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Ditching the Brits MALAGA is bracing for Brexit by looking to the US and Middle East to reduce its reliance on the traditionally important British market. The province’s tourism bosses have decided the area needs to diversify in terms of visitors not just from the UK, but also the local market. “If the national market catches a cold we don’t want to get pneumonia,” said tourism boss Francisco Salado, “we want to have an antidote.”
Boosting
The new drive means the need to get more flights to new markets in America, Asia and the Middle East. It is hoped flights will be set up between New York, Washington and Miami, making up for the loss of the Delta Airlines route to New York cancelled last year. The plans come in an 800-page marketing plan for 2020-2023, which has detailed 213 objectives to increase competitiveness. These include improving the quality of jobs and boosting the €16.8 billion market by 3.4% each year. They also want to focus marketing spend more on the Nordic market.
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Unlike its well-heeled residents don’t needyou deep pocke ts to enjoy the wealth of natura wonders l in Benahavis, writes Joanne Oakley
LEAMING like a white hills above pearl in the no is the crown Marbella, Benahavis wonder, classic white jewel of Grant, Rod with the likes Andalucia villages sons. of visitors ’s do Stewart for so many Most famously, rea- Thecontributing to and Cristiano Hugh Ronalthe town village cipality it’s the in the region richest billionaire is second home hall coffers. wealthiest munineighbour s who have bought to a host of per capita and the second average in income swankiest ing La Zagaleta, property in pushing all Spain with €29,000. Putin is private urbanisati Andalucia’s reportedly And on. Vladimir one - although the Continues
overleaf
OLIVE PRESS GIBRALTAR
Beautiful Benahavis Everything you need to know in our free travel guide pages, 13 to 20
Vol. 5, Issue 116 www.theolivepress.es February 19th - March 3rd, 2020
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February 2020
HEAD TO HEAD II It’s Westminster vs Wellington
t Press special supplemen
Education A 16-page Olive
KES FFERENT STRO DI W so many good
schools in right one
worked algebra - but we’ve as confusing as your choice. child’s education checklist to help simplify with a cheat sheet
See the battle of British dukes and their Spanish property empires, only on www.theolivepress.es this weekend
on it
balance
With of term with butterflies picking the Charlie on the first daythe parents. southern Spain, E’VE all been there question. school can – and that’s just certainly a driving in our stomachs adults alike, starting a new of is a multiple choice of after school are of academia,” says wracking days and activities a cheat sheet For children and and/or nerve “Exam results parents don’t want a barrageInternational School most memorable Smith prepares you decide be one of the force but some head teacher at SotograndeI don’t think schools and dads pacto help anxious mums our lives. school, and James Kearney, the number of after their little one has walkedit answers will suit their (SIS). “They want a balanced of with You can tell from about which school best versions school gates long them to get on exam factories. long and hard ing outside theAlthough some parents leave develop into the it should be will have thought want to see children for choice when through them. which older kids far prefer. wanting the best for child. Continues overleaf really are spoilt premier Parents independently, parents have in common is in Andalucia, you along with some of Spain’s them. education, tweak Fortunately But one thing all climate to enjoy comes to a quality for your before the final their children. the big day get going long cry from the kitchen sporting facilities and the perfect the perfect launchpad it makes picking Preparations for the school tie) and the Unfortunately, of the noose (akapacked lunch!’ to a shine, parents ‘Don’t forget your are purchased and buffed Before new shoes
It’s all about
Private or state school? All this and more in our free Education Supplement.
HEAD TO HEAD I
Pages 9 to 24
Victory! By Laurence Dollimore
A BRITISH expat couple have won a landmark legal battle against a bank after being duped into mortgaging their dream home to plunder their cash into supposedly ‘low-risk’ investments. Pensioners Barry and Marion Joyce were about to lose their home in Benalmadena, which had cost them their life savings, after becoming trapped in the sophisticated financial product. Devised by the Rothschild bank, the product targeted expats who had properties in Spain with no mortgages. It allowed them to take out mortgages worth up to 75% of the value of their homes with the proceeds then invested with an insurance company to provide an income. But things went awry when the investments did not perform as well as promised, leaving the expats unable to pay off their mortgages. Now a judge from Malaga has condemned the bank, ruling in favour of the Joyces. The Torremolinos court annulled the entire mortgage and ordered Rothschild to return ‘every penny paid’ so far by the Joyces, both in
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Expat couple will keep Costa home in landmark win against Rothschild bank their 70s. They have also been allowed to keep more than €15,000 given to them by the bank as a signing on bonus.
Demanding
It is the first sentence to directly condemn N.M Rothschild & Sons and its Credit Select Series Four arm, which marketed the Spanish Investment Transfer and Income Mobilisation Plan (Sitimp). More than 100 other cases are set to come before courts around Spain over the next few years. In each case, once expats agreed to mortgage their homes, the bank assessed their property and immediately gave them 5 to 10% of its value in cash. They then used their equity to invest in what were advertised as ‘safe products’. In the case of the Joyces, they took out a loan of €227,000 with the bank which was invested into supposedly ‘low risk’ financial products abroad. This product was actually a life insurance through a company called Aspecta Assurance
DUPED: The Joyces joyous after landmark win International Luxembourg SA, which was also condemned in the case. In the first year alone the couple’s €227,000 investment sunk by a shocking €55,443.
Stress
By 2016, 10 years after signing onto the deal, the investment had not grown and the Rothschild bank was demanding €302,000 in mortgage repayments from the couple. The bank threatened that if they didn’t pay their home would be taken from them. The stress of the case was similar to many other cases the Olive
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Press has reported on over the last five years. In 2017, we reported how bank owner, French aristocrat Baron David de Rothschild had been forced to answer questions over the investments in an Alicante court. The multi-millionaire banking scion denied any knowledge of the complex case that saw up to 1000, mostly British pensioners, lose millions. Rothschild insisted that he ‘did not know’ about the product. “I was not personally involved in the contracts”, he wrote in French. Marbella lawyer, Antonio Flores, of Lawbird, who is helping dozens of British pensioners mount a class action against the Rothschild enterprise, told the Olive Press: “I find it shocking that the man who’s a boss in a bank doesn’t know about what was going on with one of his companies or anything about the product that was being sold”, he said. “It’s just not believable to me.” Opinion Page 6