Juan Antonio Roca walked free on Monday after his family and friends had got together a million euros in bail money.

The man accused of being the brains behind years of corruption at Marbella Town Hall walked free on Monday after his family and friends had got together a million euros in bail money. He wanted to clean up his image, he explained, and had obviously started as he meant to go on, leaving the jail looking impeccable in a dark suit, blue shirt, shiny shoes and a proud smile. Behind him he had left two years and 16 days in a prison cell, first in Alhaurín...

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Montserrat Corulla, who is alleged to have acted as a ‘frontman’ for Juan Antonio Roca in the Malaya corruption case

Marbella lawyer, Montserrat Corulla, who is alleged to have acted as a ‘frontman’ for Juan Antonio Roca in the Malaya corruption case, told the instruction judge Óscar Pérez on Monday that she had never laundered any money. She claimed that all her companies were totally legal, and while she was the administrator of the Condeor company ‘she never operated with illicit funds or assets’, according to a report from Europa Press. She also denied belonging to any criminal organisation or seeing ‘envelopes full of money’.She faces charges of money laundering of cash from criminal activity. Her case drew more interest when the PSOE Socialist candidate...

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Nine people died, one of them a six year old girl, and 22 more were seriously injured in a coach crash on the A7 Benalmádena bypass on Saturday

Nine people died, one of them a six year old girl, and 22 more were seriously injured in a coach crash on the A7 Benalmádena bypass on Saturday evening. It happened at 1950 at the 224 km point above Arroyo de la Miel, when the coach, carrying a group of 47 Finnish tourists, driver and co-driver, came into a side contact with a recently purchased KIA four wheel drive vehicle.It is a very fast downhill stretch of road and it had been raining in the area for most of the day. Eyewitnesses said the four by four tried to overtake the coach on the inside, and hit the side crash barrier when doing so. He rebounded from there to hit the bus side on which...

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British demand in Spain has slowed dramatically

“British demand in Spain has slowed dramatically,” says Mark Stucklin, founder of spanishpropertyinsight.com, an independent online consul-tancy. “The latest nail in the coffin is the exchange rate, and prices have dropped 20% in some parts of the Costas since last summer.” Viva Estates is selling a two-bed flat in Elvira near Malaga for £240,000, although it is possible to pick one up elsewhere on the Costa del Sol for less than £200,000. In higher-end areas such as Mallorca, prices have stagnated, so vendors who need to sell are having to accept offers. Strategy: If you’re an owner, hang on if you can. “Now is not a good time to sell,” says...

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British couple remanded in Benidorm

The accident occurred last Friday night on the CV-763 (km 3,4). The couple were driving back to their home on the San Rafael residential estate while the young motorcyclist was heading towards Alfàs del Pi. The victim, who was still alive as he was dragged for 2-3km underneath the British couple's car, died before emergency medics could get him into the ambulance. His family and friends, who say the boy's parents are "totally destroyed and unable...

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Isabel Pantoja mugshot taken and put on file but who leaked the photos.

Isabel Pantoja, the famous singer, accused of tax offences and money laundering. was released on bail of 90,000 euros, but not before her mugshot had been taken and put on file. The photo appeared shortly afterwards in some of the media.Now, hundreds of civil servants working for the Interior and Justice Ministries are being called on to say exactly why they felt the need to access the Isabel Pantoja file, and while some are able to show that they...

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A member of the crew of a boat which brought four stowaways to Alicante has been arrested by the police.

A member of the crew of a boat which brought four stowaways to Alicante has been arrested by the police. It comes after the Capitan of the Slovak vessel handed over the four Turkish nationals to the National Police in Alicante Port after discovering the immigrants.Reports in Informacion newspaper indicate that the member of the crew who has been arrested charged the stowaways 2,500 € for allowing them on board. Three of the stowaways are reported to have accepted their immediate deportation, while a fourth has asked for political asylum.Police say the boat initially departed from Istanbul with eight stowaways on board, but four of them got off...

