Costa del Sol foreigners present a denuncia at Hacienda after equity release fraud

Diario Sur reports that retired foreign residents have denounced a number of foreign financial entities to Hacienda regarding an alleged fraud which means they could lose their homes. The group claims that a dozen banks have become accomplices in a fiscal fraud. Most of the 30 foreigners, resident on the Costa del Sol, are British and they demonstrated on Monday outside the branch offices of the Agencia Tributaria in Avenida de Andalucía in Málaga. They were led by the President of their group, 74 year old Evan Armstrong, and Vice President Ian Sherdley. They have also presented a letter to Hacienda which explains to the treasury why they consider a full-blooded fiscal fraud has taken place implicating them without their knowledge. Represented by the lawyer Antonio Flores, they carried placards which attacked some of the banks which they claim have tricked them. The banks are financial entities outside Spain which the foreign residents claim offered them equity release on part of the value of their properties without charges. They were then told that succession tax would be reduced for their inheritors in the case of their death by an arrangement which saw their money being invested in investment funds in other countries which were supposedly without risk. The reality is that many owners have lost most of their money. The foreigners say they have been victims of a fiscal fraud carried out in Spain, and that is why they are taking action at the Agencia Tributaria against the financial entities which are implicated.