Amy Winehouse coroner 'not qualified'

 

The family of singer Amy Winehouse have said they are "taking advice" following news that the coroner who oversaw her inquest has resigned. Camden Council has confirmed that Suzanne Greenaway had stood down because she had not been a lawyer in the UK for the required five years. The council said she had been appointed "in error" by her husband Andrew Reid, the coroner for inner north London. Ms Greenaway ruled that Winehouse, 27, died from accidental alcohol poisoning. She returned a verdict of misadventure. The Office for Judicial Complaints has begun an inquiry into Dr Reid's conduct. Letter of apology In a statement, Winehouse's relatives said: "The Winehouse family is taking advice on the implications of this and will decide if any further discussion with the authorities is needed." Ms Greenaway qualified in Australia in 1999 in September and was a member of the Supreme Court there but she had not worked as a lawyer for the required time in the UK, a Camden Council spokesman said. The spokesman added that the Winehouse inquest verdict remained legal and would only be judged illegal if it was challenged and subsequently overturned by the High Court. Amy Winehouse's father leaves St Pancras Coroners Court Dr Reid said he was writing to all of the families affected to apologise. He said: "While I am confident that all of the inquests handled were done so correctly, I apologise if this matter causes distress to the families and friends of the deceased." He has offered to hold the inquests over again if the families of the deceased request it. During her time as deputy assistant coroner, Ms Greenaway conducted 12 inquests in Camden, but mainly worked from Poplar Coroner's Court. Coroners are appointed by the Ministry of Justice who then interview and appoint their own staff, including in the case of Dr Reid, his assistant deputy coroner. Under the Coroners Act, he must then notify the local authority although it has no power of scrutiny over appointments, a Camden Council spokesman said. The inquest into Winehouse's death heard she was more than five times the drink-drive limit when she died on 23 July. Ms Greenway had said the "unintended consequence" of Winehouse drinking so much alcohol was her "sudden and unexpected death". Three empty vodka bottles, two large and one small, were found at her flat, St Pancras Coroner's Court heard.

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The great Asian gold theft crisis

 

Two small faces pull the curtain back in a side room and peer round to see who is at the door. After they run back inside, their mother, Mrs Rashid, unlocks the front door. Five weeks ago, she came home one evening to find the door ajar. The downstairs floor of her house was relatively untouched but upstairs the bedrooms had been ransacked – drawers opened, wardrobes emptied, clothes and belongings scattered everywhere. "It was such a huge shock," she says, sitting on the sofa, her voice breaking slightly. Her husband, Mr Rashid (neither want to give their full names), a big man sitting across the room, shakes his head. "They took it all," he says. The thieves who broke into this semi-detached house in Earley, near Reading, stole around £70,000-worth of gold jewellery. To those who are not from a south Asian family, it might seem remarkable to own so much valuable jewellery, but families such as the Rashids (Mr Rashid runs a small business) live in ordinary houses and are not particularly wealthy. Their gold collection – elaborate necklaces, rings, earrings and bangles – is treasure that has been handed down from generations of their families in Pakistan or bought as wedding gifts. It's our savings, our security, says Mrs Rashid, visibly upset. If, in future, the family needed money, they would have sold some pieces. "It's like paying a mortgage for 20 years and then having a house worth thousands of pounds afterwards – it's the same thing with gold," she says. "Our parents gave it to us, we would have given it to our children, they would have given it to their children," says her husband. They tried to put their gold in the bank, but "there were no lockers available. Everyone is looking for one." With other investments looking distinctly shaky in the economic crisis, last year gold prices reached record levels. In the autumn, an ounce reached a peak price of £1,194; today it is worth around £1,100 and analysts predict it could reach a new peak later this year or early next, as people seek safer investments, and demand for gold jewellery rises with the growing middle-classes in India. Asian gold (sometimes called Indian gold) is a broad term that covers jewellery bought and held by south Asian families, and often passed down through the generations. It tends to be the highest quality – often 24 carats, the purest gold – and it has vastly increased in value, sometimes to the point where a family can't afford to insure it. Thieves know that some south Asian families may have a large collection of gold at home, and it is these houses they target. There are no figures for the number of gold thefts, let alone the theft of Asian gold, but everyone I speak to believes the number of robberies is increasing. Last year, several police forces in areas where there is a large Asian community, such as Leicester and Slough, ran awareness campaigns after a spate of opportunistic robberies – there have been several reports of women who have had their gold jewellery snatched in the street – and burglaries. For a while, an attempted gold theft was a line of inquiry in the murders of Carole and Avtar Kolar in Birmingham in January, though the police later ruled this out. Mr Rashid shows me the window in the downstairs bathroom that was broken, and where the thieves must have got in. He thinks the house was being watched, because he noticed a silver car outside the front some days before. "My family is so frightened," he says. "My kids won't go upstairs on their own, it's a completely different life since it happened." They feel the police have not been very supportive, and they have little hope the perpetrators will be caught. "I was already upset, and a policeman said: 'Your gold must have been melted down by now,'" says Mrs Rashid. "I was even more upset when he said that." The Rashids know of several other families in the area who have been burgled. "A few watches and a BlackBerry were taken, but they were looking for gold," says Vikas Tandon, whose house in the area was broken into in September. "They seemed to know where to look – I am confident they used metal detectors. There were bowls of jewellery in one of the rooms, with real gold and artificial jewellery mixed in together. They only took the gold, so they knew what they were looking for." Tandon has now installed CCTV cameras "to give the family more confidence. The loss of the gold itself is bad, but the psychological after-effects of being burgled are worse. Everyone is scared." A local councillor, Tahir Maher, says: "A lot of residents have been very badly affected. It started in the summer. It is very much Asian families who are being targeted." In one day, he says, five homes in the area were burgled and gold stolen. He went door-to-door warning families to keep their gold in safes, or put it in the bank, "although banks have started to stop giving people safe deposit boxes, so people are keeping their gold at home". It isn't just homes that are targeted. This month, in Bradford, two men wearing balaclavas stole bagfuls of gold worth up to £100,000 – a third man had driven a 4x4 into the back of a jewellers as it was closing up. The terrified staff fled. In areas of Birmingham where there are a large number of Asian jewellers, several shops have been robbed. In the Handsworth area, where many south Asian people come to buy jewellery, there are numerous jewellers. Wedding sets – an elaborate necklace and earrings in 22-carat gold – can cost upwards of £5,000 for a fairly basic design, though the sets I see on display in many of the shops are much cheaper, lesser quality versions. Most of the jewellers have CCTV cameras and metal shutters. One of the jewellers I go into is protected by cameras, a metal grille, bulletproof glass and two time-lock doors. Another jewellers across the road was robbed last year during the day by three armed men. "There were customers in the shop," says the owner, who does not want to be named and is reluctant to go into details. He says there is an increased level of fear among jewellers specialising in Asian gold. "There is a fear daily. This is what we are living with now." Nigel Blackburn is chairman of Lois Jewellery, one of the biggest gold buyers in Birmingham's Jewellery Quarter. The staff behind the counters are busy dealing with a steady stream of customers bringing everything from random old bits of broken chains and odd earrings, to cases full of gold jewellery. It is weighed, the quality gauged, and cash is handed over. I watch some people leave with bundles of notes – one man, who has brought in several kilos of gold, walks out on to the street with nearly £75,000 in £50 notes stuffed into a plastic carrier bag. Blackburn's company buys £4-5m worth of gold every week, and about £500,000 of that is Asian gold. Much of it comes from jewellers wanting to get rid of stock, from owners selling pieces and from smaller dealers selling it on. He shows me a tub of bangles ready for smelting (once molten, they are poured into a mould and come out as gold bars). The prices have rocketed. Six years ago a kilo of Asian gold jewellery would have fetched £6,000; now it is worth £30,000. How much of it is stolen? Hopefully none of it, he says. His staff do what they can – sellers fill out a form before their gold can be bought – but he says: "ID means nothing these days – criminals can forge anything." Mainly his staff rely on judgment. "If someone brings in a gold chain that has been snapped, it could have been pulled off someone's neck," he says. "If someone is out there" – he points to the timelock door where people can be seen before they are admitted – "and they look nervous or they just don't look 'right', that will raise alarm bells. We will not buy from anybody we're not sure of. There are unscrupulous [dealers] round here. They buy it, they melt it and then you can't prove anything." Many of the dealers have smelting equipment, and it can be done in a matter of minutes. Inevitably, sometimes stolen gold "slips through the net. But we've got the CCTV to give the police. We have cameras trained on the scales, so we film everything we buy, and the people who sell it." He works closely with the police and they are called any time he is suspicious of somebody; he was responsible for 14 arrests one week. If there's a robbery, especially in the Midlands, he will be alerted, "so we know what to look out for". Another jeweller in the area who buys gold says she knows of dealers who don't care if they buy stolen gold. She thinks she has been offered stolen Asian gold in the past, "but I refused to buy it. I don't want to make my money in a dishonest way." But there are numerous ways to easily sell gold with few questions asked. "There are places in shopping centres that will buy gold and pay good prices. Even Tesco now buys it," says one jeweller. There is also a wealth of online scrap gold dealers who will pay upwards of £800 an ounce for the finest quality (usually Asian) gold – simply send the jewellery off in an envelope and wait for money to be sent back. "One of the issues is that gold jewellery is often not traceable," says Paul Uppal, MP for Wolverhampton South West, who has taken an interest in the issue of gold theft. "Constituents had spoken about it, and also coming from an Asian family it was word-of-mouth as well. At the moment, it's easy to smelt the gold down and sell it off." Gold sales aren't covered under the Scrap Metal Dealers Act, which requires dealers to keep detailed records of metal received; many think the act is inadequate. It could be updated later this year if a current six-month pilot scheme is a success, but it isn't clear if precious metals will be included. "Anyone can walk into a jewellers and the gold can be smelted down within 20 minutes," says Uppal. "There needs to be some sort of audit trail. I've mentioned it to ministers whenever I can but the problem is, it seems to be viewed in the grand scheme of metal theft. This is quite nuanced, and very specific to the Asian community as well." In Earley, councillor Maher has helped set up a neighbourhood watch-style group aimed at the Asian community worried about gold burglaries. It is still a new scheme, but he says it is growing. "People are looking out for each other," he says. He is working with the police closely because he says his big fear is that "people may take matters into their own hands in a bad way". The way he talks makes it sound like a community under attack – Maher knows of families who have lost tens of thousands of pounds' worth of gold, including elderly people, a single mother and another woman who miscarried after discovering her house had been broken into. "People are living in fear. Mothers were scared to be at home with their children in the day, and older people were frightened of being attacked in the street or followed home," he says. "There is a lot of mistrust. This has cost the community a lot."