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Indignant Marbella, Justice Now.

One person told 20minutos that part of the town thinks that the judiciary is giving in by letting Roca out of prison on bail.The slogan for the demonstration was ‘Marbella indignada, justicia ya’ – Indignant Marbella, Justice Now.Some 2,000 local residents of Marbella took to the streets last night in demand that Juan Antonio Roca leave the town and lose his assets here. They are planning to ask the instruction judge in the Malaya case, Óscar Pérez,...

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Costa ski season will be dramatically shorter than at present

By the end of this century, the ski season in the Pyrenees will be dramatically shorter than it is at present - if one exists at all - according to scientists who are predicting a sharp increase in temperatures and rapid decline in precipitation in the mountain range due to global warming.The study by Spain's High Council for Scientific Research (CSIC) warns that average temperatures will rise by at least 2.8ºC by 2100 in a best case scenario in which greenhouse gas emissions are low, and by around 4ºC in the worst-case, high-emissions scenario. At the same time, the amount of rain and snow fall is expected to plunge by between 10.7 percent and...

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Francisco del Valle, the brother of the man accused of murdering five year old Mari Luz Cortes, has become the target of local anger and frustration

Francisco del Valle, the brother of the man accused of murdering five year old Mari Luz Cortes, has become the target of local anger and frustration.On Monday night, a crowd of around 100 to 150 people went to his house in El Torrejon, Huelva, and began hurling stones and other objects. The police intervened before the mob could break down the door.Francisco del Valle is now asking the authorities for assistance in moving to a ’safe’ location, somewhere...

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Amy Fitzpatrick the hunt continues

Detectives are continuing the hunt for Amy Fitzpatrick who vanished from Mijas Costa more than three months ago. She was last seen at 10pm as she left a friend’s home in the tourist resort of Riviera del Sol, on the Costa del Sol, saying she was going to walk home. Cops issued an appeal for information about a white Ford Fiesta with a UK number plate owned by a family friend, which went missing at the same time as Amy. A government spokesman in the...

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British couple in their fifties were remanded in jail

British couple in their fifties were remanded in jail by a judge in Benidorm yesterday charged with imprudent homicide. They were arrested last Monday after being spotted dragging a badly-injured motorcyclist they had knocked down after a previous accident by licence plate recognition cameras on the outskirts of La Nucia (Aliante). During yesterday's hearing, the man, who was driving, broke down and admitted being aware not only that he had hit something or someone and that, following the impact, he was aware that something or someone had got stuck under his vehicle. In his defence, the man claimed that he thought he had hit a stray dog and said...

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Julián Muñoz spending the weekend at his luxurious Marbella mansion.

The disgraced former mayor of Marbella, Julián Muñoz, is enjoying a long weekend break from Alhaurín de la Torre jail where he is serving time for property-development related corruption. Muñoz left the prison that has been his home for the last twenty-one months at 7.20am this morning in a top-of-the-range 4x4 all-terrain vehicle driven by the chauffeur of his girlfriend, the singer Isabel Pantoja. According to a source close to the former mayor, Muñoz was informed that his request for leave had been granted last Thursday. It is believed that he will be spending the weekend at his luxurious Marbella mansi...

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legal proceedings against staff at the Dr Pascual Clinic in Málaga, who performed liposuction surgery on her

The family of 44 year old Encarnación Salazar have started legal proceedings against staff at the Dr Pascual Clinic in Málaga, who performed liposuction surgery on her on November 7th last year that led to an agonising and slow death at Málaga's Carlos Haya Hospital more than four months later, on March 20th. Encarna's brother Manuel explained how she had been admitted to the clinic "on the Wednesday, expecting to be back home again the following Saturday." However, the operation went badly wrong, and she required a second operation two days later because "they perforated her intestines, but this operation must have also gone wrong because they...

