Olive Press Newspaper – Issue 216

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No Stan unturned

Media boss being sued by former sales manager has left a string of unpaid staff and dissolved companies in his wake

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A bad baron

Help to pot them

Baron Rothschild indicted in France

Status Quo conman identified by expats

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End of the rainbow The Olive Press tracks down the home of Rainbow Villas scam couple the Staffords

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Beleaguered Kim’s Animal Rescue Centre up for sale after charity-funded renovations

IT was one of the most vicious dog fights of last year.

But now a snarling war of words between an animal rescue boss and furious former workers looks to have reached a new chapter.

Beleaguered Kim’s Animal Rescue Centre, in Mijas, has been put up for sale due to financial difficulties.

It comes after thousands of euros were donated to bring the centre up to humane standards, following a damning Olive Press investigation last September.

Now critics and donors claim boss Kim Halliwell is ‘planning to cash in’ having spent the money putting on a new roof and renovating the shelter.

One said: “After all the donations that came in following the campaign to get the new roof, now she is cashing in and selling the place. Surely

EXCLUSIVE

By Tom Powell this is charity money?”

Another added that the proceeds of the sale of the property, on the market for €180,000, should not go to Halliwell and her daughter Kelly.

After all, they insist the pair were not capable of running a centre that was proven to be filthy, unhygienic and overcrowded.

Dozens of former volunteers slammed the treatment of animals last year, before the Olive Press launched an urgent appeal to help sort out the mess, cutting down the number of animals by 50%.

It came as Junta inspectors demanded the centre improve or close its doors, and for some

Flying without wings Olive Press reporters head for the skies as part of our 16-page Fuengirola supplement Turn to Page 28

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FINAL GOODBYE: Thousands of euros in donations has gone towards reroofing the centre for Kim (inset) months improvement works took place and all animals were vaccinated.

But, so serious was the underlying problem that Halliwell is currently being ordered to pay €20,000 by Mijas Town Hall after failing to meet repayments on a loan initially taken out to build kennels.

A further €12,000 is due over the next five years.

Halliwell, from Manchester, confirmed the sale last night, saying: “I have to sell the place or it is going to be repossessed, we are going through court at the moment.

“When I was employing staff here two years ago it meant I didn’t have enough money to pay the loan back.”

She insists she will be merely relocating to another location in the Costa del Sol area, with all 80 cats and 52 dogs currently in her possession.

But critics insist Halliwell has shunned help to get the problem sorted out.

“Now she has completely closed down on communicating with anyone,” said Jacqui Ross, owner of Last Chance Animal Rescue, which previously offered a home for all of Halliwell’s dogs.

“Selling the centre is so unfair on the people who have donated to improve it over the years and make it a suitable home for all the animals she has living there.”

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CRIME NEWS

June 25th - July 9th 2015

Girlfriend number two probed in Brit expat murder

By Tom Powell THE investigation into the death of British millionaire Andrew Bush has taken a new turn, as it emerges gunshot residue was found on his new Russian girlfriend.

Maria Korotaeva, 20, is believed to have been waiting in a car outside Bush’s holiday home in Estepona when he was shot dead.

Police initially believed that he was shot by former girlfriend Mayka Kukucova, a Slovakian model, who had allegedly been lying in wait for him in his villa for two days.

Kukucova handed herself into police in her parent’s village after fleeing the scene in Bush’s €80,000 Hummer.

New twist in millionaire murder saga, after gunshot residue found on young Russian model

Gunshots

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She is currently in jail in Alhaurin de la Torre, while Russian Korotaeva, who was studying in Bristol when she met jewellery shop owner Bush, has also now been dragged into the investigation.

Bush, 48, had allegedly returned to the rented villa from a long weekend in the UK with Korotaeva, where they found a furious Kukucova.

Korotaeva called police after hearing gunshots and seeing Kukucova drive off, and just after 3am Bush’s body was found in a pool of his own blood.

INTRIGUE: Korotaeva (inset) told police she was waiting outside when Bush (above with Kukucova) was shot dead Kukucova later claimed she acted in self-defence after confronting Bush, over her alleged pregnancy.

Police forces unite

MANHUNT: For Patsy and Constance Adams

A UNION representing Spanish police officers wants to unite the Guardia Civil with the National Police into a force called the Civil Police.

The Unified Police Union claims that security organisations must play their part in Spain’s social and political change.

It also wants to see senior officers selected upon merit, with less input coming from politicians.

Gangster hunted Spy eyed in Mallorca

POLICE hunting a notorious British gangster have targeted his €4 million villa in Majorca.

Patrick ‘Patsy’ Adams is wanted in connection to an attempted murder – thought to be a gangland hit – more than two years ago.

The 59-year-old – known as the ‘enforcer’ in the infamous Adams crime family – reportedly owns the luxurious Spanish bolthole with his wife Constance, 54, who is also wanted.

The gated villa, built in 2004, has had police staking it out, according to UK reports.

British police named the couple in connection with the London shooting last month and believe they have been hiding out in Spain since then.

The Adams family – also known as the Clerkenwell Crime Syndicate or simply the A-team – were for decades the most feared criminal force in London.

A RWANDAN spy wanted by Spanish authorities has been picked up in the UK. Intelligence chief Karenzi Karake has been arrested at London’s Heathrow Airport, at Spain’s request.

Karake, 54, is being retained on a European Arrest Warrant issued by the Spanish authorities.

He is wanted in connection to war crimes against civilians dating back to Rwandan genocide in the 1990s.

Spanish high court judge, Fernando Andreu, issued the European arrest warrant in 2008.

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June 25th - July 9th 2015

NEWS

the Olive Press June 25th - July 9th 2015

One must eat better!

Fight clubbing

SHAKING off her ‘too skinny’ reputation, Queen Letizia has been named the UN’s nutrition ambassador.

Rewarded for her campaign to raise the awareness of world hunger, Letizia said she will use her new role to promote the benefits of a Mediterranean diet.

Referring to the celebrated diet as ‘the best example of healthy and sustainable eating’, Letizia has called for ‘collection action’ to lower ‘unacceptable’ levels of world hunger.

BRITAIN’S most exciting heavyweight boxer since Lennox Lewis has been soaking up the sun on the Costa del Sol. Taking some down-time following his 13th consecutive knockout victory against American Kevin Johnson, Olympic gold medalist Anthony Joshua was spotted relaxing in Marbella celebrity hangout La Sala.

Posing for pictures with fans, 25-year-old Joshua dined with friends before a night out next door at Aqwa Mist nightclub.

Former England footballer Jermaine Jenas then teamed up with the boxer and the pair were spotted go-karting in Marbella.

60 Minute Makeover anyone?

LA CALA

Elliott Wright talks TOWIE, pet funerals and a plan to recruit Nick Knowles for his build in La Cala de Mijas

I

T is fair to say I am not too keen on the editing - or how I have been portrayed - in the latest episodes of The Only Way is Essex (TOWIE).

I’m very glad I’m not in Essex right now and it’s full speed ahead with my business ventures for now...

I’ll leave the drama to everyone else and after watching the dog and cat funeral on the last episode, I’ve got to say that scene ain’t a bit of me!

On the domestic front I have had my mum and dad here the last 10 days, plus my new head chef, bar manager and girlfriend all living with me.

It’s like the Waltons... I need my own space!

As far as the restaurant, Olivia’s in La Cala, is concerned, there have been a few more licensing issues (hopefully now sorted) and this project is taking so long I could do with a bit of 60 Minute Makeover.

I’ve heard that the programme presenter Nick Knowles has recently moved to Sotogrande, so I might give him a bell. If you’re reading this Nick, come and see me… PLEASE! By the way, I’ve also just been featured in a Father’s Day feature in Now Magazine, alongside Prince William, Peter Andre, Michael Buble and David Beckham – that’s not a bad group to be among is it?

Perhaps I’ll send them all an invite to the Opening Party.

THE WRIGHTS: Elliott with dad Eddie

3

Jack the lad Young English football starlet spotted slugging from a six-litre bottle of vodka on binge break HE may be dubbed the next Gareth Bale but Jack Grealish’s antics in Marbella are proving more Gazza-esque.

The Aston Villa sensation was snapped in luxury botique hotel Sisu with a

€1,400 six-litre bottle of vodka under his arm.

Surrounded by scantilyclad women, the teenager barely moved from his lounger as he knocked back the giant bottle of Ciroc.

By Rob Horgan “He was swigging from the bottle with his friends and appeared to be drunk,” a holidaymaker at the hotel said.

Bringing back the Bacon

SWAPPING Mystic River for a mystery seaside trip, Hollywood A-lister Kevin Bacon has recently taken a secret Costa del Sol holiday.

The Footloose star found a luxury Mijas villa to bring together his family from around the world.

A source revealed to the Olive Press that the Bacon clan arrived for two weeks of sunshine in an opulent hideaway in El Chaparral, costing at least €20,000 per week.

The 56-year-old father-of-two and his stunning actress wife Kyra Sedgwick, 49, managed to keep a low profile throughout the entire trip.

“They stayed in a lot as they were primarily here because Bacon’s father-in-law has been extremely unwell,” said the source.

The pad has been used by other celebrities, including Jermaine Jackson, earlier this year, before Bacon, who was recently the face of a mega-bucks EE telephone network campaign - arrived.

EXCLUSIVE

DRUNK: Grealish

“It was the middle of the afternoon, the hottest time of day, so he was starting on the hard stuff pretty early.”

Tipped for an England call up in the coming months, the 19-year-old winger appears to be taking inspiration from the class of ‘96 with parallels to Paul Gascoigne’s infamous ‘dentist’s chair’.

Villa representatives have already had ‘a serious word’ with their boy wonder after photos emerged of him passed out in a street while holidaying in Tenerife in early June.

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POLITICAL NEWS

4

June 25th - July 9th 2015

Brave mayor’s eviction plea New radical mayor fails to prevent house eviction but ensures shelter for family

PEOPLE’S MAN: Gonzalez

WHEN a family was due to be evicted from their home in Cadiz city they had an unexpected visit from the local mayor.

Not to come and support the police eviction… but to join a protest against it and almost get arrested in the process.

Radical Podemos mayor Jose Maria Gonzalez - aka ‘Kichi’ - was quickly on the scene when advised about the eviction on Monday.

He and four other councillors, who had stood against repossessions in the city, joined protesters at the home of the family, who had lived there for 25 years.

The mayor even tried to get the landlord to agree to let the town hall pay one month’s rent to buy the family time.

However despite his gallant effort at mediating, he

was unable to stop police from forcing the family from the home after they received an eviction order.

Luckily a support network had already been set up since the new mayor took power last week and the family was taken to a nearby hostel until further arrangements could be made.

“This is a problem going back many years,” said the mayor, who is prioritizing housing, food and reindustrialization in the city.

“Most importantly this family will not end up sleeping on the streets,” the Por Cadiz Si Se Puede (Podemos) politician concluded.

He is not the only mayor to make a stand against home evictions, Barcelona mayor Ada Colau put a stop to two evictions – and that was just her first day on the job.

ELECTIONS UPDATE

Back to the day job After the most hotly contested local elections in recent memory, pact-negotiations have ceased and mayors across the country have been unveiled IT’S over. The race to name municipal mayors across the country has come to an end and the men and women in charge of Spain’s towns are finally back to work.

The highest-ever number of split municipal results led to a fortnight of negotiations as former rivals put their differences aside to pact with one another.

With June 13 set as the deadline for mayoral inaugurations, several municipalities hung precariously in the balance.

In Malaga alone, a third of the province’s 103 municipalities failed to produce a majority and needed a pact for stability.

The split nature of the vote no doubt points to a tight general election in November.

Here is a brief rundown of some of the biggest changes and those that stayed in power:

Nerja CHANGE is afoot in Nerja, after newly crowned mayor Rosa Arrabal ended 20 years of PP rule.

The PSOE candidate teamed up with the IU to dethrone former mayor Jose Armijo.

In the end a last minute breakdown in pact-negotiations between Armijo and Ciudadanos spelt the end for the PP candidate.

Benalmadena A FIVE-WAY pact in Benalmadena ousted former PP mayor Paloma Galvez from the hot seat.

United against the PP, the IU, Ciudadanos, Costa del Sol Si Puede and Alternativa Por Benalmadena joined forces in support of PSOE candidate Victor Navas.