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Malaya case hears dramatic statement from Fidel San Román

 

The constructor, Fidel San Román, who is now 72, on Monday ratified, one by one, all the payments which the prosecutor considers he made to Juan Antonio Roca, the man who was the Municipal Real Estate Assessor in Marbella Town Hall. As the Malaya case continues in Málaga, the amounts paid by San Román totalled 3.08 million € and were given in exchange for first occupancy licences for the properties he had built in the town. It was a dramatic statement to the court. ‘When the homes were ready to be handed over to the purchasers, the Town Hall told us that the money was needed, and if not paid, things could not move forward’, he said talking about a development of 800 apartments. He told the court that in 2005 alone he paid Roca more than three million € in ‘white physical cash taken out of the accounts of his companies’, and that the payments were normally made in Roca office in Marbella, but sometimes in Madrid. It’s a direct contradiction of claims made by Roca in the case so far. Roca has admitted receiving payments from Fidel San Román, as well as Aifos and Construcciones Salamanca, but said the payments were not made for favours but for ‘advisory work’. Román dismissed this saying his family business had never paid for advisors. The developer is presenting himself now as a victim of blackmail. Not paying would have been ‘business suicide’ and added that he knew that he doing something bad, but that he did not have any other option. The prosecutor is asking for a nine year prison sentence and 48 million € fine for San Román on charges of bribery and money laundering.

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Five Britons in court in UK for Mallorca pyramid fraud

 

Five British citizens are in court in the United Kingdom shortly for having allegedly set up a pyramid selling fraud which resulted in 70 residents of Calvià on Mallorca being defrauded out of 12 million €. They are alleged to have captured 150 investors in several countries, promising enormous profits on the stock market from a company called Gilher Inc. The accused are charged with massive fraud, money laundering in Panama and the Seychelles, although they are all claiming innocence. The Serious Fraud Office says the operation started in 2001 and has named the main accused as 60 year old John Hirst, from Brighouse, and Richard John Pollet from Poole, both of whom had luxury villas in Calvià with an active social life. They were members of Mallorca Cricket Club and the Rotary Club, and they offered interest of up to 18%. It was 1.5% return per month, making 18% per annum, and a 2% bonus was paid if invested for a year. Police say that they managed to capture as many as 70 British residents of Mallorca, mostly retired people who often handed over their life savings and sums of between 11,000 and 223,000 €. Similar numbers of victims were seen in France and the United States, who paid over some 12 million € in total under the promise of large profits. Problems started at the end of 2009 when the first complaints about fraud were seen. Hirst and Pollet have both denied the charges when they appeared at Bradford Crown Court in a plea and case-management hearing. Hirst pleaded not guilty to money laundering linked to a 33,000 pound transfer from the Bank of Cyprus to Gilher Inc, and a 428,000 pound investment in Last Second Tickets Limited. His wife Linda, pleaded not guilty to various money laundering charges including one related to the purchase of a 552,000 pound house with her daughter Zoe in Send, Surrey in 2008. All five defendants were granted bail until the pre-trial hearing which is expected on April 20, and Judge Durham Hall has confirmed the trial date has been set for June 18. It’s expected to last eight weeks.

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Amsterdam Hells Angels leave clubhouse

 

The Amsterdam chapter of the Hells Angels motor club have left their clubhouse at the H.J.E. Wenckebachweg. The club handed over the keys to the building to city officials at 1030 on Monday morning. A wrecking machine arrived immediately afterward to demolish Angel Place later on Monday. The clubhouse on the H.J.E. Wenckebachweg was home to the Hells Angels for more than 40 years. The city council wanted to redevelop the area and initiated an expropriation procedure. However, the judge ordered the council to pay the Amsterdam Hells Angels 400,000 euros in compensation. It is not yet known if and where they will open a new clubhouse. Amsterdam Mayor Eberhard van der Laan has said he will do anything in his power to prevent the motor club from finding a new place in the capital. He added that Amsterdam is willing to help nearby municipalities bar the Hells Angels following their expulsion. Many of the neighbouring municipalities are concerned the Hells Angels may move into their area. The motor club is suspected of organised crime including drugs trafficking and blackmailing restaurants and cafés. The town of Diemen has already announced the Hells Angels are not welcome there. Daniël Uneputty Unu will resign as president of the Amsterdam Hells Angels on Monday. He said the name of his successor is already known internally, but that the person in question will himself announce his appointment when he is ready to do so.

