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Vol. 2 Issue 28
www.theolivepress.es
May 10th - May 23rd 2018
www.theboathouse.es • 971 220 990 www.facebook.com/theboathousepalma
Bouncer arrest over tourist death
Let the battle commence at one of Mallorca’s most lively - and most colourful festivals
A BRITISH doorman has been detained over the death of a British tourist. The Magaluf club bouncer allegedly assaulted Aaron Henderson,30, outside popular Punta Ballena bar, Mulligan’s. He became the second tourist to die in the party resort in just one week after Three Lions worker Natalie Cormack, 19, fell to her death from her balcony. A third man, believed to be British, is also said to remain in a ‘serious condition’ in hospital after a drunken 4am fall from a BH Hotel balcony. Henderson, 30, from Northern Ireland,
SEE PAGE 10
Continues on Page 2
I’m not sick Local expat tells court she made thousands selling data but didn’t encourage fake sickness claims
By Laurence Dollimore and Gillian Keller
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Vol. 1 Issue 11 www.theolivepress.es September 14th - September 27th
A LEADING Mallorca businessman has told the Olive Press how he paid €30,000 fine this month after inspec-a tors turned up unannounced at one of his rural rental properties. The expat, who has asked not to be named, paid a 50% reduced penalty within the ‘two-week discount period’ after originally being fined €60,000. He revealed he was visited by an spector after expecting to rent inhis
EXCLUSIVE By Jon Clarke
€3,000-a-week property - via Airbnb - to a family of four from Madrid in August. He was caught as he only has one licence for three adjacent units and, according
Locals rally around family accused
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2017
EXPAT: ‘I’ve been fined €60,000
By Joe Duggan in Westminster
AN estimated 50,000 antiBrexit supporters have protested on the streets of London. The People’s March for Europe went from Park Lane to Parliament Square where the mixed crowd heard speeches from Labour, Liberal Democrat and Conservative politicians. Sir Bob Geldof sent a message of support, with ex-Liberal Democrat cabinet minister Sir Ed Davey telling the crowd he felt ‘embarrassment’ at the current Brexit negotiations. “I've gone from anger to distress, from fury to despair. But since the Brexit negotiations begun there's a third emotion I've been feeling...Embarrassment at our country's leaders. Embarrassment for Great Brit-
over rental’
to the new law, he needs three one per unit. “He turned up and the first thing asked for was my licence number,” he he told the Olive Press. “I told him I had only one for three rentals and I was fined €30,000 per unit. “He had booked
through Airbnb so there was nothing could do - I lost a whole week’s money.”I He added: “It's really unfair as the came in so fast and it's clear they arelaw after the expats who have money. “Where I live there are loads of local Spanish who didn't get touched. “Another expat I know got caught last week via Airbnb whereas his six neighbours, who also rent via Airbnb, but didn't get caught.”
of being ‘lady bosses’ in sickness claim scandal
‘NOT GUILTY!’ CUFFED: Expat family accused
ain,” he said. There were heated scenes outside the Lord Moon of the Mall pub when Leave and Remain supporters traded insults before Remainer Middleton Mann defused the situation by hugging one of the Leave supporters. “Remaining is all about kindness, unity and togetherness and the spirit of solving problems together,” Londoner Mann, 51, a creative agency manager told the Olive Press. “It didn’t solve anything by booing at him so I gestured at him to come over and have a hug. We are not going to get anywhere fighting.” Further up the Mall, Boris Johnson lookalike Drew Galdron entertained crowds with a live music performance, holding a Theresa May puppet. “Since anti-Brexit events like the Number 10 vigil started I have been at quite a few of them performing songs lampooning Boris,” he said.