The PSOE has reclaimed power in Benalmadena at the first time of asking, after losing the seat to the PP in 2012.

Torremolinos AFTER 20 years in the mayoral seat, the PP’s Pedro Fernandez Montes was ousted from office by socialist Jose Ortiz.

The former mayor’s unpopularity was all too evident when he addressed the council at the investiture ceremony, being booed by members of the public with cries of ‘Viva la democracia, viva Torremolinos’.

Benaojan THE new mayor of Benaojan, Soraya Garcia, was left an unusual gift by her predecessor.

As the PSOE candidate’s name was etched onto the town hall’s door, signs of former mayor Francisco Gomez were all too apparent.

The PP candidate’s parting gift was an ashtray full of cigarettebutts left on her desk.

A parting dig at the new mayor, Garcia had previously denounced Gomez for smoking in public.

Marbella NEW Mayor of Marbella Jose Bernal is determined to ‘clean up’ the political scene.

Starting by removing all signs of Franco and corruption from the town, Bernal is roping in Malaga University to investigate what needs to be done.

Buildings will be adapted and road names will be changed until all signs of the former dictator are but a distant and forgotten memory.

Mijas CIUDADANOS candidate Juan Carlos Maldonado has taken the reins in Mijas, leaving former mayor Angel Nozal to settle for the role of his deputy.

A pact with the PP saw the emerging party claim victory after a closely fought contest.

A potential pact between the PSOE and Ciudadanos had been tipped to put Jose Gonzalez in the mayor’s seat but the PP trumped the PSOE’s offer.

Ronda TEARS of joy were shed by Maria de la Paz Fernandez when she learned of her re-election victory.

Ronda’s mayor - all over again - will lead a PP minority with seven councillors.

The glamorous Rodena was visibly moved and is reaching out to other political groups to drive Ronda’s development forward.

“I’m not afraid of this challenge,” said Fernandez.

Estepona HIS election win may have been easier than many of his Costa del Sol counterparts but mayor Jose Urbano is not resting on his laurels.

Determined to keep the support of his faithful residents, Urbano has renounced the use of an official car and will instead drive his own vehicle.

He has also outlawed municipal mobile phones for town hall staff, a saving of around €500,000 over the next four years.

NEWS

www.theolivepress.es

June 11th - June 24th 2015

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NEWS IN BRIEF Scrap attack A TOTAL of 141 abandoned cars were removed from Fuengirola’s public roads in the first five months of 2015, and 82 were scrapped to free up public parking space.

Med military FIERY FIESTA: San Juan celebrations took place across Spain last night, with numerous bonfires up and down the coast. Here, Sabinillas gets prepared while Casares sets alight a home

Ban the bulls AN anti-bullfighting protest has been held on the paseo maritimo in Estepona.

Two activists staged a peaceful protest in reaction to an installation of a stuffed bull and the instruments used to kill the animal.

The exhibition owner alerted the police who arrived but allowed the protest to continue because of the right to protest.

The Marbella anti-bullfighting association (Colectivo Antitaurino Marbella) intends to continue to protest in the coming days.

Doggone!

Voxpop: Expats slam decision to ban dogs from Costa beaches

PACO: With pooch

MORE than two thirds of Olive Press readers disagree with the Junta’s decision to ban dogs from beaches on the Costa del Sol this summer.

In an online poll, 70% voted against the ruling, which includes specific dog-friendly beaches set up in Casares, Fuengirola and Malaga.

The controversial decree has been circulated to all 14 coastal municipalities, but some owners are still planning to flout the ban.

Jesus, 22, a lifeguard and dog-walker from a beach in

By Fiona Tomas Sabinillas, Malaga, told the Olive Press: “I’ll continue to walk my dogs along this beach in spite of the Junta’s decision.”

Expat Jennifer Knowles commented: “Why make a dog friendly beach and then ban them? Most people live in apartments with nowhere to take their dog. Lets start thinking of the dogs!”

While, Paco, a 65-year old holidaymaker from Madrid, said:

“I don’t like taking my dog on the beach. I believe that dog-friendly beaches should be treated in the same way as nudist beaches – they should be away from everything else.”

And Briton Richard Hopkins, 46, who lives in Sabinillas, told the Olive Press: ““I haven’t got anything against dogs, but they can make a mess on the beach.”

Compared to the 450 beaches in the UK or the nearly 200 in France, the number of dogfriendly beaches in Spain is only around 50.

A EUROPEAN military mission to clamp down on unsafe people-smuggling in the Mediterranean is set to start in July, but PM David Cameron claims foreign aid is the solution.

Back to bull San Sebastian’s new council is set to reintroduce bullfighting in the city three years after it was banned.

Search on A BRITISH walker is missing on the Camino de Santiago after making a distress call, with Navarra rescue services scouring the area.

Laid to rest THE remains of Miguel de Cervantes, originally buried in 1616 and unearthed in March, were formally buried in Madrid along with a Don Quixote monument

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FEATURE NEWS

Olive Press June 25th - July 9th 2015 thethe Olive Press May 2015 June13th 11th -- May June27th 24th 2015

OPINION

By Tom Powell

Standing firm IT does not come easy to knock another publication.

In the cut-throat media world - particularly in a recession - solidarity between rival publications is often key.

But two years of calls from former members of staff at Simply Media and Sunsearch asking us to investigate cannot be ignored.

A former sales manager, former bookkeeper, former distributor and former writers have all gone unpaid. Not to mention at least one printer.

But when someone with the chequered business history of boss Stanley Israel threatens to ruin everyone else’s hard work, he needs to be exposed.

No certainty of print run numbers, printing adverts that have not been contracted and claiming to distribute in the world’s top hotels and airport lounges... Stan, enough is enough.

For the first time in Costa del Sol history, the Olive Press stands alongside the Euro Weekly News, Essential Magazine and Hot Magazine to call time on this charade.

We all have our differences and our disagreements, but every one of us has worked incredibly hard in very tough times to still be here.

Hard work, integrity counts for everything these days.

Real role models A BOXER, a tennis player and a footballer all head to Marbella on their holidays.

After a week on the beach, two head home with their heads held high while the other heads back in a cloud of controversy… No prizes for guessing which one that was.

While British boxer Anthony Joshua and Serbian tennis ace Novak Djokovic enjoyed their fun in the sun, young English football starlet Jack Grealish dropped the ball.

Like many a young footballer before him, 19-yearold Grealish is facing a slap on the wrists for his binge-drinking escapades when he returns to the UK. Will these footballers never learn? Probably not.

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The original and only English-language investigative newspaper in Andalucía

olive press

Tel: 951 273 575 (admin) or admin@theolivepress.es or sales@theolivepress.es A campaigning, community newspaper, the Olive Press represents the huge expatriate community in southern Spain - 200,000 copies distributed monthly (130,000 digitally) with an estimated readership, including the website, of more than 500,000 people a month.

Tom Powell Tom@theolivepress.es Rob Horgan Rob@theolivepress.es

Iona Napier Iona@theolivepress.es Admin / Distribution / Accounts: Maria González accounts@theolivepress.es Mirian Moreno admin@theolivepress.es SALES TEAM: Chris Birkett 652 512 956 Stephen Shutes 671 834 479 Classified Sarah Adams 655825683 Axarquia Charlie Bamber 661 452 180

H

E claims to offer the world, quite literally.

Stan Israel’s Perfect Homes magazine is apparently available for sale in ‘all of the world’s 196 countries’.

It is one of a range of large, heavy glossy magazines produced by the Simply Media Group, based in Estepona.

But since the Olive Press revealed Stanley Byron Israel, from Buckinghamshire, UK is being sued by one of Andalucia’s biggest printing firms over non-payment of €8,000 dating back to 2013, half a dozen more victims have come forward.

Meanwhile, Israel - sometimes known as ‘Stanley Haw’ and, occasionally ‘Stanley How’, more of which later - has launched his new project, a fortnightly newspaper called ‘Weekend World’.

Claiming to rival all other local newspapers ‘in every way’, it came out in dribs and drabs, with 104 pages of, well, a bit of everything, to be exact.

However, while printed on the very best bleached white paper, it has not been entirely well received, with big name

He must get the award for being one of the coast’s most serious serial non-payers of staff advertisers including Helicopteros Sanitarios, Specsavers and Gibraltar’s Sunborn hotel perplexed to find their full-page adverts in the paper despite agreeing nothing.

An investigation is now underway, in particular at Specsavers and Helicopteros, to find out how the advert appeared in Israel’s paper.

Meanwhile, Israel, 52, denies the €8,000 printing debt with company Tecnographic - and even a court case - but the evidence against him is mounting.

Indeed, Olive Press enquiries have learned of a long track record of court cases and companies closing down in turmoil, both in England and before that in Tenerife.

Despite his claims of being a very successful media mogul - turning over millions in profit - his previous companies have been convicted for serious offences including dumping waste illegally.

And he left a trail of at least 10 dissolved companies before mov-

Rogue trader?

Expat publisher being sued by former sales boss is a serial non-payer of staff with a chequered business history

DECEPTIVE: Israel’s impressive-looking newspaper Weekend World launched with adverts from totally oblivious companies... some of which are now investigating ing to the Costa del Sol in 2010.

But most importantly, he must get the award for being one of the coast’s most serious serial non-payers of staff.

Take former Sales Manager at Simply Media, Lola Gomez, who previously worked for El Pais’ Prisa group, and is now taking Israel to court in Malaga over non-payment of her salary.

Gomez began working for Israel in September last year, but left after just two months due to ‘anxiety and stress’, in par-

ticular, over the way the company was structured.

In court documents, seen by the Olive Press, she alleges that she believes she was exaggerating printing figures to potential clients by perhaps ten times.

A claim Israel strongly denies.

“I felt defrauded and that I had been cheating my clients,” said Gomez, who has only been paid for 15 days of work. The trial will now take place on October 20 in Malaga court 4.

Meanwhile, former accoun-

What a Twit

tant Rudy Gedeon has also slammed his former employer for not paying him.

He was initially owed €4,000 after being asked to leave in September 2013, having started in February, and has still not been paid €1,500 of that.

“He promised all his staff they would have sports cars and houses in the Bahamas before long, but the truth is that he wasn’t turning over enough money to even pay printers and staff,” Gedeon told the Olive Press.

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The Madrid councillor slammed for anti-semitic tweets years ago MADRID should know better, writes our man in the capital, Mario Alegria MATTER S

I

N politics, everything is fair and unfair.

When it comes to digging up dirt about a politician’s past, it is all part of the national electoral process. So it isn’t surprising how a Madrid councillor’s provocative Tweets came to light last week just hours after he was appointed the city’s culture chief by incoming leftist Mayor Manuela Carmena.

Guillermo Zapata, a novelist and a screenwriter, said he meant no harm when he posted on his Twitter account some years back a series of anti-Semitic comments, including one that poked fun at the Holocaust, and criticisms of the Basque terrorism victims. It was all ‘dark humour’, he says.

Under pressure, Zapata gave up his

cultural post 48 hours after he had been appointed, but vowed to continue to keep his seat on the Madrid City Council. His detractors believe that he should leave government once and for all, while his supporters, who claim he was a victim of dirty politics, believe that his freedom of speech guarantees were violated.

There is a very thick borderline between speech freedom and freedom to hate; the latter just doesn’t exist on the Spanish law books. A tolerant country, Spain has never been considered an anti-Semitic nation compared to other European countries. However, it is often listed in annual international human rights reports with a short list of abuses

and incidents that have taken place over the years at synagogues, public meeting places for the Jewish community, and in front of the Israeli Embassy in Madrid.

Zapata claims he was a victim and has apologised for his offending Tweets. But in this day and age, when we are seeing flagrant human rights violations based on prejudices, including the recent massacre of a group of African-Americans while they held a Bible study course at a church in the United States, this type of ‘dark humour’ only goes to foment hatred and resent.

Zapata should know better. For a leftist – which he claims to be – social equality, tolerance and civil rights are absolute virtues.

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the 2015 theOlive OlivePress PressJune May 13th May 27th 2015 June25th 11th---July June9th 24th 2015

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“It was my job to negotiate with the printers so they would do the job without any money in advance, but in the end I saw that there wasn’t enough money there and confronted him over it, so he asked me to leave.”