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Spain Declares War on Online Pirates

 

As 2012 began—and less than two months after winning control over the Spanish parliament—the right-leaning Partido Popular passed a controversial new anti-Internet-piracy law that will impose strict penalties on website owners who fail to remove copyrighted material from their sites. Sound familiar? The law, named after the former culture minister, Ángeles González‑Sinde [above], gives the Spanish government nearly the same broad-ranging authority found in the equally controversial Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) now wending its way through the U.S. Congress. Owners of the material can now complain to a government commission that can issue an order to block a website's service. The Spanish law was initially brought up for consideration and rejected in 2010. Evidence obtained by the Spanish paper El País suggests that the United States has been pushing hard for a reevaluation of the measure ever since, using trade agreements as leverage to prod the Spanish government to resurrect it. It's no surprise that the United States has shown such interest. Piracy is epidemic in Spain. Thirty percent of the population uses file-sharing sites, often to download Hollywood movies. But there are good reasons to think that the Sinde law will only encourage more of this behavior. Because the law goes after only the content provider and leaves intact an individual's right to a digital copy, it may actually encourage Spanish citizens to use peer-to-peer file sharing, says Rosa María Garcia Sanz, a professor in the department of communication law at the Complutense University of Madrid. In fact, there is little evidence to suggest that the enforcement strategies called for by the new law actually work to stop illegal downloading. France passed a law in 2009, known as Hadopi, or the "three strikes" law. It gives the government the authority to interrupt service for individuals who are caught downloading illegal content after they've received two warnings. Plenty of people took the legislation more as a challenge than a threat; many immediately began avoiding detection, thereby sidestepping the regulation, with the aid of virtual private network servers. The Sinde law will be just as tough to enforce, according to Professor Sanz: "Even blocking domain name system [DNS] sites," she says, "would just encourage users to use alternative and unregulated DNS servers. In other words, there is a real problem of applying the law because it [is] so easy to circumvent the technical barriers used to block users from reaching the websites." The same will likely be true in the United States, where SOPA has been held up in the House Judiciary Committee since last year, and a far-flung group of individuals and organizations have targeted companies that have come out in support of the antipiracy measure. Even the Obama administration has suddenly taken an under-the radar position against SOPA. Developers are already providing tools to circumvent the legislation. The Firefox add-on DeSopa was written as a proof of concept, but if the law is implemented, the add-on would allow users to resolve blocked domains by obtaining an IP address through foreign DNS servers. But these kinds of solutions, which would certainly become popular if SOPA is enacted, carry serious security concerns. They would most likely increase the incidence of DNS hijacking, whereby an attacker redirects queries to a faulty, and potentially malicious, IP address. Security analysts at Sandia National Laboratories, in Albuquerque, raised these concerns in response to both the Senate and House versions of the bill, calling the DNS filtering mandate a fruitless " 'whack-a‑mole' approach that would only encourage users and offending websites to resort to low-cost work-arounds." It's unclear how seriously members of Congress are taking this advice. Indeed, the Obama administration's opposition may make SOPA moot. As U.S. lawmakers pause to catch their breaths after the first rounds of this battle, they might consider taking an even bigger step back to watch how the Spanish effort plays out—to see whether legislation actually brings about the hoped-for result.

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Canada has joined Colombia as a leading exporter of synthetic or designer drugs, flooding the global market on an almost unprecedented scale

 

Canada has joined Colombia as a leading exporter of synthetic or designer drugs, flooding the global market on an almost unprecedented scale, police say. The RCMP have seized tonnes of illicit synthetic drugs that include Ecstasy and methamphetamine being shipped abroad after being “cooked” in make-shift labs in apartments, homes and businesses in the GTA. Police are now seizing more chemicals and synthetic drugs, which they say is favoured by young people, at Canadian border checks rather than the traditional cocaine, heroin or hashish that officers call drugs of “a last generation.” Most of the Ecstasy (methylenedioxymethamphetamine), meth or ketamine, a hallucinogenic used in “drug cocktails,” are smuggled from Canada by trucks, air cargo, human couriers or courier services to a network of traffickers. The U.S., Europe, Australia, New Zealand and Japan are the world-wide targets of these highly organised criminal syndicates, the Mounties said. Two Japanese students were arrested at Vancouver International Airport in 2009 after 47,000 Ecstasy pills with the “Chanel” logo were seized from their luggage. And, in November that year 400,000 tablets and 45 kgs of pot were seized in Michigan as it was being transferred from a small Canadian aircraft to a vehicle. The RCMP is working to stamp out the problem and have created a Chemical Diversion Unit (CDU) to target “rogue chemical brokers” who import and sell chemicals to organized crime cells to “bake” synthetic drugs for export. The force also created a Synthetic Drug Operations (SDO) whose members target clandestine drug labs in the GTA that are operated by crime cells and traffickers. “We execute search warrants once we locate a clandestine lab,” said SDO Sgt. Doug Culver. “These labs are dangerous with toxic chemicals and our members are specially trained to handle them.” His officers use hazardous material suits to enter a suspicious lab to ensure it is safe from corrosive chemicals before uniformed officers can enter. Police said an Ecstasy tablet, that usually features a harmless-looking logo, is sold for up to $15 each at Toronto nightclubs and the potency can last for about 10 hours. The tablets used to sell on the street for about $40 each two years ago. Supt. Rick Penney, who is in charge of an RCMP-GTA Drug Squad, said tonnes of chemicals and synthetic drugs are being seized by his officers. “We are talking tonnes and not kilograms,” Penney said. “This is becoming a matter of routine for us and it concerns me.” Penney said Canadian-made Ecstasy and meth are popular in Australia, New Zealand, Japan, the U.S. and some European countries. “Canada is a player on the global market,” he said. “We see a lot of synthetic chemicals passing through the Canadian border or going out of province.” He said some of the chemicals are purchased by criminals on the Internet from suppliers in China or India. “The majority of the drugs we seize in Ontario are for export,” Penney said. “This is a global problem and Canada is a big player.” The drug officers said Canada exports as much Ecstasy and chemical drugs as Colombia ships out cocaine. Police said synthetic drugs are the choice of young people because it is cheap, with a pill being made for 50-cents and sold for up to $15; lasts a long time; can be easily hidden and a tablet appears relatively harmless with a “cute” imprinted logo. Sgt. Brent Hill, of the Chemical Diversion Unit, said rogue brokers use fake names, companies or addresses to import the chemicals into Canada. Some use the name of legitimate companies and give fake delivery addresses, he said. He said the imported chemicals are resold by rogue brokers at exorbitant profits to organized crime groups originating from China, Vietnam and India, including criminal bike gangs in Canada. The chemicals are “cooked” into synthetic drugs. The CDU monitors more than 100 chemicals entering the country. Some are for legitimate industrial uses ranging from industrial cleaners to pharmaceutical products. Others are strictly for “baking” drugs. Hill shows a make-shift laboratory that was seized in a 2007 Scarborough bust in which three people were arrested. Officers seized two million units of Ecstasy and bags of chemicals at a residence on Pipers Green Ave., in the Brimley Rd. and Finch Ave. E. area. Jian Yao Quan, 24, and Yan Shi, 46, both of Scarborough, and Wan Shun Ling, 55, of Brooklyn, New York, were convicted of drug-related offences and will be sentenced on Feb. 14. A warrant has been issued for Wei Quan Ma, 43, of Toronto, who’s believed to have fled to China. During that raid, police found a 22-litre round-bottom heating mantle filled with chemicals being baked as vapors flowed through a hose taped at the top of the container to a large can filled with cat litter, that helps to absorb toxic gases to avoid leaving smells behind, police said. Hill said the mixture leaves a cloud of corrosive chemical hanging over the area that is harmful to people and is the reason why officers wear haz-mat suits to enter drug houses. “These labs pose a serious threat to the safety of the public and emergency first responders such as police, fire and ambulance workers,” Hill said. “Most chemicals in a clandestine drug lab are highly toxic, corrosive, explosive or flammable “ He said some unsafe labs can cause a fire or explosion that can lead to environmental pollution. Police said its common to find an Ecstasy pill containing a combination of controlled substances including methamphetamine or other controlled or non-regulated psychoactive substances. Some doses can be lethal and kill users. Officers point to the deaths of five B.C. young people since last August from Ecstasy laced PMMA, the same lethal chemical linked to deaths in the Calgary area. There have been about 18 Ecstasy-related deaths in B.C. in two years. “Some of these drugs are dangerous cocktails,” Hill said. “Crime groups are putting more addictive chemicals in some of the mixtures to get kids coming back for more. “These brokers are aggressively targeting the legitimate chemical industry. They continue to expand in a highly-lucrative market selling legal chemicals, regulated precursors and non-regulated psychoactive substances.” Officers said some unscrupulous brokers establish fake front companies, or claim to be legitimate companies to import chemicals into Canada. They fill out paperwork required by the Canada Border Services Agency but usually provide false information, police said. “The acquisition of chemicals is the choke point,” Hill said. “We are fully engaged with the legitimate Canadian chemical industry and monitor suspicious chemical transactions.” He said its a crime under Bill C-475 to possess, produce, sell or import “anything” if the person involved knows it will be used to produce methamphetamine or Ecstasy. “Crime groups with links to south-east Asia continue to dominate chemical-brokering operations,” the Mounties said. “There are criminal enterprises including individual operators and semi-legitimate companies that are brokering or procuring chemicals for synthetic drug production.” Police said some chemical shipments imported into Canada for industrial use are stolen by crime gangs to produce drugs. “Global demand for Ecstasy remains high,” Hill said. “Ecstasy continues to be the most sought-after and widely available controlled synthetic drug in the Canadian illicit market.”

