Sign of Confusion Web of corruption

Ex-mayor and councillors in Estepona facing 30 years prison and €28 million in fines

By Dilip Kuner

They are accused of running a town hall backhander system in which officials were handed gifts and kickbacks - mostly from developers - in return for awarding contracts to build. As well as payments to them or their families, they were also gifted with plasma TVs, watches, holidays and even drinks at brothels.

LEGAL checks have now been completed on a deal to allow British expats whose licences have expired back on the road.

An embassy update confirmed that ‘checks have now been completed on both sides’.

It added the final step to sign the international treaty ‘are now underway’ and it will be ‘very soon’.

Once the deal has been published in Spain’s official bulletin (BOE), residents who hold UK licences will finally be able to get back on the roads.

Barrientos (below), who was arrested in 2008, is accused of bribery, influence peddling and money laundering.

While it has taken an incredible 16 years to come to trial, the ex-mayor and his employees are facing €28m in fines, or the equivalent to how much public money was squandered. An attempt to stop the trial last week was overruled by Malaga court judge Andres Rodero after the prosecutor insisted it was a ‘conspiracy theory’. Lawyers for the accused claimed they had been ‘set up’ by disgraced former National Police commis -