Another former salesgirl, who had to hire the help of a lawyer in order to get Israel to pay her almost three years ago, added: “It was hard to sell adverts as most of the places I went people never saw the magazine.”

Sunsearch magazine’s first distributor also failed to get paid.

David Norman, now an estate TEAM: Lisa Brown (left) has been Israel’s girlfriend and business partner for many years while (right) their Costa del Sol villa agent in Mijas, was left potless despite organising a team any industry, but not when He claims it was his foster par- to be ‘poached’ by Sir Richard of four people to distribute the questionable tactics - such as ents’ name from which he has Branson. very first print run. the unauthorised use of old adsince reverted, but he used it But that’s not the end of the con“When I put my invoice through verts - are in play,” he added. for his two children - both from troversy surrounding Mr Israel. for €1,500 plus IVA, as agreed, “We would never run adverts In 2006, Oceana and Televihis first marriage.

I got nothing. When my wife on this basis, it is unprofession Media, based in Luton, A third name, ‘Stanley How’ went down a month later she sional.” and then headed by Israel, however, emerges as being the was left sitting in his office Fellow publisher of Essenwas fined £21,000 for illegally registered director for another for four hours and then finally tials Magazine, Iain Blackwell, of his companies, Poster Steps. dumping commercial waste detold ‘you’re not getting paid be- agrees, adding: “Most of the Curiously, How was also born in spite council warnings. cause you didn’t distribute the local magazines are degradthe same year 1962 and based The company pleaded guilty to magazines’ because they were ing the market with completely three counts of unlawful rubbish in Bedford. found in a bin.” exaggerated circulation claims When put to the businessman, disposal and one count of failing Meanwhile the press that cannot be he told us to ‘check our facts’ to provide waste transfer notes. pack sent out by substantiated by and, of course, the name ‘How’ Israel’s co-director at Oceana Simply Media Group their sales figand long-term partner, Lisa could be a mere clerical error. to potential advertisures.

Either way, we have discovered Brown, 37, is now also assisers certainly contains “This lack of rethat Israel was registered as tant manager at Simply Media some lofty claims. spect and profesthe owner of Sunsearch Tours Group.

It states Perfect sionalism impacts DOG-LOVER: Israel purports to live a luxurious life in Tenerife under the name Another of his companies, Homes magazine is negatively on the Media Steps Limited was suc‘Haw’ from distributed in a string particular that he was buying image and reputa- Indeed, he tried to persuade cessfully sued 2002 until of London’s classiest tion of the local me- the owner of a Marbella prop- up the Olive Press newspaper the firm was for £16,193 in hotels, including ‘Conerty newspaper to invest (ED: A total lie). dia in general.” a County Court Mr Israel, nee shut down in naught Hotels’ and “I had never heard so much But then nothing is €30,000 in Simply Media. case.

2008 due to Haw, nee How, ‘Ritz Hotels’...even surprising about Is- However, his undoing came rubbish in 13 years on the unpaid taxes.

It came after Is‘Claridges Hotels’, coast and walked out in diswhen he claimed to the entrerael, who appealed has apparently rael purchased He also took spelt incorrectly. gust.” in an online forum preneur that a 30% stake of firm for achieved a lot in the It also claims to have Steven Euesden and to many other the company was owned by a But given the law of averages, over a radio just £1 from its station, rethe magazine in nuit is perhaps not surprising life expats on the coast well known real estate comfounders when it EWN merous VIP airport that Israel has managed to branding for investment in pany boss in Elviria. it hit debts, but as Sunsearch lounges around the his firm, despite The newspaper boss, it turned make enough money to live in fm, which no never managed world. out, knew the agent well, and a luxurious villa with pool near longer exists. his background. to turn the business – which As we went to print, Estepona and drives a Range Another Olive Press rumbled the lie immediately.

Certainly Mr Israel, nee Haw, placed adverts on train station none of the hotels were source described A similar occurrence happened Rover. nee How, has apparently stairs – into a profit-maker. able to confirm they His ruse also seems to be a attending an in- to Gary Heginbottom, the pubachieved a lot in life, at least as The firm’s net worth was listed had seen the magawell worn one with the Olive terview with Israel lisher of Marbella’s six-year as being in debt to the tune his CV proclaims. zines.

Press discovering an equally at Simply Media’s old Hot Magazine, who went to of £319,946 when it was When searching for a job as a Furthermore, the press office a year ago visit Israel two years ago, ‘out confusing business history in salesman at a rival newspaper dissolved, while a different pack claims Simply MeTenerife, as well as in England, as a ‘very strange, of sheer curiosity’. five years ago, he claimed to company of his, Media Steps dia group was founded unsettling experi- “He firstly told me that he was where he lived up until 2010. have made millions from doz- (sports) limited also had a debt ‘17 years ago’. the best salesman in the world, At least six of his UK compa- ens of companies, including a of £64,760. ence’.

Yet Spanish company nies were dissolved by the end a real god in the media indus“It was very clear Accountant Ian Russell was records reveal it was Iain Blackwell there was some- try and that I should roll my of 2010, having only lost mon- hospitality group, media groups one of those from whom Israel in the UK and Tenerife, his own launched in March ey during his period of tenure Essentials thing weird going magazine into his company.” golf clubs, a real estate agency purchased Media Steps.

2014, after Israel’s on,” added the And for what return? “He told or never traded at all. No offi- and set up the National Asso- “He was certainly an enigma,” previous company, Sunsearch source, who was eventually me he wouldn’t dare to insult cial records could be found for said Russell. “He agreed to buy ciation of Builders, in the UK. Media Group, racked up a debt asked to invest €10,000 in the me with a salary but would sim- the others. the company and all its debts He even claimed to have imof €81,348. company as a way to come on ply give me a decent amount of One of which, Pressprefer Lim- ported the very first games for a pound, but then tried Although Israel claims he sold board. shares in the company and we ited, is under Israel’s alterna- console into England, which to argue the debts were ours Sunsearch to Belgian busi- It turns out dog-lover Israel has would all do well as his media tive name, ‘Stanley Haw’, and when he took it over.” nessmen David de Potter, he is a history of encouraging poten- empire grew. was co-owned by his second later became known as the Israel, it turns out, has also Sega Mega Drive, only for it still listed as the sole director, tial investors. wife, Paula Haw. “He told me lots of things… in been accused of not paying and when pressed, admitted freelance writers, including KJ he was still a shareholder.

Elsdon, now living in Wales, Official Spanish company reIn a full rebuttal of our investigation, Iswho is still owed €300. cords understandably flag Sunrael said: “I dissolved my businesses in “He claimed one article I wrote search Media Group as a ‘high 2010 because in 2007 to 2008 all my about the Shard building for commercial risk’ and Simply UK businesses were sold as I wanted to Perfect Homes magazine was Media Group the same. concentrate on a European venture, with been dumped in the road. show you. never published, but I manIt is perhaps somewhat incredeach of the companies continuing to run “Rudy Gedeon’s job was to manage “I don’t know where the name ‘How’ aged to pick up a copy of the ible then, that this man has the books which were completely comes from, but I can confirm I have successfully under new ownership. magazine and saw it clearly been able to launch a free “Lola Gomez does have salary outstand- messed up, which is why he was fired. had companies registered in two in there,” said Elsdon gave up newspaper, printing a claimed ing plus five days’ vacation. However “Sunsearch Media Group may have a names Israel and Haw. I was a foster pursuing Sunsearch Media for 25,000 issues a fortnight on when leaving she took the company debt of €81k, I cannot confirm. What child from six weeks and therefore for payment when she moved to expensive paper and with few I can confirm is that this debt came mobile and will not be paid until she many years I used the name I was givWales two years later. adverts actually paid for. around because a certain person returns it. We hope to have this resolved en by my foster parents before revertWhen confronted with the Publisher of the Euro Weekly bought into the company legally via ing to my birth name. by the court hearing. claims, Israel first denied all News, Steven Euesden, told “Regarding David Norman, we hired notaries and solicitors, but unfortu- “I believe that we have achieved many knowledge of Ms Elsdon then the Olive Press: “It is clearly not him to distribute 10,000 copies. He was nately for the company the paper- levels of success. I have been successinsisted that she had, in fact, a commercially viable product, not paid for his services because we re- work submitted was fake. I have the ful to me, but other people may not been paid, which Elsdon desomething strange is going on. ceived complaints that boxes had just escritura but I do not feel I need to agree.” nies.

“Competition is essential for

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INVESTIGATIONS NEWS SPECIAL

www.theolivepress.es

June 25th - July 9th 2015

TRACKED DOWN: Holiday rental scammers go AWOL from Alhaurin estate as hundreds

End of the rainbow

DISAPPEARED: Staffords

A BRITISH couple who scammed more than 100 Costa-bound tourists have fled their luxury Alhaurin el Grande villa and are hiding out in Murcia.

But, the owners of Rainbow Villas, Mark and Michelle Stafford, have fled the high-security property - whose neighbours

EXCLUSIVE

By Tom Powell & Rob Horgan

include Status Quo star Rick Parfitt, to ‘lie low’ in Murcia - it can be revealed.

The pair are now being probed by police after their company suddenly ‘ceased

trading’, leaving holidaymakers thousands of euros out of pocket and with nowhere to stay.

When the Olive Press visited their gated villa - fitted out with cameras and a 600 metre private drive - nobody was at home, despite a source saying that the couple’s son is looking after the

property.

Despite their six dogs making a lot of noise in the grounds and a van being in evidence, a neighbour told the Olive Press, that the pair had fled to Murcia, where Mark’s mother lives.

“The couple fled in a hurry, initially to Murcia,” the neighbour said. “But as they

have homes in France, Portugal and England, I suspect they will leave Spain sharpish.”

She added: “For now, their son, who is in his early 30s, is looking after their six dogs and eight cats.”

Meanwhile an army of scammed holiday-makers are compiling a dossier of

Quo conmen: Get them in the pot!

WIN ! WIN! WIN!

UNDER FIRE:

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Stan Israel

Media boss in court EXCLUSIVE

By Tom Powell

‘Rough Guide to

15 Andalucia’ - Page

olive press Disrupting the Status Quo the

you Let HiFX help reach your destination. k www.hifx.co.u

Copies of the new

Costa media AN embattled sued by one of group is being printing Andalucia’s biggest firms. run by Stan Sunsearch Media, chased for the Israel, is beingof €8,000 datnon-payment ing back to 2013. in Sevilla, Tecnographic, Homes, one Perfect printed of large, glossy of a range by his magazines produced group. a new Israel, 53, launched called Simcompany in 2014, whose cliply Media Group, include Louis ents allegedly and even Vuitton, Bulgari Gaga’s perfume. popstar Lady

uage only English-lang ucía The original and Andal newspaper in investigative

Vol. 9 Issue

ress.es

eolivep 215 www.th

June 11th - June

Parfitt and Rockstar Rickcall in police wife Lyndsay thousands in after losing nware con Swiss kitche

24th 2015

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can’t transport an price as they Diaz has reached Lyndsay SUSANA t with Ciudadanos Switzerland. believable,” as EXCLUSIVE second term “It is all veryshow you some genuine agreemen has been to claim her the Andalucian Rick Parfitt

By Rob Horgan added. “They are seated in your car ROCK legend thousands of euros after president of and given gear while youthrowing deals at you. conned out ofage-old trick.

Junta. their photo for a vocalist Having taken and then startstart loading the boxes The PSOE pact with Ciudadafalling for an she is hoping was guitarist and police their details, The Status Quo buying ‘luxury’ pots, “When they of your car it all looks nos leader Juan Marin . the signing quick convictionthat we both fell for it,” fitwas duped into for €1,465 from a pair into the boot concluded with Olive Press.

“I cannot believe that you of three documents regarding pans and cutlery posing as Swiss saleslegitimate.

Lyndsay told the you get home ness instructor are stupid or gullible so it of slick conmen na.