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Wrecked Italian liner will not be moved for months

 

The wreck of the cruise ship Costa Concordia could remain where it lies near the Italian island of Giglio until the end of the year or longer before it can be broken up or salvaged, the official in charge of the recovery operation said on Sunday. Divers searching for bodies in the hulk, which lies half submerged a few metres from the shore, suspended work on Sunday after heavy seas and strong winds caused the vessel to shift noticeably, authorities said.

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In Spain, taxmen snoop about homes rented to sun-seeking vacationers — then visit the owners who neglected to report the income

 

In Greece, tax officials fly helicopters over residential areas to spot swimming pools of the alleged poor. In Italy, inspectors raid elite ski resorts to catch the down-and-out in their Ferraris. In Spain, taxmen snoop about homes rented to sun-seeking vacationers — then visit the owners who neglected to report the income. File photo by Virginia Mayo, AP The European Union, whose headquarters are pictured here, has been concerned about the debt crisis in southern Europe. EU officials blame part of the economic mess on a culture of tax evasion.EU officials blame part of the economic mess on a culture of tax evasion. Ads by Google CPD Online, On Time Online CPD - for when your deadline is demanding.  Evading taxes is almost a national pastime in European nations such as Greece, Spain and Italy, and for years their governments largely looked the other way. On Monday, the 27 nations of the EU will meet in Brussels to focus on how to boost growth and jobs. But as the southern European nations struggle with a debt crisis that threatens to overwhelm the European Union, their recently installed governments feel they must become more like their more solvent northern neighbors, where the crime of tax evasion is taken seriously. Greece, Spain, Italy, Portugal and other countries are raising taxes and clamping down on those who have found creative ways not to pay them. Many people admit they cheat, but the wealthy say they are being unfairly singled out to cover for government overspending — and people in the middle class, who have seen their household incomes crumble, are bitter about losing even more to taxes. "In this country, (most of us) are struggling day-to-day in order to make ends meet," said Argiris Eleftheriou, 76, of Athens. "The pensioners and the employed are the only ones that aren't evading taxes. We're paying the taxes of the rich, too." EU officials blame part of the economic mess on a culture of tax evasion in debtor nations that has cost billions in revenue that could be used to shore up their finances. Greece has a projected debt burden of 162% of GDP this year. The amount of taxes past due to the state is $78 billion, according to a 2011 report by the EU's Task Force for Greece. EU officials say that about half of that will never get collected, and the other half is tied up in 165,000 pending court cases. Paying for things in cash is the norm in Greece (and Italy and Spain), making it hard for tax inspectors to track. In Greece, cash transactions accounted for 25% of GDP, according to a 2011 report by Friedrich Schneider, a professor of economics at the University of Linz in Austria. And the EU believes tens of millions of dollars in Greek income has been deposited out of sight in Switzerland banks. Greece is pushing back with a "naming and shaming" campaign. This week, the Greek Economics Ministry published the names of 4,151 individuals who owe a total of more than $19 billion in taxes including a famous singer, a professional basketball player and a former newspaper publisher. "Our sovereignty is being chipped away because some are not paying their taxes," said Finance Minister Evangelos Venizelos, referring to the strict fiscal oversight imposed by the EU and IMF in return for bailout funds. Meanwhile, new taxes keep coming. In the past two years Greeks have seen a self-employment tax of $390 to $650, a solidarity tax of about 1% to 5% of income and a property tax. More are expected, but locals say they can't pay. "Life has drastically changed; we don't go out anymore; we're locked in our homes and close to depression," said Eleni Benekou, 48, a middle-class housewife in Athens. "(Recently) I went to the flea market to buy some things, but I didn't dare open my wallet." In Italy, the focus is on tax evasion by the super-rich, which ran rampant under the leadership of former prime minister Silvio Berlusconi— also accused of tax dodging and who once famously said that evasion of high taxes was a God-given "right." Berlusconi successor, technocrat Mario Monti, has vowed to get Italy's house in order by reducing spending and increasing tax revenue. One of his first actions has been to clamp down on "the pretend poor," as Italian media have dubbed the super-rich tax evaders. While one in four Italians — 15 million — reported no taxable income last year. Italy says that at least 3 million of those own at least three homes. Meanwhile, Italian taxpayers reporting incomes of less than $26,000 owned 188,000 Ferraris and Lamborghinis, more than 500 private airplanes and about 42,000 yachts. Monti has ordered tax police to go to the super-rich wherever they are. In raids on the elite Italian Alps ski resort of Cortina in early January, officials found 42 high-end sports cars belonging to owners who reported less than $26,000 of income annually. The Italian government is also cracking down on money-laundering, lowering the maximum allowed for cash transactions to from $3,200 to $1,275 and putting dogs at the Swiss border to sniff out large sums of cash. (It is common for Italians to drive their money over the Alps to Swiss banks, tax agents say.) So far, Italian officials say this has netted $52,300 on average per day at the border, up from almost zero a year ago. Since Monti took office in November, Italian tax police have identified $65 billion in untaxed money, officials announced Wednesday. Monti is also pushing for a new tax bracket for the super-rich and a financial transaction tax. Even TV commercials appeal to Italians to help find these "parasites of society." And while Italians hang effigies of tax officials at protests, some agree with the push. "Everybody has to do their part, but the rich should do more than their part," said Angela Perin, 56, a school administrator in Rome. "They've had it easy too long, and now everybody is suffering because of that." In Spain, officials also declared "an open season" on tax evasion. They have capped cash transactions at $1,300 and are cracking down on tax havens. Spain has taken hundreds of tax evaders to court, and tax police have caught about 200,000 individuals who had not declared income from rental properties — a large source of income in the sunny tourist destination — and an easy source of under-the-table cash, officials said. One of the first actions of Conservative Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy upon taking office in mid-December was to break a main campaign promise by raising taxes: The government has passed measures to raise income and property taxes by more than $7.64 billion a year and has added a new tax bracket for the rich — which increased the cap by 7% to a maximum of 56% in some Spanish federal states for those earning more than $390,000 annually. Some say the zeal for taxes as the solution to a country mired in debt and high unemployment of 21.5% will backfire. "The tax hike is going to have a perverse effect on the Spanish economy," said Miguel Borra, president of CSI-F, the main civil servant union in Spain. "That will include a growing lack of trust among the population (in government) as well as diminishing purchasing power." In crisis-hit but tax-averse Ireland, officials haven't raised income tax but rates on many other things have risen: taxes on pension contributions, property, carbon dioxide emissions and a hated "universal social charge," along with hikes in sales taxes. "They get called stealth taxes, but they're not particularly stealthy as we can see them coming," said Gerard Casey, professor of philosophy at University College Dublin. "They do it so they can say with a relatively straight face, smirking perhaps, 'We've not raised taxes.' " Emeline Callan, who runs a barbershop in Celbridge, County Kildare, says she earns less than minimum wage despite working nine or 10 hours a day — and the cost of her commute has doubled with the gasoline and car tax increases. Her frustration may be a warning to Europe's governing elites that they must find another way to balance the books. "The tax I pay gets me nothing that I need," she said. "The social charge is just a cover to gain more money from us to pay for the government's mistakes. It's loan repayment on a loan we the people didn't take out."

