Public Prosecutor is asking for 16 and a half in prison for a man accused of killing a couple and injuring two motorcyclists in Alicante

Public Prosecutor is asking for 16 and a half in prison for a man accused of killing a couple and injuring two motorcyclists in Alicante in February 2008. The private accusation is asking for 30 years in prison, considering that the accused was completely aware of what he was doing. The accused drove 16 kilometres in the wrong direction on the A-70, but told the court that he didn’t intend to kill himself, and had suffered a psychotic episode which drove him to the motorway. However, the doctor who examined him four days after the event ruled that he was completely sane at the time and had confessed he was in a hurry to get to San Vicente and entered the motorway in the wrong direction by mistake.

Read More

Denia Judge has sent a young man who allegedly belonged to a gang who perpetrated four attacks against teenagers, stealing their mobile phones

Denia Judge has sent a young man who allegedly belonged to a gang who perpetrated four attacks against teenagers, stealing their mobile phones and money, to prison on remand without bail. The gang covered their faces with balaclavas and threatened the victims with knives.

Read More

DAVID BROOKES, 59, a former Royal Artillery warrant officer and an ex-policeman, was killed by smoke in a fire in the town of Jimena de la Frontera

DAVID BROOKES, 59, a former Royal Artillery warrant officer and an ex-policeman, was killed by smoke in a fire in the town of Jimena de la Frontera His wife Florence, 58, was found by a passerby in hysterics in the street outside. The fire had already been extinguished when the man entered the house and found the lifeless body of Mr Brookes in a bedroom.
Mrs Brookes, originally from Edinburgh, is recovering from severe shock in hospital.
But her family did not know about the tragedy until they read about it in a newspaper on Friday, January 8.
Mr Brookes' son Paul, 37, said: "It was awful to read this in the paper. It was a dreadful shock’’
"It seems there was a breakdown in communications and the British consulate was not informed about dad's death."

Read More

one million Britons living in Spain some 74 per cent revealed that repatriation is now a distinct possibility

one million Britons living in Spain some 74 per cent revealed that repatriation is now a distinct possibility, according to a study undertaken by Moneycorp.Some 37 per cent of those surveyed admitted that they were already looking into returning to the British Isles.The house market crash has seen the value of homes on the Costa del Sol crash to below 65 per cent their original asking price.

“Brits living in Spain are particularly affected by the struggling property market with many owning holiday homes and letting out their Spanish properties.”
Add the plummeting pound and limited job opportunities, the survey has fuelled fears that there could be a widespread exodus.
“Brits living in Europe are feeling the effects of the weak pound as they are more likely to be reliant on income from their British property, UK pension and other regular sources of funds,” said David Kerns, Head of Private Clients at Moneycorp.
“Brits living in Spain are particularly affected by the struggling property market with many owning holiday homes and letting out their Spanish properties.”

Meanwhile, the survey also revealed that more than a third of expatriates in Italy, Germany and France are also mulling over moving back to the UK.Kerns added: “Our research shows that British expats have had a tough time and the findings reveal that no country has escaped unharmed from the economic downturn.”
The survey interviewed 250 Europe-based UK expatriates and was conducted from October to November 2009.

Read More

demolition of nine British owned properties in Albox, Almería.

President of the Junta de Andalucía, José Antonio Griñán, told Europa Press on Thursday that he had not received ‘any notification or letter’ from the British Ambassador to Spain, Giles Paxman, regarding the demolition of nine British owned properties in Albox, Almería.British diplomats are insisting that Ambassador Paxman has written and sent a fax asking for a meeting to try and find a solution to the problem, but speaking to journalists in Córdoba, José Antonio Griñán, said that the building licences for the properties had already been contested by the Junta at the time as not being considered as legal. He insisted that the Junta had therefore met its obligations regarding the matter, and that the properties were illegal.
However also speaking on Thursday the Junta’s Councillor for Housing, Juan Espadas, made a call for calm from the nine property owners. He said that his department would be looking at the matter ‘case by case’. He said that problem had arisen because of the ‘speculative interests of professional defrauders’ who had attracted foreign investors by offering the chance of building on non-buildable land without explaining exactly what any problems could be.Espadas also expressed his wish to halt the disordered growth and said leaving the new town plans aside he would be working with the Town Halls in the districts of the Almanzora in Almería and Axarquia in Málaga with the objective of imposing urban discipline.‘The Junta de Andalucía does not knock down buildings, but challenges licences it considers to be illegal, and it is the judge who then decides’, he said.