“It is only whenbought a lot of cheap 72 policy points. on an us of these based al British Guadalmi is ld in “Neither men how profession realise you’ve The coalition the 66-year-o agreement, just goes to show It was only whento his Marbella mansion bargain, anti-corruption has told suprubbish.” drive lookout for a guys are. in and Ciudadanos rocker returned he had been sold a dud. in slick suits and Always on the the pact that it soon “They are dressed and claim to be from married in Gibraltar that he realised Swiss finery’, porters against the Parfitts ceremony. ‘watch and luxury BMWs Instead of ‘luxurythat he had acquired ‘a Spain it will not merely act, 2006 in a £46 Switzerland. their time in became apparent with ‘made in China’ good at their be el listen’.

They now split “They are very Page 4 s in Alhaurin load of old tosh’ base of the pans. that people must Election latestbetween propertie . so it is vital them.” inscribed on thewasn’t bad enough, Grande and Marbella warned about the two ‘businessDebt And if that Lyndsay was The con involves ing their ‘target’ same d last night, Parfitt’s wife men’ approach When confronte - who drives ALSO tricked by the are in y by cowhile they dog-lover Israel - initially fraudsters completel car, y a stationar a car a Range Rovernothing to do incidence. in usually in claimed to have , claiming it Approached separatelydays Lyndsay exAndalucia, two with Sunsearch park, someone Nueva to year handed was sold last ‘not paying’. plained. before, Lyndsay as la they who ended up From there lefthe was over the same amount the 28-page Marbel leaving But he then admitted Find out in our claim to have her husband, er’. with 19-46 a is Parfitts €2,930 down still a ‘sharehold over stock from n, Tecnographic it. supplement. Pages Either way, for the €8,000 nothing to show for nearby exhibitio in the willstill fighting has taken Is- The pair have now calledamazwhich they area cutpayment, and in Sevilla over police, after Lyndsay men ing to sell for the same rael to court ingly then metpark in Malaga a the debt. it had won a in IKEA’s car While insisting week later.

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ONE of the conmen who duped UK rock legend Rick Parfitt out of thousands of euros is a Dutchman operating under the name ‘Frederick Rooze’, it can be revealed.

The fraudster, who hoodwinked Status Quo guitarist out of €2,930 for two sets of pots and pans, drives a dark blue Range Rover Sport with Dutch number plates (4-ZJP-33).

Masquerading as a salesman for leading Swiss kitchenwear company Kuhn Rikon, he and an accomplice, also believed to be Dutch, claim they have been left with ‘overstock’ after a local exhibition.

Insisting the goods are ‘luxury Swiss finery’, they are in fact cheap, poor quality junk, as we revealed last issue (left).

Now dozens of new victims have

come forward with fresh information on the pair, who previously conned hundreds of people in Belgium and Holland.

One, Dutch expat Patricia Stone, was tricked into buying €2,650 worth of kitchenware in Sotogrande.

“I am disgusted with myself that I didn’t spot it was a fake,” Stone told the Olive Press.

“Rooze presented himself as a legitimate salesmen. He was very well dressed, late 30s with the most amazing blue eyes.”

A Kuhn Rikon spokesman told the Olive Press, it was now working with Spanish police to clamp down on the fraud.

“Many customers have asked for our help because they have bought fraudulent products thinking they were acquiring our merchandise,” said spokesman Wolfgang Aufwarter. “It is very damaging to our image.”

CON’S CAR: Range Rover Sport and (left) fake goods

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June 25th - July 9th 2015 www.theolivepress.es

INVESTIGATIONS NEWS SPECIAL

of conned holidaymakers unite EXCLUSIVE

By Rob Horgan

HIGH-SECURITY: Staffords’ secluded house

legal evidence to present to the police via a spokesman in Spain.

One victim, Gemma Axell, was five minutes from Gatwick airport when she saw an email telling her the villa had been cancelled and not to travel to Marbella for their hen party.

Prosecuted

“Devastated was an understatement, I took the costume off and sobbed as the reality sunk in that we had nowhere to stay and had lost £4,350 (€6,000) on a villa,” she said.

“We’re now putting a case together as a group to try and retrieve the money back

VICTIMS: Hen party from Manchester lost thousands of euros

and get them prosecuted,” she added.

FRENCH police have been ordered to track down one of Europe’s wealthiest aristocrats over a fraud involving hundreds of British pensioners.

Baron David de Rothschild has been indicted over the allegations after the victims, mostly expats living in Spain, bought into his shady loan scheme.

The banking magnate will now be questioned in his native France, the Olive Press can reveal, five years after a Marbella-based law firm began legal action against him.

French police have been told by a judge in Paris to track down the wealthy scion who has various homes in France.

The case involves his company, the Rothschild Financial Services Group, which stands accused of falsely advertising an equity release loan scheme, bought into by more than 130 pensioners between 2005 and 2008.

More than 20 British pensioners in Spain took up legal action against Rothschild’s company after losing their dream properties and thousands of euros.

Paris-based liaison judge Javier Gómez Bermudez - famous for his role in prosecuting the Madrid

www.theolivepress.es the Olive Press June 11th - June 24th 2015

9 99

Baron Rothschild indicted Police hunt for banking magnate spells hope for British pensioners who lost thousands in equity release scheme

Baron Rothschild.

“The first thing they will have to do is find him. Once they have done that they can begin to question him.

“It is a real breakthrough moment for everyone involved.”

Rothschild’s product, the Credit Select Series Mortgage Loan, was sold to pensioners as a legal means to reduce the value of their homes for inheritance tax mitigation purposes.

The Spanish tax authorities have ruled that such a scheme constitutes fraud and Flores believes that Rothschild should be held accountable.

bombers - announced the summons this week after the Denia Court issued the order.

The Baron is believed to be staying at his Normandy castle, or near to his Paris offices, and lawyers have provided state prosecutors in France with two possible addresses to find him.

Marbella-based lawyer Antonio Flores of Lawbird said the indictment was a ‘breakthrough moment’ in the case.

“It is a good step in the right direction,” Flores told the Olive Press. “The courts are now in agreement with us that there is enough evidence to interrogate

INDICTED: Rothschild “In short, independently of what happened to the investment, Rothschild advertised a loan aimed at reducing inheritance tax, which is a breach of tax law,” he said.

Flores, and two other prosecuting lawyers, will submit questions for Rothschild in relation to fraudulent advertising.

The Rothschild Group has so far failed to comment.

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www.theolivepress.es

Gibraltar NEWS

Expat paraglider plummets to death

ON the Rock June 23 Contemporary art exhibition event The Voices of the Sirens will be opened by Gibraltar’s minister for culture Steven Linares and San Marinos’s minister for education Giuseppe Maria Morganti. The rich programme begins at 6.30pm in the Gustavo Bacarisas Gallery and runs until August 21

A BRITISH woman has died in a paragliding accident after her canopy unexpectedly folded in mid-air after take-off.

The 48-year-old, from La Linea, was an experienced paraglider and was only 30 metres into her glide when the chute became entangled.

She plummeted to the ground face-down and the impact of the crash meant she died instantly.

The area where the woman fell, in the Sierra de Lijar, near Algodonales, was difficult to access on foot and required assistance from helicopters.

Firefighters were called and took a number of hours to locate the woman, identified by her initials L.P.

July 2 Charity fashion and cocktail party fundraiser to be held at Dusk in Ocean Village at 7pm. Entrance includes welcome drink, canapes, fashions shows, music and dance performances. Purchase tickets from Diamond Wedding Events in the ICC or Chique Boutique or call +35062965081

July 4 Miss Gibraltar 2015, the highlight of Gibraltar’s debutante calendar, takes place at the Alameda Open Air Theatre on Red Sands Road from 9-11pm. The winner will win £2,000 and participate in Miss World 2015

10

June 25th - July 9th 2015

NEWS IN BRIEF Car-free A NEW 668-place car park has opened in La Linea next to the border, including access lanes for traffic entering Gibraltar.

B-day surprise TWO Guardia Civil officers raised eyebrows after they attended the Queen’s birthday parade in Casemates Square in full uniform.

Hot stuff EAGER fans queued from 5 in the morning to make sure they didn’t miss out on tickets for this year’s Miss Gibraltar event, which didn’t go on sale until 10am.

FATAL FALL: The paraglider was experienced in the air

Pulling together La Linea mayor offers support after Gibraltar fans seriously injured in crash THE new mayor of La Linea has offered his support after a coach crash left one dead and many injured in Los Barrios.

Juan Franco Rodriguez immediately offered help and condolences after the coach carrying football fans back from a European Qualifier with Germany hit a station-

By Tom Powell ary van, near Los Barrios.

Many of the 44 passengers, travelling back from Faro where Gibraltar play their home games, were hurled out of their seats.

They were treated for injuries at Algeciras hospital and

UNITED: La Linea mayor Rodriguez and Picardo

St Bernard’s in Gibraltar, with all but one being discharged on the same day.

Meanwhile, the 40-year-old owner of the van, who was stood outside his vehicle, died from his injuries suffered.

Rock school

A NEW independent school is set to open in September as Gibraltar’s education landscape continues to expand.

The senior school project is part of Prior Park Educational Trust (PPET), which already has three top independent schools in the UK. When the opportunity arose to open a school in the old Sacred Heart campus, Prior Park submitted an application along with a number of other high profile UK groups.

The Gibraltar Secondary Schools’ Parents’ Group accepted Prior Park’s application based on the values demonstrated by its existing schools.

Recruitment of the head and the first refurbishment will begin this September.

For more information visit www.priorparkcollege.com.

A MAN who posed as a Sunborn employee to fraudulently acquire electrical goods has been ordered to pay £1,700 in compensation.

Albert Jimenez, 29, was paid

There were eight others in the van, all Moroccan, who suffered injuries to varying degrees.

Chief Minister Fabian Picardo said: “The mayor was immediately involved in liaising with my office as soon as he learnt of the accident.

Support

“We have agreed that we are both on the same page in wanting to continue fostering strong relations between our two cities.”

Franco, leader of the La Linea 100 x 100 party, was proclaimed mayor after gaining the support of the PP and the IU. A second fatal accident also left a Frenchman dead on the A7 near Sotogrande last week. His car also ploughed into a stationary lorry.

Ain’t no Sunborn electrical goods from Digital Corner on Main Street.

Wearing a Sunborn T-shirt, Jimenez managed to collect a forged order for a computer, a keyboard, two iPhones and Eastern beach to Catalan three ink carBay. The development is extridges. pected to take five years at Sunborn ofthe minimum. ficials alerted The government has awardthe courts ed the project to firm Develwhen the elecopers Camoren Holdings, tronics store which is being financed by sent them a various external investors. receipt for the Chief Minister Fabian Picaracquisition. do said: “This is a hugely imAs well as paying the comportant day for the whole of pensation, Gibraltar.

Jimenez must “These outside investors are also carry out demonstrating huge confi70 hours of dence in our economy and community our stewardship of it.” service.

£50 by an unknown man to pose as a Sunborn employee and ascertain £1,700 worth of

Blue Water rising A NEW £1.1 billion marina complex is set to be constructed on the Rock’s currently undeveloped Eastern side.

Blue Water Gibraltar will be built on reclaimed land alongside Catalan Bay and will have moorings for super yachts.

There will also be a series of shops and restaurants as well as 1,000 affordable homes.

A five-star hotel will also be constructed, along with a new promenade linking

12

AXARQUIA

www.theolivepress.es

Murder probe

NEWS IN BRIEF Walk this way

Top towns

A COMBINED 425 metres of walkways will be installed on Nerja’s beaches with foot baths, showers and showers also present.

ALMUNECAR and Rincon de la Victoria have been including with 24 other Spanish towns in the project Top Ciudades 2015.

Street cobblers

Sand man

BUSINESS-OWNERS in Velez-Malaga are campaigning for the town’s historical centre to be pedestrianised.

TORROX’S new mayor, Oscar Medina, is to provide Ferrara beach with an urgent addition of sand to prepare for the summer tourism boom.

the Olive Press June 25th - July 9th 2015

Scandinavian holidaymaker arrested after wife found dead ‘with hotel hairdryer around her neck’

By Fiona Tomas A DANISH holidaymaker has been arrested over the suspected murder of his wife.

The man, 50, appeared in court yesterday after an autopsy revealed that the woman, AGE, had been suffocated on Sunday.

CRIME SCENE: In Torre del Mar

The woman, who has not been identified, was discovered at the Andalusia Beach Hotel, in Torre del Mar with her body showing signs of violence.

The woman’s husband initially raised the alarm in the reception of the fourstar hotel.

