,000 on a Moraira rental. leslie said she will lose ‘more Petra Deleslie, 42, has now than €12,000’ as flights were contacted us after losing already booked and her bank €6,000 booking a villa in Mo- were unable to claim their exraira later this year for her money back. tended family of 18. She showed the Olive Press We agreed to help after she emails asking Dream Vitold us she was ‘desperate’ llas Spain for a refund, after her losing after for a break
SEL-FISH JAVEA Town Hall has begun legal proceedings against the owner of a property who cut off public access to a heritage fishing ground in Balcon al Mar. The unknown owner, who has a luxurious four-storey villa overlooking Cala Ambolo, built a ‘stone staircase’ with ‘metal railings’ that cut access to the Llavadora del Pinet fishery. Councillor Isabel Bolufer said
NEWS
VOX’S top candidate for Benidorm mayor has been replaced
revelations he received a Socialist win
after A BRITISH for expat is being handed two-year prison sentence tigious British gong by the Queen a presfor her domestic violence in February services to tourists in Alicante. Candida Wright will receive an MBE 2018. for two years ago from the British banher charitable AmbassaPerez Brigido was work as an interpreter Davidparty THE socialist (PSOE) largest hospital in the Marina Alta, in dor to Spain. election,thedespite the ned will hold on on Though she is a professional to from the Valencian May 16. interpreter, government sentences sometimes two-year Candida often represents victims of in the upcoming The if58-year-old, sexual known as ‘Candy’, the regional elections, in Spain according being waived volunteered with HELP of Denia & has violence in Spanish courts for free, as well to a market research company. Mari- as offering financial support has no previous na Altaconthrough her since it launched in 1984. Sigma Dos accused revealed PSOE will charity. During that time she has helped victions. take between expats 29-30 seats, whito have through cancer, bereavement, bureaucra- “One of the hardest things is when someowas found Brigido Perez le the Popular ne comes to the desk saying ‘my husband Party (PP) will cy and court battles. ex-wife, his see its representation ‘repeatedly died and I don’t know what to do’,” fall abused’ from As the president expof the charity, she runs her threw 31 seats to 22-23. after he ‘shoved and the helphair desk at the Marina Salud hospital lained Candy, who lives in Ondara with But with the her her Spanish husband. Her two children, totalground, seats inpulled to the in Denia. Valencia’s Generalitat at 99, face’. “The punched her in the most exciting thing was the pink in- 35 and 25, live in Madrid and Valencia andneed PSOE will again respectively. While she to form dis- I was posted with the card vitation alsoa found The judge the words tal procedures, burials helps with hospicoalition to reach the absolute conned Brits abroad BP (Buckingham and repatriation, had Palace),” Candida told she’s often majority of 50 SCAM: Dream Villas Spain site graced seats. far-right politician called upon to just be a ‘helping theand Olive‘dePress. The poll suggests returns from 2014 to 2017. hand’ to someone in need. frequently the PSOE‘insulted’ will “I thought it meant British Petroleum at “You’re which ‘general manager’ Ro- There is no availablemake phone was who a pact meaned’ with Valencianist the woman, sometimes dealing with people first.” she joked. sella Alba Gutierrez has shut Compromis webthe stress who (17-18 on are one seats) cancer (the and patients, or need amputanumber The expat, who has lived in Spain left with post-traumatic left-wing populist Spain’s Companies House site has been disconnected) Podemos years, received a ‘Points of Light’ for 45 tions, and it just gives you a wonderful fe(6-7Alba award eling to think ‘I really helped seats). disorder. and reveals that Dream Villas and the name Rosella them today’.” MEETING QUEEN: The regional elections will fall Candida Spain, which is registered as Gutierrez appears nowhere on Mayin 26 the same day as the Digital Dream SL, was incor- the list of employees. European elections. porated in 2014 for ‘data pro- Another victim told the OliSee our election cessing and web hosting’. had on ve Press this week she guide page 6 Based in Carrer de la Fe, in as Palma, Mallorca, it filed tax
the Town Hall began proceedings after learning that the owner had intentionally reformed the stairs, closing access to the ancient site from Calle Samuel Adler. “These works represent a very serious attack on a heritage that corresponds to us all,” said a spokesperson for Jávea Oceanographic Research Institute (IROX).