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On the 31st May this year, nine men from Paddle4Heroes are going to paddle from Gibraltar to Marbella in Spain by kayak to raise funds for Help for Heroes and a new charity called Families of The Fallen.

PADDLE4HEROES, RAISING MONEY THROUGH KAYAKING - FOR HELP FOR HEROES AND FAMILIES OF THE FALLEN

On the 31^st May this year, nine men from Paddle4Heroes are going to paddle from Gibraltar to Marbella in Spain by kayak to raise funds for Help for Heroes and a new charity called Families of The Fallen.  Both of these charities should touch the heart of anyone British, as they are at the forefront of helping servicemen and women recover from the trauma of war.

Of the nine paddlers (aged between 20 – 58!), six are ex-servicemen (including one from my own regiment) and all live on the Costa del Sol.  Several have experienced active service and all know the devastation that war can bring to everyone involved.

Indeed, the consequences of active service can be long lasting, not just for servicemen and women but also for their immediate families.  Both parties often need significant help readjusting to normal life (whether the trauma is psychological or physical) and that is where charities like Help for Heroes and Families of The Fallen come into their own.

Needless to say, Britain seems to have been continually at war for years now, with the Iraq wars and Afghanistan being notable.  However, our military forces also continually operate in many other areas including often as unsung UN peacekeepers, which can often involve significant risks – and injury.

TRAINING, TRAINING AND...MORE TRAINING!

In fact, whilst deaths in battle always make the news, injuries rarely do and they, of course, far outnumber deaths, despite often being utterly life changing for those hurt.  Indeed, I hate to think how many British servicemen and women have sustained terrible injuries over the past twenty years – with their injuries never having made the news or having been ‘hidden’ deep within governmental statistics.   Certainly, many more servicemen and women (and their families) need help than most of us realise…

Needless to say, the point of the canoe trip by Paddle4Heroes from Gibraltar to Marbella (90 km) on the 31^stMay is to raise funds for Help for Heroes and Families of the Fallen.  It is your money that keeps these charities going and your money that directly helps our servicemen and women in their time of greatest need.

So, please make an effort to spare some money for Paddle4Heroes.  What they are doing deserves your support and it would be great to think that any of you Britons, with any connection at all to Spain, could help to make the Paddle4Heroes event an outstanding fund raising success – that does justice to any Briton living or holidaying in Spain!

If you want to know more or wish to contribute to Paddle4Heroes then please see the Paddle4Heroes Facebook page.

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20 year prison sentence for Miguel Carcaño, Marta del Castillo's killer

 

Miguel Carcaño, the self-confessed killer of the 17 year old Sevilla girl, Marta del Castillo, on January 24 2009, has been given a 20 year prison sentence for the crime, even though he was found not guilty on the charge of rape. His brother Francisco Javier Delgado, and the other two youths who are thought to have helped to dispose of the body, Samuel Benítez and María García have been released without charge. Carcaño will have to compensate Marta’s parents with 280,000 € and with 30,000 € each to Marta’s sisters. The prosecutor had asked for a 52 year prison sentence for Miguel Carcaño and between 5 and 8 years for his alleged accomplices. Marta’s grandfather, José Antonio Casanueva, said the sentence gives it to understand that she has vanished and that he felt ‘rage and indignation’ and said that he did not know how the judges reached this justice when there was evidence and proof that they had not taken into account. He described the sentence as ‘A jug of cold water’, and he called on Carcaño’s family to ‘tell all they know’. Marta’s father, Antonio del Castillo, said he will be reading the sentence in detail before making any comment. Later he said that the family is very affected by the sentence. ‘This has no rhyme or reason, to say that Carcaño had done everything alone’, he said. He told the press that his wife Eva was on the sofa crying her eyes out, unable to speak. ‘She can’t believe it, none of us can’, he said. After 19 sessions the case was ready for sentencing on November 29, when the family told the court that they could not alleviate their pain until the body of Marta has been found. Coincidentally police have ordered a new search for the body near the town of Camas where Miguel Carcaño has been living.

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Marta's 'friend' confesses to her killing

 

The 17 year old girl had been missing from her home in Sevilla for 21 days, but now a 20 year old man has confessed to her killingMarta del Castillo with Miguel C.D. - EFE An ex friend of Marta del Castillo, the 17 year old girl who has been missing for 21 days from her home in Sevilla, on Saturday confessed to her killing. 20 year old Miguel C.D. told police that he had thrown her body into the Guadalquivir River. He had got into an argument with her and hit her with an ashtray until she was dead. He then called a friend of his, named as Samuel B.P. who has now also been arrested, who helped him to throw her body from a quiet pedestrian bridge. A helicopter in the search for the body - EFE He had been missing since her disappearance but was arrested by police on Friday. Police say he broke down and confessed when he was shown the ashtray. National Police and Guardia Civil are to restart their search for her body on Sunday in an area between Camas and the Isla de la Cartuja. Marta’s shattered family have made a call for justice, and promised to fight for it. Marta's father Antonio - EFE Her cousin Sandra told the press that the man who has been arrested was Marta’s friend a long time ago, and they went out together for about a month, but had been friends before that. Her uncle in a brief statement to the press called on the media not to refer to her killer as her ex boyfriend, as a relationship of a month is not enough to describe it as such.