Staff at the reception immediately ac-

companied the man to the room on the fifth floor with the man, where they discovered the woman’s body on the bed.

He claimed he found his partner on the bathroom floor after a night of partying with the hairdryer cable around her neck.

He claimed to have placed her on the bed in an attempt to revive her.

Hotel manager Andés Guerrero confirmed that the man, who appeared disoriented and nervous, had shown signs of drunkenness and that the hotel room was disorganised and untidy.

Police and an ambulance were called and the man was detained.

A forensic examination and further tests are needed to confirm what happened, and as yet the death has been described as ‘not conclusive’.

Expat activist becomes first foreign mayor in Malaga AN expat activist has landed the plum job as mayor of his local town.

Mario Blancke, who has campaigned for years on behalf of thousands of Axarquia residents whose homes are threatened by demolition, is to rule over Alcaucin for the next four years.

The Belgian, 57, who has lived in the Axarquia for over two decades, has become the first foreign mayor in Malaga province.

He arrived in the province after quitting his job at leading German company Siemens following a holiday in Torrox 25 years ago.

After first living in Rincon de la Victoria, he moved to Alcaucin, in 2006, discovering that he had bought a

home with ‘irregular’ paperwork.

Like thousands of other expats in the region, he feared his home being demolished and became a leading force in pressure group ‘Save our Homes in Axarquia’ (SOHA), which stands up for the rights of owners.

His route into politics came after he joined anticorruption political party Ciudadanos last year, which won three seats in the local town hall and pacted with the PSOE party to get into power.

Blancke will couple his new mayoral duties with his existing role at SOHA, adamant that he will continue to serve both Spanish and foreign homeowners.

Not fit to swim IN OFFICE: Mario Blancke has lived in Alcaucin for 20 years

ANIMAL RESCUE FESTIVAL AXARQUIA Animal Rescue (AAR) are organising a Music Festival in order to raise funds to re-home abandoned and abused animals.

The event will take place on July 26 and promises to be a colourful evening with live bands and acts performing at Scirocco in Puente Don Manuel (Viñuela area) where guests can enjoy non-stop music from 13:30 to 23:30.

A variety of entertaining side acts will also be available accompanied by a choice of refreshments and tasty treats.

Tickets for the event are €5 and are on sale at the following locations can be purchased online via email at axarquiarescue@hotmail.com or call events manager Jo RamsayWhale at 650 193 777

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BROKEN glass, dirty toilets and dangerous sanitary conditions are just three of the reasons swimming pools in Benagalbon and Rincon de la Victoria have come under fire.

The department for sport in Malaga has denounced the ‘unacceptable’ state in which the pools are currently in.

Both facilities were set to open on June 15 but Rincon’s new mayor Encarnacion Anaya has postponed the unveiling and criticised the previous government for ‘abandoning’ the work.

“The damages and the state of the water means we are forced to postpone the opening,” he said.

“Both pools are unfit for bathing. We were as surprised as anyone when we discovered the sorry state that had been abandoned by the previous government.”

Candle in the wind FAMILIES feared for their lives when a fire broke out in a seventh-floor apartment in Torre del Mar. The blaze, caused by a candle left unattended on an apartment terrace, led to a massevacuation in the centre of town.

Firemen sped to the scene to find clouds of smoke filling the building and at least five

ABLAZE: Previous Torre del Mar fire dwellings were evacuated.

There were no fatalities and residents were able to return

to their homes in safety once the emergency services’ work was done.

GREEN NEWS

13 www.theolivepress.es www.theolivepress.es

Oil and out

the Olive June- 25th July 2015 9th 2015 the Olive PressPress June 11th June- 24th

Cat deaths

British oil giant pulls out of Ibiza oil exploration after a host of celebs pile on the pressure

ENDANGERED: The Iberian lynx

THE world’s most endangered feline is falling foul of an unexpected enemy.

The number of Iberian lynx is on the up in Andalucia, but efforts to reintroduce the big cat in the wild have led to an unproportionate number of road collisions.

In the past 12 months, 22 of the 28 lynxes to die in Andalucia were killed by cars.

A figure WWF species director Ramon Perez has labelled as ‘revolting’.

“Cars are the greatest threat for the future of the lynx,” he said.

In March the Junta and the Ministry of Public Works announced reduced speed limits in areas where high death rates have been recorded for the lynx, the world’s most endangered feline.

Spread your wings

By Rob Horgan PROTESTS backed by celebs including Paris Hilton and Kate Moss have forced a British oil giant to drop its drilling plans in Ibiza.

Scottish firm Cairn Energy has asked the Spanish government to pull the plug on licences to explore for oil off the island following the celebrity-backed opposition.

Led by green group Alianza Mar Blava, the protests were also backed by DJ Fatboy Slim, his girlfriend and TV presenter Zoe Ball (pictured above), singer Sophie EllisBextor, designer Alice Temperley and Mick Jagger’s daughter Jade.

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GREEN INTENTIONS: Paris Hilton Last year more than 10,000 people marched through Ibiza Town to protest the plans, but it wasn’t until the celebs got on board with the Twitter ‘Ibiza says no’ campaign that the oil company had second thoughts.

“This is a very important decision,” said a spokesman for Alianza Mar Blava.

“The most important thing we have shown is that we can de-

AVID bird watchers have been invited to grab their binoculars this summer and be a part of the Migres Foundation’s annual ‘Soaring Bird Monitoring Programme’.

Starting on July 6 and running until early October, the programme will involve counting birds across the Gibraltar Strait, with observation points in Algeciras and Tarifa.

All volunteers will be accompanied by a professional ornithologist and will be provided with basic training on bird identification and counting techniques and bird ranging activities.

For more information, contact colaboradores@fundacionmigres.org

feat an enemy which is much more powerful than us.”

A spokesman for the Edinburgh-based oil company blamed the Spanish authorities failure to carry out an environmental risk assessment as the reason for their withdrawn interest.

He added that Cairn Energy planned to withdraw from four other exploration permits off Valencia’s shores.

Spanish firms under fire for flouting energy law

CUTE: Baby gibbon

Cheers cheeky monkey!

THIS is a baby golden-cheeked gibbon, a seriously endangered species found in Bioparc Fuengirola.

With less than 25,000 left in the wild, the birth of the gibbon at the start of June is being lauded as a symbol of ‘hope’ for the conservation of the species.

The mother, Ares, was in fact the first baby gibbon born in Spain. And the father, Den, arrived at the park from Bratislava Zoo, Slovenia, in 2012.

HUNDREDS of Spanish companies are at risk of facing €69,000 fines for unwittingly ignoring a ‘secret’ EU environmental law.

Firms have until December 5 to meet the new regulations aimed at saving energy.

But a recent survey has found that awareness of the Energy Savings Opportunity Scheme is ‘worryingly low’. Many of the 16,000 European companies due to be affected are unaware that the scheme even exists.

“This new EU-backed scheme is not to be trifled with as the Environment Agency plans to crack down hard on any companies that try to slip through the net,” said BTG Green survey worker Julie Palmer.

“Feigning ignorance won’t save anyone from significant fines.”

Companies with more than 250 employees or an annual turnover of €50 million must appoint an independent assessor to identify energy savings.

Every day, a different experience The most visited animal park! #BioparcExperiences www.bioparcfuengirola.es - Av. Camilo José Cela, 6 29640 Fuengirola - info@bioparcfuengirola.es - Tel. : 952 666 301

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property to your legal heirs? Everybody wants to take care of their children and certainly do not want to deprive them of their inheritance.

Have you worked and saved all your life just to lose it?

Not all debtors have fallen into debt because they wanted to. They may just be an innocent victim of the financial recession here in Spain.

And now with the best will in the world they cannot see any way out. Well, The Presidents Club International can now help those debtors find that way out!

- If this sounds all too familiar, with our trusted and expert negotiators, legal action and even insolvency can be avoided and your credit rating can remain unaffected so the chances of future borrowing will be improved. Let our experts take the worry away from you by protecting your investment and resolving your debts.

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That is not an option!

- Has your investment in your rental property not given the anticipated return? With the decrease in property prices, the rents charged have also decreased. Did your anticipated rent returns encourage you to buy the property in the first place? Were your monthly mortgage commitments calculated on that expected income ad there is now a shortfall that you cannot cover?

- Do you owe community fees? Did you know that the new buyer would be responsible for the current year and the last 3 years community fees but the rest would be your responsibility?

- Are you thinking of handing the keys back to your lender? If you owe on your property the chances are that you will lose it anyway or even have your assets embargoed in your own country. That’s a chilling thought but it doesn’t necessarily need to be the outcome.

- Are you facing not being able to pass your

ARE YOU PAYING MORE FOR YOUR MORTGAGE THAN YOU NEED TO? Would you like to have more money in your pocket at the end of the month?

- Millions of families in Spain contracted mortgages with interest floor clauses and couldn’t then avail themselves of the low mortgage rates implemented since the financial crisis here affected the Euribor rates.

- Were you properly informed by your bank or lender when you took out a mortgage or loan against your property?

- No advance payments are necessary and the end of the process the interest floor clause would be removed AND you will be compensated by recovering all the excess charges that you have paid. And only then, with the money in your hand, do you have to pay the experts.

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- Financial worries cause stress and stress will make you ill! Don’t let that happen to you.

- The Presidents Club International has the experts to help you, contact us for further details.

And Presidents – the severe financial recession here has meant that community debts have increased by 30% as have yours most likely so make sure your community debtors know about these options because resolving their debts will also resolve yours

In 2013 the Supreme Court ruled that not only should the minimum interest clauses be removed but also that compensation should be paid. It is considered to be irresponsible lending and claims can be made. However, to process that claim the legal costs will be high so many cannot even contemplate it but The Presidents Club International has the experts who will act for you on a no-win-no-fee basis!

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ranada, June 30

Rough guide adventurers

More stars rock in for Gib festival THE biggest Gibraltar Music Festival lineup ever just got bigger.

Paloma Faith, Madness (both pictured above) and the Kaiser Chiefs have all been signed up for the hotly anticipated

event.

Kings of Leon and Duran Duran had already been named as headline acts for the two day festival at Victoria Stadium.

It is the first time the event has been

spread across two days and capturing such high profile acts will no doubt boost the festival’s reputation.

The festival takes place on September 5-6.

Horror movie

By Fiona Tomas

A SPANISH film director is hoping to influence thousands with his shocking documentary on Spain’s culture of ‘animal genocide’.

Santa Fiesta is a documentary produced by Miguel Angel Rolland which challenges the ‘barbaric attitudes’ upheld by religious and political authorities towards animal cruelty across the peninsula.

It is estimated that 60,000 animals die every year at popular religious and traditional festivals throughout Spain, and bullfighting is ‘just the tip of the iceberg’, claims Rolland.

The film promises to offer a genuine insight into the torturing and sacrificing of animals as a way of religious celebration.

A trailer shows horses being ridden through fire, bulls with flaming torches attached to their horns and a goose hanging from a cable having its head torn off by a man on a galloping horse.

“I look into the heart and soul of my country´s devotion to animal cruelty and death to celebrate our Catholic patron saints,” Rolland told the Olive Press.

“I always wanted to make a film where I could reveal to the rest of the world how this is not picturesque at all, how this is a huge moral and humanitarian problem which affects all of us.”

Filmed secretly over a year, Santa Fiesta takes a starkly innovative approach, lack-

CONGRATULATIONS to the three Olive Press readers who have won themselves a copy of the new eighth edition of The Rough Guide to Andalucia.

The expat eggheads all knew that THE Mezquita is of course in Cordoba province.

The winners are George Raine in Marbella, Lorri Wornum in Nerja and Riki Evans Johnson in Torrox.

“You’ve made my day, I look forward to reading it,” said Lorri.

Commiserations if you were not lucky this time.

SaloArte 2015. Art exhibition in Salobrena showcases work by artists from 10 different countries. Show runs for one week from the opening in Salobrena Museum on June 30 at 7pm until July 7.