CATCH THESE CONMEN
Swallow the bait
Wheely fast!
40, co-owner of Xabia’s Bikes, told the Olive Press. “I’m not sure they knew what they were doing as they knocked over a bike worth €12,000 and didn’t take it—which is great for us.”
April 25th - May 8th 2019
Gong for Candy!
booked a villa in Marbella a surprise getaway for four friends and five 18-year-old artists have scammed a daughters as a post-A Levels CON pensioner out of €300 British present. pretending to help him reSarah Adam, based in Lon- after money left at a cashpoint don, told us she is convinced cover last Saturday. Javea THE owners of ainbike she has also been scammed. are 77, was approaStokes, Brianshop not res-for witnesses The company has appealing a British families scammed out of ‘20-something’ two byof- in theft of €40,000 for ched of stock ponded to email requests the Sa- from thousands just one minute! Spanish men outside comment. EXCLUSIVE la Nau The theft at Xabia’s Cabo deholiday bank Bikes badell in onfake Coombes By Joshua Parfitt Meanwhile, DarrenMoraira saw ninePla bikes stolen he had left €20 in claiming Dream at 4am last Wednesday mor- A from Alicante-based thenwho thieves BRITISH family the cashpoint. The booked villa, in Moraira, before transning. Press Villa Spain told the Olive a week’swithdraw holiday on the Costa ferring the deposit. they couldn’t One of the in cashing bikes, claimed a Trek LR10, the fraudsters are was Blancaand were asked shocked to see She has now confirmed worth €13,000. cash themselves drawing that their villahis on his credibility and advertised card, as avai- her “Two thieves in andtoin re-insert Stokes pro- broke lable on a completely different overfamily have been scammed users from his legitimate just a minute and a half they the holiday due for June. which stole stole. website. nine bikes,” Martin “We were this close to leaving perty business website. Stadlhofer, Susan Bolton, 61, soon realised she had lost the ₤1,300 deposit when Dream Villas Spain, based in Mallorca, shut off all contact. The mother-of-two from the West Midlands had spent weeks finding the perfect holiday
Animal horror
A BRITISH expat called in police after finding a group of dogs chained in an abandoned house without food. Roger Ballantine contacted the Guardia the dogs while out walking near Orba. Civil after finding Ballantine had decided to investigate ‘pungent smell’ coming from the ruin. when he noticed a Inside he found scenes worthy of kept on short chains surrounded a horror film with dogs by trash and their own excrement. “It was despicable,” Ballantine told clear that farmers have chained thesethe Olive Press. “It is four dogs.”
Mystery suicide MYSTERY surrounds the apparent suicide of an elderly British resident on the Costa Blanca. The 84-year-old expat threw herself from a bridge in Javea after being seen ‘pacing frantically’ by the railings. A neighbour, who asked not to be named, told the Olive Press he saw the woman ‘peering over the edge’ after squeezing between a fence and a steel support pillar at one end of the bridge. It was about an hour before police were alerted to a suicide attempt over the dry Gorgos riverbed while children played on a nearby football pitch. “She was holding a white paper bag and kept looking in the bag and then leaning over the edge,” the neighbour told the Olive Press. “I wanted to ask her what she was doing, but I worried she spoke only Spanish and assumed she was feeding stray cats.”