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Two Moroccan were caught in the act attempting to smuggle more than two tons of cannabis onto shore in San Fernando, Cádiz province,

 

Two Moroccan were caught in the act attempting to smuggle more than two tons of cannabis onto shore in San Fernando, Cádiz province, early on Thursday. The Civil Guard were alerted after a suspicious boat was detected by the SIVE electronic surveillance system near the Caños de Gallineras area at around 5am. Officers found 69 bales of the drug on board the boat with a total weight of 2,070 kilos. It came after another drugs boat was intercepted 36 miles off the coast of Torre del Mar, in neighbouring Málaga province, on Wednesday, with 221 kilos of cannabis on board. The original size of the cargo is unknown as a number of packages were dumped overboard after a Civil Guard helicopter spotted the boat from the air. It’s understood that the vessel’s three crew are also Moroccan.

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Angry customers call for charges against holiday home tycoon

SPANISH judge will decide whether football club boss Darragh MacAnthony will face charges after a raft of complaints from disgruntled customers who claim furniture ordered from his firm never arrived. MacAnthony Realty International (MRI) developed resorts in several countries from its Marbella headquarters and sold furniture packs to clients. Hugely popular on the holiday market, MRI had hundreds of Irish customers and boasted an annual turnover greater than €100m before the credit crunch. It made the 35-year-old Dubliner, who now owns Peterborough Football Club, a multi-millionaire. However, a group of 51 Irish and British buyers claim that €492,000 worth of furniture, ordered more than five years ago for apartments in Morocco, Bulgaria and Cape Verde, was never delivered. Antonio Flores, the Spanish lawyer acting for the group, claims "many other" MRI customers are affected. He alleges that missing furniture is just one of the irregularities linked to MRI, or related companies. He said that an additional claim, totalling €15m, is being prepared on behalf of 200 Irish and British MRI customers claiming that they lost large sums in upfront fees. MRI has consistently denied any allegations of wrongdoing. The initial complaint regarding furniture was referred to a Marbella court and is being heard by Judge Beatriz Gomez-Escolar at the Court of Instruction. Under Spanish law, individuals can initiate criminal procedures in some cases. The judge will now decide whether Mr MacAnthony and five other defendants should face the charges of "misappropriation of funds and theft by swindle". Among those wielding placards outside the Marbella court were claimants Brendan O'Dell (52), who works for a pharmaceutical company, and his partner Elizabeth Egan (52), from Corofin, Co Clare. The couple paid €14,000 for a furniture pack for their Moroccan apartment which they claim was never delivered. "It's a joke. This has been dragging on for five years. Like everyone else here we are determined to get our money back," Mr O'Dell said. Claimants John and Muriel Andrews, from Ballycarry, Co Antrim, were also at the court. They paid MRI €29,900 in advance for two furniture packs, for apartments in Cape Verde, which they claim have never been delivered. Efforts to contact Mr MacAnthony were unsuccessful last night. But he has previously said: "There are no foundations behind these allegations. I certainly didn't do anything wrong and neither did anyone with MRI when I was there." He also said: "I operated a company which did thousands of sales around the world with many happy clients, but will forever be haunted by the few hundred for which it didn't work out." In relation to undelivered furniture, the company has said the 2008 property crash forced several of its furniture suppliers out of business and it had to engage new ones -- effectively paying twice for the same furniture order. Also accused in the Spanish case are former MRI CEOs Michael Liggan and Dominic Pickering, Sarah O'Callaghan, and Nicola Shaw, a former director of MRI Ireland. The defendants face up to eight years in jail if convicted of the charges.

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Italian fugitive arrested in Almería

 

An Italian fugitive has been arrested in Almería on a European arrest warrant for pending sentences amounting to almost 10 years behind bars. His crimes include drug trafficking, violent robbery, illegal possession of weapons and falsifying documents. It’s understood from EFE that his criminal record goes back for more than 20 years. The man, named as Maurizio R. aged 56, was arrested in Almería City in the early hours of Friday after discovered that he had moved to the province.

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The father of a baby of about a year old, has been arrested in Alicante after the child accidentally ate a quantity of cocaine.

DISCLAIMER:Text may be subject to copyright.This blog does not claim copyright to any such text. Copyright remains with the original copyright holder.The father of a baby of about a year old, has been arrested in Alicante after the child accidentally ate a quantity of cocaine.
National Police say the baby was admitted on Thursday to the Perpetuo Socorro private clinic, and then transferred to Alicante General Hospital.

It’s thought baby put his hand across a table where there were remains of the drug and then sucked his fingers, producing strange behaviour which led the father to take him to the doctor. It’s thought he only absorbed a small amount of the drug.

Following protocols for such cases, the father, aged about 40 was arrested on Friday and after giving a statement at the National Police station, was released with charges outstanding.

On Sunday the court ruled that the baby should go into the care of a foster family on a temporary basis, ahead of a search for a family ideal to take care of him.

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Partido Popular cat killers case

DISCLAIMER:Text may be subject to copyright.This blog does not claim copyright to any such text. Copyright remains with the original copyright holder.The so called ‘Partido Popular cat killers case’ which came to light in February last year has been closed by the judge, who claimed that the death of the cats was the fruit of a hunt without any pleasure being taken.

The ruling goes against the evidence of the photos and videos taken at the time of Jaime Ferrero, the then candidate for the PP in the Town Hall of Talavera de la Reina, who could be seen laughing with a friend displaying the tortured and dead cats to the camera.

Ferrero and his friend, Juan Carlos Vázquez, organised the killing of the defenceless animals, taking photos of the bodies of the dead cats afterwards, smiling broadly. Later they placed a video on the internet.

The publicity from the case led the Partido Popular to expel the two men from the party, and the Amnestía Animal organisation claimed that they had broken article 337 of the Penal Code with their behaviour, calling for a 3 month to year prison term.

However the judge in Talavera has now ruled that there was no pleasure taken by the two, a verdict which Amestía Animal now says it will appeal.

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found a webcam in their hotel shower

DISCLAIMER:Text may be subject to copyright.This blog does not claim copyright to any such text. Copyright remains with the original copyright holder.Instruction court 1 in Figueras, Girona, is investigating a denuncia placed by three tourists from Madrid, two brothers and the girlfriend of one of them, who found a webcam in their hotel shower in August 2010. She is said to be very worried that there may be a video on the internet or elsewhere of her taking a shower. The camera was hidden behind a ventilation panel in room 730 of the Hotel Sant Marc in Roses.

The lawyer is calling for compensation for moral damage of 20,000 € per person.

All three had used the shower before they discovered the camera, then after dining one of them saw some tape on the vent, and when he pulled it the camera was revealed.

Diari de Girona says the tourists quickly advised the hotel staff, and presented their complaint before the Mossos d’Esquadra regional police the next day. They also say that when the hotel sent two maintenance staff, the young one was clearly surprised by the find, but the older member of staff denied a camera had ever been there.

The police say the camera, equipped with a small antenna, was fed by a battery. They say it could have been placed there weeks before, and a cleaning lady said she had noticed the tape on the vent some two weeks before.

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The Guardia Civil has arrested three people after 700 kilos of hashish was found

DISCLAIMER:Text may be subject to copyright.This blog does not claim copyright to any such text. Copyright remains with the original copyright holder.The Guardia Civil has arrested three people after 700 kilos of hashish was found in a military barracks in Ceuta. Among the detained a soldier from the barracks from the ULOG logistical unit.

The police operation continues open, but reporting restrictions have been introduced, although it is known that investigations started a year ago.

‘El Faro de Ceuta’ newspaper reports that the Guardia Civil entered into the barracks last Thursday night, with the corresponding judicial orders and found the drugs inside.