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lhaurin de la Torre, July

Porton del Jazz will see internationally renowned artists appearing at the Finca Municipal El Porton at 10.30pm on July 10, 17, 24 and 31. Visit www.portondeljazz.es

M

alaga, July 11, 6pm

Red Rombo Party at Cochera Cabaret. Concert featuring Pike Calavero and DJ Teddy. Tickets €12 from www. todaslasentradas.com

Disturbing new documentary exposes ‘animal genocide’ at Spain’s religious fiestas

CHARITY PARTY: In Benamara

Charity begins at home

ON FILM: Rolland (left) has been secretly filming scenes like this for a year

SABINILLAS charity Niños Asociados is staging a night of fashion and music in Benamara to raise money for disadvantaged children throughout the world.

The organisers promise a musical trip down memory lane with entertainment by professional jive dancer Colin Gausden, singer Dru Chapman and Stella the talented kids coach, and a fashion catwalk showcasing clothes for women of all sizes which can be bought at reasonable prices on the night.

A tombola raffle to win a plasma TV and other glittering prizes will help raise funds to provide education, accommodation and general welfare for children in need globally. Donations of toys, clothes and other gifts are welcome.

Tickets for the event on Friday, June 26, at 7pm, include a full buffet. Priced at only €7, they can be bought from the Los Niños charity shop in Sabinillas or at Bar Amara, Man Friday in Benamara. For further details and donations call Tel: 651 751 860.

Cannoned back to life ing interviews, narration or a musical score.

Despite being produced without financial help from any Spanish broadcaster, online donations from more than 30 countries worldwide have already amassed the €16,000 target that was set on a crowdfunding website.

It is hoped that the film will be released in cinemas later this year.

TWO 16th century cannons from ships sunk in the Spanish Armada have been uncovered off the west coast of Ireland.

The cannons were revealed after a freak storm disturbed the seabed, uncovering the relics.

Once brought to the surface, archaeologists confirmed that the artefacts dated back to 1570 and were built in Barcelona.

FOUND: Spanish Armada cannons

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SPAIN IN PICTURES: Taming a horse, Matadors before a bullfight and a typical bodega

Moments to share

A photographer who has let the public choose which images go in his latest book gives the Olive Press a sneak preview

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S a professional photographer, you can never tell which photos are going to be the most popular and strike the deepest chord with the public.

So a renowned Canadian travel photographer is turning the tables on conventional publishing by inviting members of the public to help him create his new book.

Spain by All of Us is the work of Mike Randolph, originally from Jerez, using the global crowdfunding platform Kickstarter to raise funds.

In return for pledging €18 or more, supporters get a say in which pictures are used and a name credit in the book as a photo editor.

Those pledging €200 or more get to choose every photograph and their name on the cover as sole editor of an exclusive, hardback version.

Now living in Madrid but having spent most of his adult life in Canada, Randolph’s work has appeared in many leading publications throughout the world. However he describes this latest project as a ‘labour of love’ that’s ‘quite different’ to his past projects.

Mike spent the last eight years travelling through every province in Spain, photographing landscapes, people and culture.

He also started a blog, ‘Spain by Mike Randolph’ as a way of documenting his travels and support from his growing fan club inspired him to come up with his best-selling idea, with over €4,000 of his €6,000 target raised to date.

“It’s a way of thanking the people who have supported my work on my blog and helped me fulfil this dream,” Mike told the Olive Press. “It’s always hard to predict which photos people are going to like, it’s not always the ones you think, which gave me the idea.

“Everyone collaborating and having a voice in the final outcome is pretty cool I think.”

To sponsor Mike’s Kickstarter project visit www.spainbymiEMOTIVE: A prowling nun and a chef preparing octopus kerandolph.com

DEATH-DEFYING: Human tower in Barcelona

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From highwaymen to haute cuisine, author David Baird tracks the gourmet heritage of the eastern Costa del Sol in an excerpt from the latest edition of his fascinating book, East of Malaga - Your guide to the Axarquía and Costa Tropical

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RAVEL the back roads of southern Spain and it’s easy to believe that those slumbering villages have always been havens of peace.

But don’t be fooled. In the 19th century, the roads were so lawless that, in his book Gatherings from Spain, the English writer Richard Ford advised travellers to bring along ‘a decent bag of dollars’ to appease any highwaymen.

He also suggested carrying an impressive-looking timepiece, noting, ‘The absence of a watch can only be accounted for by a premeditated intention of not being robbed of it, which the ladron considers as a most unjustifiable attempt to defraud him of his right’.

When you travel the rural byways these days, you can still be relieved of your cash. But the good news is that you will actually enjoy the experience thanks to the great food you can encounter in the most outof-the-way spots.

A great place to start is the Venta de Alfarnate, as I discovered when I researched the coast and hinterland to the east of Malaga, exploring the Axarquia and the Costa Tropical, which lies in Granada province.

The Venta, claimed to be the oldest inn in Andalucia, lies on the old road from Malaga to Granada, the A6103. In a lonely spot backed by limestone

How to fill your mouth with sunshine crags, it has been welcoming weary travellers since 1691.

It’s a memorable place to enjoy a long lunch. Get there early at weekends as it becomes crowded by domingueros tucking into roast kid, partridge and pork accompanied by pitchers of wine.

Past visitors were not always as respectable. One day, as customers were tucking into gazpacho from a common bowl, a horseman arrived. Told there were no wooden spoons left, he used the crust of a loaf to scoop up the cold soup – then produced a pistol.

“Now,” he commanded, “do the same as I do. Chew your spoons!”

And so they did, for they recog-

nised him as El Tempranillo, Andalucia’s most notorious bandolero.

Times were often hard in these parts. Migas, that belly-filling dish made with flour or breadcrumbs fried in oil, was a staple. During the olive harvest, a conch shell would be blown to inform the ravenous pickers that lunch was served and they would troop to the farmhouses to dig into bowlfuls.

Hardly gourmet food, but – if you really want to sample it – don’t miss the annual migas festivities in Torrox in December.

However, local cuisine has evolved a little since the arrival of tourism. Farmers have awakened to the fact that the sub-tropical climate – unique in Europe – allows the region to produce delicious tropical fruit.

Avocados, mangoes and custard apples have been incorporated into the diet and are exported by the truckload.

Innovative chefs have introduced dishes unknown to the area a few years back, some with Moorish influences, such as roast lamb coated in honey (the bees feed on rosemary and thyme in the sierras).

Fresh fish is a fetish in this part of the world and that does not just mean barbecued sardines.

Sole, squid, hake, red mullet and angler fish are on many menus, while gourmets along the Costa Tropical can’t have enough quisquillas of Motril, a particular type of shrimp.

In just a few years, the cuisine has become much more sophisticated; but penetrate the inland and you can still feast on traditional fare like choto con papas a lo pobre (kid with fried potatoes). Roast, fried or stewed, baby goat – in the past only served on special occa-

sions – is prized as a true feast and hearty stews, including chunks of pork or chicken, are often on winter menus at remarkably low prices.

Every village has its speciality.

Sedella boasts of its choto al vino (kid cooked in wine) and Periana of its dishes made with peaches. Almachar devotes a special fiesta to ajoblanco (cold almond soup) while Canillas de Aceituno has a Black Pudding Day. Alfarnatejo prides itself on its cocido de garbanzos (chickpea stew), Iznate on its pots of runner beans and chickpeas, Canillas de Albaida and Competa on their fennel stews.

Motril’s special dessert, known as Torta Real, originated with the Moors. It achieved national

GRAND GRUB: Cooking migas in Torrox

SWEET LIFE: A grape picker

fame and royal approval during the reign of Alfonso XIII. Ingredients include almonds, egg whites and sugar, but the exact recipe remains a secret, zealously guarded by one family for some 200 years.

Naturally, many dishes are accompanied by wine and that’s where big changes are taking place. Malaga has probably the longest history of winemaking in Spain and, in the Axarquia hills, farmers still produce a vintage with methods that have barely changed in centuries.

Strong, sweet Moscatel is the typical local wine. But in recent years, with the introduction of new grape varieties and modern methods, there has been a revolution.

From the Axarquia to the Contraviesa mountain in Granada province, bodegas are producing palatable red and white table wines. Indeed, a number of these new wines have won rave reviews from international critics.

Vines are believed to have been cultivated here as far back as Phoenician times. It was the

RAUCOUS: Contraviesa bodega fiesta and (left) a bandalero and peppers thirsty Romans who created many of the first vineyards, importing and planting numerous new varieties of grape.

Columella, a Roman poet and agriculturalist, wrote about the area’s vines in the first century AD and Pliny and Virgil sang Malaga wine’s praises.

At one time, Malaga had 14,000 wine presses. But in the late 19th century the flourishing trade was dealt a death blow by a little bug known as the phylloxera. It wiped out entire vineyards. The Montes de Malaga, on the western edge of the Axarquia, never recovered and the whole area has been planted with trees.

In the whole province today only 6,000 hectares are planted with vines. Of those, about 1,000 hectares produce eating grapes and the rest, wine and raisins. The luscious raisins from the Axarquia are rightly famed — those who taste them say it feels as though their mouths are filled with sunshine.

Reason enough to explore the coast and sierras east of Malaga. Times have changed.

No longer do you need to follow Richard Ford’s advice that you should ‘set forth from every tolerable-sized town with an ample supply of tea, sugar, coffee, brandy, good oil, wine, salt, to say nothing of solids.’

East of Malaga - Your guide to the Axarquía and Costa Tropical by David Baird (new, updated edition), €9.90, is available from bookshops, Amazon or direct from the publisher at www. maromapress.wordpress.com

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LETTERS

Olive Press June 25th - July 9th2015 2015 thethe Olive Press June 11th - June 24th

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POTTED POINTERS ANDALUCIA RESERVOIR LEVELS This week: 75.48% Same week last year: 79.99% Same week in 2005: 61.63% AIRPORTS Gibraltar 00350 22073026 Granada-Jaen 958 245 200 Jerez - 956 150 000 Malaga - 952 048 844* *For English press 9 Sevilla - 954 449 000 EMERGENCIES Police 091 Guardia Civil 062 Medical service 061 Fire 080 EURO EXCHANGE RATES 1 euro is worth 1.14 American dollars 0.72 British pounds 1.40 Canadian dollars 7.46 Danish kroner 8.84 H Kong dollars 8.79 Norwegian kroner 1.52 Singapore dollars

Billboard of shame

Creepy crawley I LIVE in the countryside and would like to add my experiences of what I consider to be the nastiest insects I have ever come across.

I know them as giant centipedes and over the years have met quite a few of them, usually, but not all, in my bed!

My family are all used to checking beds before we get into them, but there’s nothing more disconcerting, (or frightening), than actually finding one when you’re doing the checking!

Last week I got out of bed and walked about the house saying good morning to the family, had a cuppa and went to the loo.

So, shorts around my knees and thinking of the day ahead, I looked down at my shorts to find a centipede looking up at me from exactly the spot which is normally occupied by my baby making equipment.

Even though it’s been a few days, I still can’t get the site out of my head.

In case it helps anybody that has experienced the giant centipede in their homes, we use a spray called Oro. It’s supposed to last a year and you spray it all around the places where a centipede can enter the house.

Roy Watton, Valencia

I WAS appalled when I saw this huge placard advertising a brothel nearby to a school.

I felt it was completely inappropriate to have such a huge and frankly explicit advert within 150 yards of a school.

The world has enough sexually explicit material, but it is our job as grown ups to try and protect children from this as much as possible.

Jean Leftwick, Alhaurin de la Torre ED: The Olive Press agrees and as a family newspaper we purposefully do not carry sex ads. If these ads are to be run then they should be carefully positioned and perhaps with a warning.

Less abuse I AM still looking for a 100% civilized society. When I find it I would like to live there, until then I am more than happy in Spain.

I think Spain has advanced greatly in the past 20 years in regards to animal welfare (Stop the cruelty, issue 215) with the help of many Spanish newspapers and associations such as PACMA. I remember in 1993 reading about 20 dogs clubbed to death with iron bars in the Chegin bull ring, and it was made worse because it was witnessed by a group of school children from the nearby college.

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Thankfully these acts have become few and far between since.

Georgina Burns, Alhaurin el Grande

Bank on it WE spend just short of six months in Spain each year and need a bank.

Mystery paw

Originally we were with the Halifax, then Lloyds and now Sabadell. We pay ridiculous charges at the moment.

So if this Hola bank had none then I dare say quite a large number of people would transfer to them (Hola amigos, issue 210).