Quickly
Just after 7pm last Tuesday another Spanish eyewitness revealed she had seen the woman jump from the eastern of two bridges on
the Avenida de Augusta. for our holiday that never existed,” Bolton told the Olive SCAM: Brit family caught by “I was walking to Mercadofake villa website Press. na when I saw her take off He told the Olive Press they tations’. “I knew we had been conned had chosen her shoes, climb the railing, when I contacted them regar- different the villa out of 780 The scam comes almost two and no more,” the homes for rent on the years since woman ding an airport pick up and got site. the Olive Press told the Olive Press. “It all exclusively no response. It made me beco- They only realised they had fake holidayexposed a string of happened so quickly.” me suspicious.” websites duping Three police been scammed cars and an She added the company is now port pick-up when an air- tourists coming to Spain. ambulance raced to the scenever arrived, In a series of not responding to any calls or and he investigations ne to retrieve caught a taxi to the the body. emails. property to find the bewilde- we found dozens of tourists Police confirmed the had been scammed millions of cause Meanwhile, celebrity chocola- red German. euros from the various sites, of death as suicide, while a te taster Angus Kennedy lost “What ₤5,000 when his family dis- case is I was different in our which illegally uploaded villa spokesperson for the Town was determined to get photos from Hall said the lady was Briticovered a German man living to the house, legitimate sites. and then contac- Among those sh and had lived in a block at the Mallorcan villa they had ted the scammed were press” booked through Dream Villas Olive Press. Angus told the British Rugby Union star of flats next to the river ‘for Spain. “I think many more have been Dean Schofield, who lost many years’. €50,000 on a fake villa in Ma- Neither police or the town Kennedy, from Kent, revealed duped and the scam could be llorca. that when the family arrived worth millions.” hall would reveal her name, Spain Dream Villas, who ope- suggesting it was this month, the owner, who The website proving he used to book rate as Digital Dreams gave his name as Klaus, was the trip, SL, de- problematic to contact her completely baffled and knew com, claimsdreamvillasspain. clined to comment. next of kin in the UK. its goal is to ‘crea- JWe were unable nothing about the rental or te your to contact None of the residents in the dream holiday expewebsite. rience and exceed your expec- anyone at Dream Villas Spain area by the bridge knew the as we went to press. octogenarian.
A WORLD CLASS INTERNATIONAL
SCHOOL LOCATED ON THE CUMBRE
A FRAUDULENT villa rental website that tricked British holiday952 147 834 makers out of thousands has finally shut down following an extensive AT LAST: Scammers Dreamvillasspain.com nailed after Olive Olive Press campaign this year. Press campaign (inset left), while (right) victim Angus and family Dreamvillasspain.com was behind countless tales of heartbreak as it It soon dawned on Angus he’d lost fielding calls concerning bogus seduced holidaymakers into pur- his €5,500 and urgently needed a rentals from Tenerife, to Marbella chasing villa rentals that never ex- place to stay with his wife and five and Moraira. One of the most heartisted. young children. breaking was from Petra Deleslie, The first case was reported by the “I think many more have been 42, and the collapse of her €6,000 Olive Press to the Guardia Civil in duped and the scam could be worth month-long villa rental on the Costa April when professional chocolate millions,” Angus told this paper at Blanca, booked for this October. taster Angus Kennedy turned up at the time. The mum-of-two from Kent was all a villa he had paid for in Mallorca. With mounting cases, this paper set to travel with 18 extended family He was met with bewildered Ger- made a collective denuncia at the members for a ‘much-needed break’ man owner, Klaus, had no following the death of her mother to Untitled-1.pdf 1 who 16/06/2017 15:36Guardia Civil in Moraira on behalf knowledge of ever putting his house of UK-based victims. lung cancer. up for rental. Soon after, the Olive Press was “My nephews and nieces were really looking forward to it as they have never been abroad,” Deleslie told the Olive Press. “I spent two years saving up for this trip, and I just can’t afford to pay for a new villa. The kids are devastated.” Deleslie added the cumulative loss of flights would cost her family €12,000 in total. Then there was Sarah Adams, who booked a surprise getaway to Malaga for four friends and their jointfive daughters as a Find out more on page XX post-A Levels present. Both Deleslie and Adams felt their stomDEL SOL IN BENITACHELL
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achs lurch as they read of the scam tactics of dreamvillasspain.com in the Olive Press. The way the scam operated was that prospective renters would receive an email from ‘general manager’ Rosella Alba Gutierrez offering discounts for up-front payments on respective villas. But once paid, Gutierrez would shut off all contact, as it turned out the company’s phone was a fake. For months nothing was heard - until a major UK news network got in touch saying the website had been shut down. The Olive Press can also reveal a second site - named and shamed in a separate article - is also no longer live. Travelvacationtour.com operated with exactly the same layout and houses as dreamvillasspain.com, and scammed Brit Donna Archer out of €5,500 for a Tenerife villa booked as a post GCSE gift to her son and his best mate in May. It is not yet clear if legal action has been taken against the companies, as both are listed as ‘active’ on Spanish Companies House. Guardia Civil could not comment before we went to press. Opinion Page 6