Meanwhile members of the Fiscal and Frontier patrol of the Guardia Civil at Tarifa have arrested six people after finding a boat containing 624 kilos of hashish on the Tarifa coastline.

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A grisly event in South East Asia highlights the region's developing meth-driven drug war

 

The Mekong River in Thailand Photo via By Jed Bickman 10/11/11 | Share Uppers Rock the World New Life for Asia’s Golden Triangle China Unveils Radical New Approach to Drug Treatment Vietnam's Rehab Gulag Revealed Spinning to Cambodia! In one of the grisliest incidents of the drug war in South East Asia in recent memory, the corpses of thirteen Chinese sailors have been found by Thai authorities on the Mekong River. The victims, including two female cooks, were blindfolded, bound, and shot dead. They're believed to be the crew members of two Chinese cargo ships that were hijacked last week by Thai drug gangs—the boats were recaptured in a firefight with Thai police and 950,000 methamphetamine pills were discovered on board. It's unclear whether the meth was loaded onto the boats by the Thai gangs, or whether it was already being shipped from China. Thai military officials blame a drug trafficking ring led by 40-year-old kingpin Nor Kham—who operates out of northeast Burma and is a wanted man in both Burma and Thailand—for the attacks. Authorities speculate that the Chinese ships neglected to hand over protection money and paid the price. The Chinese government has reacted defensively, suspending cargo and passenger trips along the Mekong river. The region along the border of Burma, Laos, and Thailand—known as the “golden triangle”—is the center of methamphetamine production in Asia, although China has also produced vast amounts of meth since the 1990s. Ephedrine, the base of methamphetamine, is derived from a native Chinese herb—“mao,” AKA "yaba"—which has an important role in Chinese medicine. The UN estimates there are between 3.5 million and 20 million methamphetamine users in South East Asia: such a broad range only serves to illustrate how badly understood the problem is. In 2009, countries in South East Asia collectively reported a 250% jump in methamphetamine arrests, as well as an increasing trend of injecting methamphetamine, which leads to a corresponding jump in HIV and other diseases among users.

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Arrested businessman had ‘double life’

 

A MAN, 36, was arrested in Albacete, southeast Spain, accused of the abduction and rape of several women. In Albacete, he was a respected businessman, with a wife and children, but in Madrid, he was wanted for the abduction of one woman, raping another and several robberies. His criminal ‘other life’ allegedly began in 2010 when he began to carry out burglaries when on business trips, mainly to obtain jewellery and cash, although he also kept ‘trophies’ from his victims. With time, he began to commit other crimes and in October he allegedly pointed a gun at a woman in the Chamartin district and kept her captive for 12 hours, threatening her to obtain her credit card numbers and sexually abusing her before letting her go. In November, wearing a balaclava he approached a woman at Barajas Airport, threatening her with a gun and forcing her into the boot of a car. She was able to alert a colleague and her husband with her mobile phone, and was rescued in the Madrid area of Torrejon de Ardoz. The attacker escaped but left behind a shotgun, an airgun and a machete. He was traced to a farmhouse he used to carry out his criminal activity which was guarded by six dogs. Police are now studying the ‘trophies’ he took to determine whether he was involved in other crimes. He has been remanded to prison charged with rape, illegal detention, robbery, illegal weapons possession, causing bodily harm and car theft. On the way to prison, he attempted to escape but was caught by police.

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Pasquale Mazzarella and Clemente Amodio arrested in Marbella

 

TWO Italians belonging to the Mazzarella mafia family were arrested in Malaga for their alleged involvement in drug trafficking activities, according to Press reports. Pasquale Mazzarella, who had been on the run from the authorities for the past three years, and Clemente Amodio, wanted since last Spring, had European arrest warrants against them and were handed over to the National Court to be extradited to Italy. They were living in a villa in Marbella, and had moved their headquarters to Spain, allegedly bringing drugs from Morocco to sell in Europe.

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Property owners not impressed by Junta's decree on irregular property

 

The regional government’s plan to regularise the dozens of thousands of illegal properties is not proving successful. Owners of the properties are refusing to pay the costs of bringing their properties into legality. In most cases the regional council for public works and housing have offered a ‘recognition’ of the properties – a legal device to allow them to come out of limbo and gain access to power and water. But this needs the collaboration of the citizens, and their money. Many Town Halls have discovered the process does not get underway, and El País reports that two of the most interesting cases are in Córdoba and Chiclana in Cádiz. These two localities have about 25,000 homes build outside the regulations, 15,000 in Chiclana and some 9,000 in Córdoba. In both cases the property owners are refusing to meet the costs of the regularisation process; in Chiclana only 56 have applied. In Córdoba none of the 42 illegal urbanisations has brought itself into legality. Meanwhile in the Axarquía where many foreigners have purchased such property in good faith, say they are against the latest decree from the Junta last week. President of the Save Our Homes association, Philip Smalley, says the formula will just leave thousands of properties in the district in limbo. He says there is no judicial guarantee after the process because the Junta will be able to do what they want with the properties in the future. The Junta has identified 12,760 irregular properties in the Axarquía. In the Almanzora valley in Almería, again there are many foreign property owners affected. The AUAN protest group there says the decree does not help those with ongoing court proceedings against demolition. President Maura Hillen considers that only 16% of their members will benefit from the decree.

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Nine in every 10 Spaniards feel uncomfortable speaking English

 

A new survey has shown that nine in every ten Spaniards still feel uncomfortable speaking English, despite the fact that 37% of them have spent more than 15 years studying the language. Thirty five percent said they felt insecure and embarrassed, and 4% said they would not make the attempt in case they seemed ‘ridiculous’. Europa Press reports that one in two, although knowing that their grammar was not correct, would however try and speak the language. The survey by ‘Pueblo Inglés – More than English’ also revealed that 98% of those questioned felt that the standard of teaching English in Spain’s schools was not the best. Many felt that more time should be spent on the subject in schools, with particular emphasis on conversations with English speakers and on role playing for real life situations. Language schools and academies were the most popular method of learning English, but more than half said the best way was spending time abroad in English-speaking countries.

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British peer calls for abolition of time limit on expat voting

 

Britons who live abroad currently have no voting rights if they have been out of the country for more than 15 years An estimated 5.6 million Britons currently live abroad but, under UK law, those who have been out of the country for more than 15 years have no right to vote in British elections. There has been support for changes to the law in a recent debate on electoral reform in the House of Lords. The Telegraph reports this week on a comment from Lord Lexden, the Conservative Party’s official historian, that the time limit is, ‘a problem which has been allowed to go on for far too long.’ He proposed that the government’s plans to reform the electoral system could provide the ‘perfect vehicle’ to abolish a limit which he said has been ‘chopped and changed’ ‘without rationale.’ It was originally set at five years in 1985, was extended to 20 years in 1989, and was then reduced to 15 in 2002. Brian Cave from the website www.votes-for-expat-brits.com, which campaigns for the right to vote for Britons abroad, told the Telegraph, ‘To have Lord Lexden make such a long speech and make such telling comments was a milestone in our campaign.’ The newspaper however notes a comment by the Labour peer Lord Lipsey during a radio debate last month that there was, ‘no chance’ of the limit being abolished.

