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the Consul: Beware of moving to Spain BRITAIN’S new consul for Andalucia has warned people to ‘think carefully’ before moving to Spain. In her first interview in Spain, Charmaine Arbouin told the Olive Press that it was definitely ‘more challenging’ living in Spain today than a decade ago. She confirmed that work for expats had ‘really fallen away’ and that quite a number of them now needed assistance. She said she was also hugely ‘sympathetic’ for the owners of the recently demolished homes in Almeria and said she and her team were working hard to try and prevent any more demolitions. My full circle to Malaga, page 8
PRINCESS PROBED
EMBATTLED Princess Cristina (above) is to have her affairs once more put under the microscope. Spanish courts have decided to go through every bank transaction she made over the last decade. As part of the ongoing Noos investigation, Judge Castro has ordered that all her outgoings and income needs to be inspected, particularly in relation to the company Aizoon, for which she and her husband the Duke of Palma worked. Investigators have accused her husband and his business partner of embezzling millions of euros by submitting inflated bills for events organised. The news is the latest in a long line of embarrassments that have sullied the reputation of Spain’s Royal Family. See our special feature The Disgraced Dozen on page 6.
Read more on page 21
olive press
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The original and only English-language investigative newspaper in Andalucía
Vol. 7 Issue 173
www.theolivepress.es
October 30 - November 13 2013
Earpiece Don’t let the Don’t let thein banks cash new size banks cash in 39mm www.hifx.co.uk www.hifx.co.uk xsee 50mm page 13 see page 13
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OUT OF GAS Hero expat traps bogus gasmen on her property and calls police... only to see them let off without even an official caution
IT has been a much repeated story over the last decade: the warning for expats to be on the look out for bogus gas inspectors. So when a pair of fake gasmen landed on the doorstep of Swede Rose Marie Wieking, she knew immediately not to trust them. But what the pair of local Spanish conmen could not have expected was that wily Rose Marie, 63, was more than equal to their trickery. When they came back to collect their money for the ‘routine’ inspection at her property in Coin, she had the nerve
EXCLUSIVE By Giles Brown to trap them on her finca and quickly called the police. But while police quickly confirmed the men were bogus, they told Rose Marie they were unable to prosecute due to a ‘lack of proof’. The incident had occurred after two men turned up at her finca claiming the gas company had sent them to inspect her gas bottles. Previously her husband had dealt with inspectors, but after his death earlier this year, the job fell to her.
“The two men turned up on the Thursday and said they had come on a routine inspection,” explained Rose Marie, from Stockholm. “They told me that the cost would be around €300, and I would have to pay the same day. “I asked them if they would accept a credit card but they said their machine wasn’t working. So we agreed that they would come back on Monday at 11am.” Already suspicious she then looked over the paperwork and discovered that the previous inspection had only been nine months earlier and over
FROM BEYOND THE GRAVE: Capa finally heard verifying his controversial war photo in ‘lost’ interview from 1950s. See page 5
the last decade she had spent over 2000 euros on inspections. When she tried ringing a series of numbers on the forms they were all out of order. Eventyally a receptionist at Cepsa confirmed that there was nothing in the diary and the ‘inspectors’ were fake. Rose Marie spoke with the Guardia Civil that afternoon and they assured her that they would have an officer available on Monday at 11am. The following Monday, however, the bogus inspectors turned up half an hour early, walking into the finca. Rose Marie said: “I could hear them outside, shouting, so I locked myself inside the house and called my daughter Samanta.” Samanta, who lives nearby, drove straight to the Guardia Civil and informed them the Turn to page 2
CONMEN: Bogus gasmen (top) their car (left) and some of the bills they gave her
GUTSY. Rose Marie