DE MALLORCA
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of €60 million fraud
By Joe Duggan
and Ben Reus the papers’.” A young hairdresser from MALLORCA’S expat commuCambridge and a middle-aged nity has rallied round Debbie woman from Edinburgh are Cameron and daughter Laura among those alleged to have Joyce following their arrests been paid commissions for last week. providing bogus ‘victims’. Friends have spoken of their The pair are said to have en‘shock’ after Brits Cameron, listed the holidaymakers and 59, and Joyce, 28, were held filed over their information over an alleged €60 million to UK lawyers who made the sickness-claim scam involving fraudulent compensation UK tourists. EXPATS: Debbie and Laura claims. and (right) with beau Joyce, who is eight months Another friend of Cameron’s pregnant, appeared in court lawyer Jaume Riutort, famous alongside four alleged ‘claims for securing the acquittal of “I am massively shocked,” said ‘I can’t believe she would farmers’ last week, after the Princess Cristina, King Fe- said one friend. “Debbie is have any involvement in it or family’s Bendinat villa was lipe’s sister, over alleged tax very religious and does a lot of know what was going on’. Altogether, seven people, sevwork with charities. raided. evasion. Cameron, who denied the But people close to the family “I have spoken to Laura who eral of them Brits, were arrestclaims and was released the have expressed surprise over has thanked me for my sup- ed in last week’s raids on four port and said: ‘don’t believe homes and two businesses in following day, has hired top last week’s arrests. Portals Nous, San Agustin and everythingUntitled-1.pdf you have read1 in 16/06/2017 Bendinat,15:36 with Joyce allowed
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to return to her family last Thursday. Self-professed ‘rich mum’ Cameron, originally from London, and Joyce were detained during the raid on a luxury property in Bendinat. Meanwhile large quantities of documents were seized at a popular sports bar in Portals Nous, run by Laura's husband Stuart Joyce. Another friend said: “I'm pretty shocked by it. Laura was always nice to me and always looked after her staff. “It's a small island and even smaller as an expat. Things like this can really make or break a small community.” A Guardia Civil spokesperson confirmed that an investigation into the allegedly fraudulent claims began at the end of May after Alcudia hotel bosses filed denuncias with the police. Last month, leaked police documents revealed that Mac Hotels had allegedly been hit with €4m of sickness claims, some 800 altogether. Claims are made against UK tour operators, who then deduct payments and legal fees from Spanish hotels.
PAIR: Mum Deborah and Laura and story last year Ave de Gabriel Roca 4, Palma
Cameron was arrested in September along with six 15:36 other people, accused of cre-
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ating a network dedicated to defrauding hotel chains, including the giant Melia
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expat paper in Spain
CAUGHT
The rise and downfall of Mallorca’s Tolo Cursach
London calling
A WELL known island expat has denied recruiting British holidaymakers to file fake sickness claims on behalf of UK law firms. Brit Laura Cameron insisted a gang of touts who worked for her did not target tourists to persuade them to file false holiday claims. Instead, her Mallorca-based ‘tiquiteros’ merely collected data for a range of different purposes, she told1 a16/06/2017 Palma Untitled-1.pdf court.
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group and Mac Hotels. She is being sued by the groups, alongside the Mallorca Hoteliers Federation. Cameron, 28, told Judge Maria Perez Ruiz however, that her company Elite Project Marketing was merely ‘an information collection company’ for British marketing firms. “We collect telephone numbers and names of British tourists and we sell the data to marketing companies, which buy telephone numbers and names in case anything happens during their
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CUFFED: Laura was arrested last year
holiday in Mallorca, this includes food poisoning,” she insisted. "We collect information by talking to tourists on the street, but we do not ask them if they have had a food problem, the data we collect is for many different purposes.” The Calvia-based entrepreneur - whose mother Deborah is a millionaire businesswoman who has lived in Mallorca for three decades - admitted she sold the information to three UK law firms and marketing agen-
cies including UK Holiday Claims and Ruby Diamond. Another firm, HH Law Limited paid around €5,500 for around 1,000 names and numbers - equaling €5.5 per contact. This one company alone paid her €34,717 between October and December 2016, police reports showed. Her touts were made around €110 for each tourist that ended up filing a sickness claim, although one, Simon Robert F, insisted he never encouraged them to submit false complaints. Prosecutors pointed out that lawyers in the UK were offering victims as much as €18,000 in compensation and a 98% success rate. Investigators for the hotels Continues on Page 4
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