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Antonio Banderas wingless in Marbella

Antonio Banderas and his wife Melanie Griffith have had a demolition order served on their luxurious Marbella beach house.But it is only one wing of their home La Gaviota, in Los Monteros, that is in for the chop.Their appeal against an original 2003 ruling to demolish the newer wing, which impinges on public beach land, has been rejected.Now their neighbours are insisting that the sentence of the High Court be carried out. The celebrity pair were...

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Canary Islands and Majorca :U.K.Police are still trying to trace Allan James Foster.£70,440 confiscated

Allan Foster a prime suspect for the murder of David 'Noddy' Rice Mr Rice, 42, died when he was blasted up to nine times with a semi-automatic handgun as he sat in a car park at Marsden, South Tyneside, in May 2006.Foster, 31, has been named as the gunman and is still being hunted by murder detectives.It is believed he fled abroad after the killing.McAuley, who lived with Foster, admitted conspiring with him and others to conceal the proceeds of criminal property between June 1 2006 and September 30 2006.mother Marilyn McCauley, 56, admitted possessing criminal property in that she knew or suspected £65,815 in cash found at her home two days...

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Polaris World linked in new corruption allegations

The Mayor faces charges of perversion of the course of justice and the mis-use of public funds.Daniel García Madrid from the Partido Popular is reported to have exchanged building land with worthless plots in a deal with the Polaris World company More details on the latest corruption allegations in Torre Pacheco, where the PP Mayor, Daniel Garcia Madrid, has been ordered to prison without bail by instruction judge in San Javier, Salvador Calero. He has replaced the earlier judge in the case, Aránzazu Moreno, who is on maternity leave.El País reports that the mayor made a plot of land for building available to the Mar Menor Golf Resort, from the...

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Drove from Alicante to Benidorm on the wrong side of the A-70

43 year-old man, who drove from Alicante to Benidorm on the wrong side of the A-70, killing two and seriously injuring two more, has undergone a psychiatric assessment. Dubbed the ‘Kamikaze’ driver in the Spanish press, Pedro DA has been in custody since the collision. The psychiatric report reveals that he suffers schizophrenic-type episodes that can cause hallucinations and delirium. When initially stopped by police, he claimed to have become confused when he joined the motorway and later told a judge he had no idea of what was going through his mind at the t...

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Two men dressed as beggars managed to slip through the door

As the first clients of the day were ushered out of the locked door of a jeweller’s shop in the Madrid suburb of Alcobendas on March 17, two men dressed as beggars managed to slip through the door. Once inside they threatened the owner at gunpoint and gagged him before rifling through the showcases and running off with valuable items. The owner immediately summoned the police but although two patrol cars combed the area, they failed to locate the raiders, confirming suspicions that the men were dressed normally under shabby clothing, which they discarded before mingling with shoppers. This was the twentieth jewel robbery since the beginning of...

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Labour's Michael Cashman, who has been battling Spain's so-called "landgrab" rules for years,

Spanish laws which have shattered the holiday and retirement home dreams of thousands of Britons must be suspended pending a full EU investigation, a Euro-MP claims.Labour's Michael Cashman, who has been battling Spain's so-called "landgrab" rules for years, said he would pursue the issue to the European Court of Human Rights if necessary.He was speaking as expatriates whose Spanish homes have been demolished and land seized without compensation told their tales to a committee of MEPs in Brussels.The problems began in 1994 when Valencia's regional government introduced rules to boost low-cost housing for locals.But unscrupulous developers have...

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Costa del Sol property crash bites hard mass repossessions in Spain

"Many people realise they aren't going to sell their homes in a month of Sundays and are just walking away," .Banks have been incredibly slow to alter their valuation criteria and take account of the crash, but nonetheless, their figures show the kinds of reductions that are now available. A one two-bedroom apartment near Fuengirola, for example, was recently valued at £148,000 and has dropped to £84,000 – that's £64,000 less. Another two-bed property...

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