Stephen Knight, Marbella

PROMPTED by the photo of lynx footprints in Manilva (16 April), I wonder whether anyone can identify this pawprint found near Lujar, Granada. It looks like a very large cat, possibly a lynx?

Just to warn

Walter Truscott, Lujar

Cougar alert I HAVE just noticed your stories about a large cat in Andalucia and it instantly reminded me of my time there (La Cala Cougar back in Andalucia, online).

I’m going back around 20 years when a large panther type cat ran across a fairway on La Cala golf course.

Out of the eight of us, I was the only one who spotted it and I have never forgotten it.

They were aware of this animal in the clubhouse, they said it was not native must have originally been captive.

My fellow golfers did not believe me but fortunately one of the guys in the game ahead of us also saw it.

I AM not happy that my name was published, along with my husband’s in the front page story ‘Disrupting the Status Quo’ in issue 215, I only contacted the newspaper to warn others of the scam to try to stop more people becoming victims.

I want to make it clear that I did not want the publicity.

Brian Harrington, Leeds

Lyndsay Parfitt, Marbella

Letters should be emailed to letters@theolivepress.es. The writer’s name and address should be provided. Opinions are not necessarily those of the Editor.

What’s hot on the web The top five most read stories on www.theolivepress.es in the past two weeks (June 8-22): 1) Baron Rothschild indicted in France over fraud case (12,862 pageviews) 2) Spanish air traffic controllers start series of strikes this week (5,475) 3) Hundreds of tourists left with nowhere to stay in Marbella after Rainbow Villas’ sudden collapse (5,139)

4) Status Quo rockstar Rick Parfitt conned by dodgy kitchenware salesmen near Marbella (4,163) 5) Dogs to be banned from all Costa del Sol beaches this summer (3,824)

Unique visitors: 53,386 - Pageviews 260,220 - Bounce rate: 0.85 Follow us on twitter @olivepress or on facebook at www.facebook.com/OlivePressNewspaper

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F FUN-girola! the Olive Press June by: 11th - June 24th 20153 Sponsored

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June 25th - July 9th 2015

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The company manufactures Glass Curtains, Stainless Steel, Windows & Doors and Pool Surrounds

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Nowhere lives up to the buzz of the classic family beach holiday quite like it, writes Tom Powell

ROWING up, a holiday was a simple concept; sun, sea, sand and infinite flavours of ice cream.

Days were spent swimming and tanning on the beach, evenings were for feasting.

Fuengirola – or ‘Fuengi’, as expats have affectionately nicknamed it – epitomises that kind of holiday.

In the Costa del Sol’s largest resort, the sun shines gloriously, the deep blue sea is inviting, the sand is soft and golden and there are more ice cream flavours than you can shake a scoop at.

Let’s not beat around the bush, though. Fuengirola has been bypassed in favour of more glitzy Costa del Sol destinations during the last few decades; Marbella for one. But those who say it isn’t worth the visit

are, plain and simply, wrong.

Fuengirola is the definitive nerve centre of the Costa del Sol, thriving with business and opportunity.

With its 1960s seafront high rises, the town may win no beauty contests (if you want whitewashed houses and pretty streets go to neighbouring Mijas Pueblo) but that’s not the point. Fuengirola is the place to go for that inimitable holiday buzz. And if you live there, the holiday never has to end.

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NERVE CENTRE: Iconic Sohail castle looks out over the liveliest town on the eastern Costa del Sol, and some of the best beaches in Spain

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OLIVE PRESS – 105mm x 256mm – Colour

10th June

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A PRINCESS OF TOWNS

From Page 21

HISTORIC: A bronze statue in front of the town’s bullring

Any tour of Fuengi should begin at its most recognisable landmark – the castle looming high on a hill at the western edge of town.

El Castillo Sohail, clearly visible on the bend of the A7 coast road, has had a varied history dating back to Moorish times.

After the Muslims left, the Christians took over and the castle again became the town’s fortress. Interestingly, it was home to French troops during the War of Independence at

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PURE SHORES: Fuengirola has 8km of excellent beaches the beginning of the 19th century.

For many years afterwards, the iconic monument was abandoned and left to the pigeons, until 1989 when a major restoration project was launched.

Ever since, the fortress has not only been an aesthetic focal point but also a cultural centre, hosting open-air concerts and festivals throughout the summer.

The castle surroundings are worth exploring, with well-kept gardens, paths, Moorish walls and shady fir trees, while nearby parking makes it easily accessible.

From this vantage point, the town’s golden sandy beach can be seen, stretching for five miles east to the suburb of Torreblanca, near Benalmadena.

A walk along the prom is a delight for the senses, with the smell of barbecuing sardines and langoustines wafting on the breeze.

Like all the big Costa del Sol resorts, Fuengirola was once a small and sleepy fishing village; and by the smell of it, the locals haven’t lost their touch with seafood.

But it is the town’s proximity to Malaga and the airport (25km), and the handy coastal train line running in between, that helped the resort to become ‘the’ Costa del Sol destination for decades.

It’s also the reason many expats choose to live here, such as Wolverhamptonborn

PLAYTIME!: Floating assault course - just one beach attraction street back from the seafront Steph Smith, Manager of Yorkand buzzing with life at night, is shire Linen in the Myramar undoubtedly the place to go for shopping centre. dinner. Although be prepared “Fuengirola has had a facelift to lose your bearings in the recently, the pedestrianised maze of pedestrianised streets centre has so much outdoor and charming squares. seating on smart, new pavCheap and cheerful or chic and ing with shady parasols that classy, you’ll find all styles here it reminds me of Madrid and – tapas bars Barcelona,” says and bodegas, Steph, who has When the sun fine-dining lived in and loved restaurants, the town for 17 goes down, chillout cafes years. locals and and cuisine “While the seafrom around front is lovely, my visitors come the world, favourite part of out to play with quirky town has to be boutiques, Fish Alley. It’s got Chinese baa wonderful atmosphere with zaars and, of course, ice cream hustle and bustle, great places parlours squeezed in between. to eat and drink, plus there are British expat Dianne Peel, often street performers too.” leader of the Fuengirola Scout Fish Alley, as it Group, says the town is the is known, perfect place for her pack. is one “We do so many different activities here with a really multinational group,” says Dianne, a retired school-teacher.

“We use the beach as much as possible for various training activities and games, plus we host a big group barbecue there in November.”

This English-language group has been running for 15 years, welcoming boys and girls of all nationalities, taking them on camps into the countryside and on trips to various attractions.

Dianne adds: “I love Fuengirola as a town, it’s great for going out to eat and exploring the many little back streets.”

These back streets lead me to the port, a place normally full of adventure and Fuengirola’s is no different. Various water sports can be tried, like parasailing – flying through the air attached to the back of a boat

Pictures by Jon Clarke and Tom Powell

uengirola

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– if you’re brave enough. I was – just about – and you can read all about my experience further on in this supplement!

If that seems a little too scary, you can get to grips with speed boats, jet skis or fishing.

Talking of sport, Fuengirola also suits keen golfers to a tee, with Mijas Golf’s two courses just a few kilometres from the town centre and many others close by.

There are some lively bars both in the port and in and off the main square, Plaza de la Constitucion, the town’s social hub.

When the sun goes down, locals and visitors come out to play big-style, with various bars and clubs playing great music long into the night.

In fact, the town’s tourism his-

BUZZING: The main square comes alive at night-time while (left) Diana visited three times what was still a fairly quiet, grand dame of Spanish resorts tory goes way back to 1700 authentic Spanish town. over the decades, as well as when an inn by the castle Over the years, Fuengiformer Liverpool and Real Mawelcomed the first visirola has hosted its fair drid striker Michael Owen, who tors. share of celebrities. used to own a villa tucked up It must have had its atPrincess Diana herin the hills. tractions then, as it did self stayed no less It’s fair to say that, despite its a century later when it than three times chequered history - there were became a battlefield durat the leafy Hotel times when tattooed yobs seing the Peninsula Wars of Byblos in the hills riously harmed Fuengirola’s 1810, with British and above town, where reputation - it has stood up valPolish troops clashing she was famously iantly to the test of time. over the right to occupy photographed topless It has regenerated itself, with the strategically imporby paparazzi. a thriving cultural scene, great tant town.

Antonio Banderas dining and infinite opportuniModern tourism didn’t reand Donald Pleasties for adventure. ally begin until ance are among Ice cream styles and brands the 1960s, the rich and may have changed over time when foreignfamous who but Fuengirola’s appeal as a ers started have enfun holiday town will never lose moving in joyed this its flavour. permanently to

ORNATE: Fuengirola mosque opened in 1993

Mighty Mosque FLANKED by apartment blocks, Fuengirola’s mosque is a sight to behold.

The Mezquita de Fuengirola, also known as the ‘Centro Cultural Islamico Suhail’, was officially inaugurated in 1993 as a place for all Muslim residents on the Costa del Sol to come together.

Its mission is to support the principles of liberty, justice and democracy, which are ‘the foundations of healthy society’.

Gleaming white and with its ornate spire, the mosque is certainly one of the most beautiful buildings in town.

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A cool port of call

June 25th - July 9th 2015

Fuengirola Port is a great place to drop anchor for nautical nosh and a wild time on water, writes Tom Powell

T EYE-CATCHING: Fuengirola port

HERE are two things you can be absolutely certain of in any Spanish port worth its salt.

The fish and seafood will be fresh, delicious and abundant and there’ll be endless opportunities to get wet.

Fuengirola Port, with its eclectic range of restaurants and watersports, goes overboard in both senses.

The marina is split into two distinct halves – the restaurant/bar area and the serious fishing section, where the real work continues throughout the night.

The port is popular at all times of day, and at all times of year, not without good reason.

Breakfast and coffee at one of the cafes is the perfect start to the day, while a stroll along the harbour provides fascinating views of fishing boats arriving laden with the morning’s catch.

There’s a good chance you’ll be tucking into some of it for lunch.

But it is the sports and leisure marina that holds most appeal for tourists.

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I

T’S impossible to miss the spectacular Sohail castle as you drive through the town.

Throughout its long and turbulent history, it has been Fuengirola’s stand-out monument, looming atop a grassy knoll at the mouth of the Rio Fuengirola.

It is now an open-air auditorium, used as the location for concerts and festivals throughout the summer, including a particularly popular German beer event.

But the castle’s past was not always so smooth.

Built in 956 AD by Abd –ar-Rahman III to strengthen the Moorish coastal defences, the Christian armies of the Spanish monarchs took control of it in 1485 during the long and bloody war.

Dolphins

Stronghold

It remained in their possession until the war ended, but was back in use in the 18th century when the Count of Montemar developed the fortress to house a newly formed cavalry unit. During the Peninsula War, the castle was occupied by French troops fighting for emperor Napoleon.

But as the centuries wore by, the castle’s importance as a strategic stronghold diminished, to the point where it ultimately became useless and was left abandoned and derelict for many years.

This was the case until 1989, when the Spanish Municipal Heritage organisation decided something needed to be done to preserve this important part of the town’s history. A restoration project was launched by the Castillo Sohail School Workshop to make the castle what it is today.

The landscaped gardens make the walk to the top a pleasure, while the excavated stone ruins on public display at the western base of the hill actually date back even further than the castle, prior to Roman occupation of Fuengirola around 300 BC.

FORTRESS: Sohail castle

Sleek yachts bob at anchor in some 225 berths ranging from eight to 20 metres; and you can do more than simply gawp with envy as you watch them head out for a cruise in the Med. With many companies offering all manner of ocean-going trips, you don’t need to remain a landlubber for long.

Pleasure trips on glass-bottomed boats, fishing trips, speed boat hire and boat charter are all available.

And when the port is just a speck in the distance, there’s a high chance of seeing dolphins disporting alongside your boat.

Fuengirola’s Yacht Club (Club Nautico) is one of the most popular in Europe and an excellent starting point for those keen to learn.

Lessons are available for sailors of all abilities.

If that wasn’t enough, there is also the opportunity to try scuba diving, water skiing and jet-ski riding.

Once the thirst for action has been sufficiently quenched, there’s the parade of restaurants to satisfy your inner sailorman.

They serve everything from fish and chips and surf and turf to international cuisine for the eclectic mix of diners.

And perhaps a cocktail or two to finish - yo-ho-ho and a bottle of rum?