Read More

fraud paid for a luxury lifestyle in the UK and Spain which included the purchase of a villa in Marbella

Alan James Wilson was the director of a company which designed and rented portable refrigerated units from its base at Staffordshire Technology Park in Beaconside.Wilson took part in a fraud, as sole director of the business, which centred on falsifying rental agreement documents, misappropriation of company funds and disposal of equipment.
The fraud paid for a luxury lifestyle in the UK and Spain which included the purchase of a villa in Marbella, currently on the market at 850,000 Euros, a 47-foot yacht which has a list price of £490,000, a luxury home in Derbyshire and Mercedes cars.The 57-year-old, from Chapel-en-le-Frith in Derbyshire, was investigated by officers from Staffordshire Police’s Economic Crime Unit. He was arrested and admitted offences of theft, false accounting and fraud at a previous hearing at Stafford Crown Court.
He has been sentenced to 44 months imprisonment while the case was adjourned for 21 days for a confiscation hearing.Money from the sale of the yacht, villa and UK home, and funds seized from Wilson’s foreign accounts, is likely to go towards the confiscation order. All of Wison’s assets are currently held under restraint by police pending the forthcoming confiscation hearing.Detective Sergeant Nick Jones, from the Economic Crime Unit, said: “Wilson carried out fraud to enjoy a lavish lifestyle. We are committed to bringing offenders to justice while at the same time removing the trappings of a lifestyle earned through crime.
“We are increasingly using asset recovery to take back ill-gotten gains, which are then paid as compensation to victims. These are often other commercial institutions, which may be struggling in the difficult economic climate and rely on recovered funds to continue to trade and employ staff. To allow offenders to prosper from crime is an affront to law-abiding citizens.”

Read More

Three men were seriously injured yesterday

Three men were seriously injured yesterday when scaffolding collapsed at a football pitch in the town of Santa María del Águila in El Ejido.
The three men, aged between 40 and 51, were taken to the Poniente hospital where two of the men are reported to be seriously ill.
All three men suffered bruising while one of the men has a broken leg.
One of the men was released from hospital the day of the accident.

Read More

Third person has been arrested in connection with last Saturday’s shooting in Almeria city

Police arrested 27-year-old Spaniard, F.J.R.G., yesterday. A search of the address also revealed an Astra 9mm pistol which police believe to be the weapon used in Saturday’s killing, in which a 29-year-old Moroccan man was shot at point blank range in the city centre.
Police believe F.J.R.G. to be the person actually responsible for the shooting.

Read More

Spanish association supporting the opening of civil war graves, the Asociación para la Recuperación de la Memoria Histórica (AMRH)

Spanish association supporting the opening of civil war graves, the Asociación para la Recuperación de la Memoria Histórica (AMRH), yesterday said they intended to push for further attempts to locate the grave of poet and playwright, Federico Garcia Lorca.
In a statement published yesterday, the AMRH said they did not consider December’s failed attempt to find the mass grave a “failure” as it allowed certain erroneous oral testimony to be discounted.
Lorca was killed in August, 1936 and buried in a mass grave along with three other men. Lorca’s family do not support the search for the poet’s remains.

Read More

Police yesterday arrested two Spanish men in connection with Saturday’s shooting in Almeria city in which a 29-year-old Moroccan man was shot

Police yesterday arrested two Spanish men in connection with Saturday’s shooting in Almeria city in which a 29-year-old Moroccan man was shot at point blank range and killed.The two arrested men, 22-year-old, J.M.S.S., and 23-year-old, D.R.M., both have criminal records for a variety of crimes. Police have said they expect more arrests to follow in the course of the next few days.
The Moroccan man is the third person to be murdered in the province of Almeria this year.

Read More