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British driver arrested after Sevilla hit and run

 

23 year old Briton has been arrested in Campillos, Málaga, by the Guardia Civil in connection with a hit and run accident at a petrol station in Gillena Sevilla last Thursday. A petrol station worker was injured and had to be admitted to the Virgen del Rocio Hospital, and the driver failed to stop. The Briton lives in Campillos and has been named with the initials W.A.F., and has been taken to Sevilla to attend the court which has charge of the case. By chance a member of the public had seen a TV report on the wanted driver and recognised him coincidentally at a petrol station in Campillos.

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Bad news for foreign victims of Costa del Sol mortgage scam

 

The National Court will not be investigating the mortgage fraud which was reported last year by twenty foreign residents of the Costa del Sol and which affected victims all along the Spanish coastline. Most of the banks and foreign financial advisors involved were from Denmark who informed their clients that, if they died without a mortgage on their Spanish property, their heirs would be subject to hefty inheritance taxes which they would never be able to pay. They were then offered a mortgage on their property, with the money invested outside Spain, mainly in Luxembourg. El Mundo reports that the investments did not however go well, and the victims are now in danger of losing their homes. The Málaga victims are represented by the Marbella law firm Lawbird, who told El Mundo, ‘This is complete judicial apathy from this court, which considers the complaint as lacking in relevance.’ ‘It contrasts,’ they said, ‘with the rapid response from the Danish government which has announced that it will investigate the manoeuvres which invested the funds from the loans in fiscal paradises.’

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Court orders Spanish woman to return her children to her husband in the UK

 

Spanish woman resident in Valencia, named by EFE as Carolina A.G., has been ordered by a local court to return her children to their father in the UK, where the family moved in 2008. Her estranged husband is a Nigerian man who obtained Spanish nationality after they married in Spain in 2003. The couple has three children, now aged 8 and 5 years old and, the youngest, just 4 months. Their mother says she has suffered abuse from her husband throughout her marriage, and she finally reported the abuse last year. She also reported him for rape. She told the EFE news agency, ‘I feared for mine and my children’s lives … he has also mistreated the eldest and he even punched me in the stomach when I was pregnant with my last child.’ She decided to return to Spain after he threatened to take the children to Nigeria and she was advised by the Spanish Consulate in Nottingham that it was better for her children to be in Spain. The mother does not have sole custody, and a Valencia court applied the Hague Convention in its ruling made public on Monday, considering to be responsible for illegal abduction. It also said that she has violated an order from a Nottingham court banning her from taking two of her children outside the jurisdiction of England and Wales. The denuncias against the husband were not taken into account by the Valencia court and the mother’s lawyer has now requested a letter rogatory to the UK justice system for the official complaints to be provided to Spain. It’s understood that he has also lodged a denuncia for rape and abuse at the National Court, as the body which is responsible for safeguarding the rights of any Spanish citizen.

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Spanish tourism received a welcome boost last week with UK travel agents reporting a rise in interest and bookings to the country.

 

Spanish tourism received a welcome boost last week with UK travel agents reporting a rise in interest and bookings to the country. The news came when on Friday the Post Office revealed evidence that resort prices have crashed by as much as 40% compared to 5 years ago. That, combined with political unrest in some other popular tourist destinations and the fact that the pound is at a 2 year high against the euro has once again made Spain an affordable and favourite option. The annual survey conducted by the Post Office measured the prices of 8 items in resorts across 33 destinations around the world. Those items included a cup of coffee in a bar or café; a bottle of local beer; a 1.5 litre bottle of water from a supermarket; a can of Coca-Cola; a three course evening meal for two adults; sunscreen; insect repellent and a pack of cigarettes. The results of the survey showed that Spain came out the second cheapest with an average price of £37.72 for the 8 items. It was topped only by Sri Lanka offering the best value at £27.95. With people looking for a cheap way to enjoy fun in the sun and the Post Office currently offering a currency rate of 1.165€ to the pound (prices correct as of Friday 13th Jan.) it is thought a new wave of visitors will be enjoying the delights of Spain this year with the firm’s Holiday Money Report concluding: ‘Resort prices in the Costa del Sol are now 40% lower than 5 years ago, when we conducted the first price barometer. The cheaper cost of travel to Spain will make it a compelling choice for bargain hunters. So does the rising value of the UK pound - up 6.4% against the euro in the past three months.’ Turkey has in recent years been a serious rival to Spain's top status for bargain breaks but this year it proved to be 60% more expensive than Spain. This year, Turkey was17th in terms of the cheapest option according to the Post Office survey. At the other end of the scale the survey showed Australia to be the most expensive country for the 8 items at a staggering £115.69, together with Barbados, Singapore and New Zealand. The biggest rises were recorded in Kenya, where the basket was 52% more expensive than last year and Portugal, where the increase was 39%.

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Anthony Read was found dead in the sea in the port town of Puerto De La Duquesa

Anthony Read was found dead in the sea in the port town of Puerto De La Duquesa – on the country’s Costa del Sol – the morning after a night out drinking with friends in March last year.

Yesterday, at an inquest, mum and dad Jacqueline Jenkins and Martin Read criticised the investigation into the tragedy carried out by the authorities in Spain.

Anthony, 33,  had visited a number of pubs during the evening and took a taxi back to a pal’s home ten minutes’ drive away in the early hours.

But it is thought he may not have had the correct fare when he arrived and was driven back to the port, between Marbella and Gibraltar. Hours later, his body was found in the water.

Spanish authorities said there had been no signs of violence and that Anthony had drowned, concluding that the death may have been the result of an accident.

But at the inquest in Portsmouth, Anthony’s mother Jacqueline Jenkins hit out at the “vague” report drawn up by local officials as she attempted to piece together what had happened.

Dad Martin Read told the inquest he wanted confirmation from Spanish police that they were satisfied the taxi driver had driven away and was not involved in the tragedy. The inquest also heard how Anthony may simply have fallen in.

However, it remains unclear as to how he came to be in the water.

Coroner David Horsley said it was unlikely Anthony had been robbed as he was still in possession of his wallet and mobile phone when his body was discovered.

But he agreed that he had been faced with a lack of evidence in preparing the inquest.

He told Anthony’s parents: “It is possible that he fell in by accident but I cannot say that that is the most likely scenario because it is possible that he was pushed in – it may have been some kind of simple assault or he may have been trying to evade an assault.”

He added: “If there were any witnesses they did not come forward – or were they asked?”

Mrs Jenkins broke down in tears as she read out tributes to her “kind, thoughtful and wonderful son”, who was working as a financial controller in Gibraltar and was enjoying living in Spain.

In the run-up to his death, Anthony had been studying to become a chartered accountant.

Mr Horsley recorded an open verdict.

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Days of the Costa del Crime could soon be over

 

THE days of the Costa del Crime could be seriously numbered. Or at least, so say the Spanish police. Detectives in Malaga have revealed that a year-long crackdown on British and Irish fugitives is paying off and Malaga is no longer an ideal hideout for wanted criminals. The clampdown, which came in a series of on-the-spot raids on pubs, bars and shops on the Costa del Sol, has drawn considerable success. In total, dozens of wanted fugitives have been caught in the raids after six roving teams of national police were set up at the end of 2010. The teams entered establishments closing off exits and demanded identification from all those present. In one day alone, last year, they made a staggering four arrests, while in total 117 Irishmen were arrested last year, using the method. The moves were spurred on by the murder of Irish tourist John O’Neill, 40, who was shot near a pub in Benalmadena by a man wanted by British police. Police insist that due to the crackdown there were fewer gangland shootings and ‘settling of accounts’ last year. “The recession could also have had an influence but things are definitely a lot quieter,” said a spokesman for the UDYCO organised crime unit.

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