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MONKEYING AROUND: CAPTION: Gorilla Captionand Here infant and (top right) a lemur

Brilliant Bioparc IT was once considered among the worst zoos in Europe.

So bad was former Fuengirola zoo that animal charity Born Free led a probe alongside the BBC and various media groups to have it closed down.

And duly it did in the late 1990s, reopening again a few years later in 2001 with a totally different philosophy.

Gone were the cramped cages constructed in the 1970s, to be replaced by a tropical green paradise of open spaces, rivers, waterfalls and an overriding sense of calm.

So good is the zoo - now reborn as Bioparc - that a few years ago National Geographic magazine voted it one of the best in Europe.

AUTHENTIC: Indonesian temple is backdrop to Komodo dragons’ habitat

It has been a massive turnaround for a zoo once disgraced in a hard-hitting BBC investigation

Articles have also appeared scheduled over the next in America’s prestigious Time few years - collaborates with 25 international remagazine.

And it has simply gone from search and breeding programmes strength to for endanstrength since gered spethen, with the A charming Madrid-based backdrop to various cies.

It even works company running it spend- species, including with some speing millions tigers and Komodo cies that are effectively extinct each year, dragons in the wild, in making it betparticular the ter and better.

Sumatra tiger The zoo which has another park and gorillas. in Valencia and new ones There is an important schools

and education programme and its charity arm allows for days when underprivileged and seriously ill children can visit for free.

Even better, the zoo has concentrated on making sure animals are able to interact with

one another and that there are abBUTTER : An orangutan and solutely, crucially LIKE (left) Sumatra tiger no bars.

“We fight extremely hard to vital to keep the animals get away from the concept of as happy as possible and cages,” explains marketing unstressed.” boss Alejandro Beneit. “It is The most recent addition is a stunning Indonesianstyle temple, built brick by brick to look as authentic as possible.

Constructed by a team of Czech builders, it took a year to build and now sits as a charming backdrop to a number of closely cohabiting species, including tigers and Komodo dragons.

In summer the zoo opens until 11pm and has some excellent offers for families, including African dance performances and feeding demonstrations.

“The best times to visit are around 10 to 11 in the morning or the evening,” adds Beneit, from Cadiz.

“During the heat of the otters, raccoons, hippos, zopilotes or day, like most sensible kookaburras. people, the animals take Bioparc really has a different feel to it easy.” your average zoo. The setting that has Best of all, make sure your been achieved is truly remarkable, children look out for the ultimately allowing visitors to apprering tailed lemur, who ciate animals in an authentic setting they will quickly identify while discovering nature at its very with Julian, the star of hit best. movie Madagascar.

Not quite Narnia, but very magical Fiona Tomas takes a tour around Bioparc

I

’M not really a fan of zoos. Seeing There wasn’t the snow, ice and cats of animals caged makes me feel rath- Narnia, but the leafiness and greenery certainly resembled a jungle. er guilty.

So I was a little apprehensive when In the background, the melodies of I arrived at Bioparc, particularly hav- chirping birds are accompanied by the percussive sounds ing learnt that it was of gushing streams once one of the worst in and waterfalls.

Europe.

Gorillas, You can’t help but The first roars that greetchimpanzees quickly get carried ed me were from a pack and monkeys away by the incredof wild school children, ible vibes of the who had been released perched and park whose animals from their own captivity of the classroom for a swung from trees appear to have adopted – albeit school trip. unknown to them – I feared it was going to be an afternoon of screaming kids, but the sleepy Spanish setting. once I had passed through the barri- Gorillas, chimpanzees and other speers, I felt like I was stepping out of a cies of monkey perched and swung from trees around roofless, open enmagic wardrobe.

closures and had free access to waterfalls and the river.

I smirked at a tiger that had replaced any trace of his Indian identity by having a siesta.

In the bird sanctuary, birds roamed around freely and had one-on-one contact with their visitors and the park is not short of variety, accommodating animals from five different continents – including armadillos,

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ROLL CALL: The cast of Les Miserables from the anniversary concert and (inset) founder Acker Bilk

Fuengirola’s Salon Varietes Theatre is celebrating 30 years in showbusiness, writes Tom Powell

I

Varietes the spice of life!

T is 30 years since a group of optimistic thespians transformed a fleapit cinema in Fuengirola into a thriving theatre.

Chart-topping English clarinettist Acker Bilk, famous for his trademark bowler hat, goatee beard and striped waistcoat, opened Salon Varietes’ first show way back in June 1985.

For the first seven years the theatre survived thanks to volunteers contributing funds and physical labour.

In 1992 it became a cultural association with an elected board of nine people keeping budgets in check.

Fast forward to 2015, through years of popular productions - from Shakespeare to Chekhov and thrillers to comedies and musicals - the theatre is in better shape than ever, thanks to its loyal cast of fans and the Friends of the Theatre Association.

The 30th birthday celebrations began in April with the launch of a 50-page commemorative magazine, and continued with a Reunion Weekend earlier this month.

“The anniversary concert was sold out as befits a superb show which has everyone raving as they left after three wonderful hours of music, song and dance with a

marvellous climax featuring Les Miserables,” said spokesman Geoffrey Stansfield.

In just three decades, Salon Varietes has become as familiar a landmark in Fuengirola as Sohail Castle, and a key player in the local entertainments scene.

The theatre is currently closed for summer but will be back in business from September 1.

The next show is the Jersey Boys tribute on September 12-13, followed by a play, The Memory of Water, from September 18-22.

For news of future shows, keep your eye on the website, www.salonvarietestheatre. com

Av. Alcalde Clemente Diaz Ruiz 6 29640 Fuengirola, Spain +34/ 952 449 449 www.nicuma.es info@nicuma.es

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Precious offers a wide range of fantastic greeting cards for all occasions including an exclusive hand-finished range. All at fantastic prices starting from as little as €1.

We have a vast selection of beautiful gifts including jewellery, message plaques, money boxes, photo frames, and much more.

We stock all your traditional English sweets which are already proving a hit with the Fuengirola faithful.

A postal and worldwide courier service is also available – inbound and outbound. And if you’re shipping frequently, collection from your house or business can also be arranged.

And for all you party people out there, call the shop or pop in to chat about your event.

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28 28the Olive Press June 11th - June

24th 2015

We are expanding our sales operation across Europe with new sales centres in top UK city centres, the latest in Birmingham.

As part of our expansion, we need to grow our telemarketing team here on the Costa del Sol. If you’re great with people, easy to talk to and confident on the phone then you could soon be joining our friendly and supportive team as a Teleoperator!

No experience is necessary and we have both full and parttime roles available. We provide the training you’ll require to be a part of our fun, vibrant and successful team. Apply now!

Please send your CV to humanresources@clcworld.com or call Karin Schutz on 952 66 98 61 for more details

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LIFT OFF: From the Pirate Parasailing boat

Rob Horgan takes his courage - and a borrowed camera - in both hands to join the 200-metre high club with a posse of parasailing pirates

“W

E would normally tell you not to worry about sharks, but after last week’s sighting we can’t say that anymore,” said Mark from Pirate Parasailing, as we sped out to sea in a sunshine yellow powerboat.

It was only one blue shark, sighted just weeks before off Fuengirola beach, and they rarely attack humans.

But from my own viewpoint aboard the Magie Ann, watching couple after couple shoot 200 metres skywards over the sea, it’s fair to say I was more than a little apprehensive about my latest Olive Press adventure.

And the ominous skull and crossbone parachute made the prospect of my maiden parasailing voyage even more daunting.

Despite a reassuring speech from the Pirate Parasailing team - and my own unsubstantiated bravado - I would be lying if I didn’t admit to having clammy hands and a pumping heart.

In reality, my apprehension was falsely placed. The most worrying part of my journey was holding on to Pirate Parasailing boss Kevin’s camera as I dangled perilously high above the ocean.

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the Olive Press June 11th - June 24th 2015

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June 25th - July 9th 2015

VIEW FROM ABOVE: Of the Magie Ann

Flying without wings UP, UP AND AWAY: Reporters Rob Horgan and Tom Powell head to the skies above Fuengirola

Setting off from Fuengirola was ‘effortless excitement’. port, kitted out with life jacket, One minute later I was 200 helmet and harness, I watched metres above the Meditermy fellow parasailers float up ranean sea, looking across into the sky two at a time.

Fuengirola with breathtaking Among the group were a Brit- views as far as the mountains ish couple ‘celebrating’ their of the Guadalhorce Valley. engagement, clearly confi- As the wind blew through dent about making it through my curly locks and the Mato the wedding! gie Ann became nothing but But as boss Kevin explained, a speck in the ocean below “Parasailing is for everyone me, it was the silence that and every occasion. struck me most.

“We’ve taken everyone The noise of the power boat’s up from three-year-old engine and the shrieks of toddlers to 90-yeartourists having fun on old pensioners,” he Fuengirola’s glorious added. beaches were well out “We have even taken of earshot as I flew like a blind man up and a birdman over the we cater for those with coast. physical disabilities as Kevin had well.” kindly Saved for last, I sat on ( a n d the back of the boat, somestrapped into the giant w h a t parachute. una dAfter posing for a quick visedly) snap, the ropes were loaned loosened and I was me his up and away. camera.

Take-off was surDeterprisingly smooth mined it and, as adverwouldn’t EXCITABLE: Tom tised, it really meet a wa-

tery end, I clung on for dear life – tricky, with outstretched arms – as I attempted a selfie.

Despite the playful breeze gently rocking my parachute, the ride was smooth and much more relaxing and enjoyable than I could ever have imagined.

The only disappointment was when the ropes began to roll in and my trip into the blue yonder turned into a gentle skyfall. I could have stayed up there for hours.

One final surprise was the ‘walk on water’ (Jesus it was cool.) before I was reeled back onto the boat like a slippery wet fish and deposited safely back on dry land.

Having notched up over 47,000 ‘flights’ between them, you’ll be in safe hands with experienced boss Kevin and his two trusty accomplice parasailing ‘pirates’, Mark and Danyl.

Offering solo, couple and triple flights, with room for 10 people aboard the Magie Ann, there’s even a champagne flight for parasailers looking for more intoxicating excitement.

But how to drink while parachute? one for my adventure!

pop a cork and dangling from a Perhaps that’s next Olive Press

For more information call Tel: 699 953 947/ 633 244 599 or visit www.parasailingfuengirola.com

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We want the Brits!

I

T has certainly been a colourful 31 years for estate agent Sven Kallstrom.

Aside from being a TV property expert in Sweden and the author of three books, he has run property exhibitions around Europe… oh, and sold a whole raft of homes on the Costa del Sol to boot.

And things are getting even

A famous face in Scandinavia, agent Sven Kallstrom explains how he hopes to win round the new influx of UK buyers heading to Fuengirola, writes Rob Horgan better for the boss of Alamo real estate which has seen a decent rise in sales over the past two years.

“Sales have been booming

DREAM PAD: For sale at €395,000 in Fuengirola

since last summer and have gone through the roof since the new year,” he explains.

“In fact in the first five months of this year we sold more houses than we did in the whole of 2014.”

Now - unlike his name-sake, former England manager (messer Goran Eriksson) - he is hoping to win the hearts of Brits buying abroad.

“At the moment, most of our clients are from Scandinavia,” he explains. “But we speak a number of languages and I believe that now is the time to branch out and reach a wider audience.

“I would now like to expand into the English market and I want English buyers to know that I am here and want to help them find their dream home.”

Sven set up his current venture in 2009 in Fuengirola after cashing in on his former company Fair Media.

And it is his experience, both of the area and the property market, that makes him one of the most reputable agents on the coast.

“At Fair Media, I was running the biggest property exhibition company in Europe,” Sven explains.

“We were putting on 10 to 12 exhibitions a year, which was far greater than anyone else was doing.

“I became the go-to guy in Scandinavia for updates on the Spanish property market and I still get regularly interviewed

by TV channels for my expert insight.”

And his knowledge is undeni-

www.theolivepress.es 31 31

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UP FOR GRABS: This luxury Fuengirola pad could be yours for €1.9 million able. Published in Swedish, Finnish and Norwegian, his trilogy of travel books Move to Spain, Dreaming about Spain and Footsteps to Spain have sold over 30,000 copies.

Highlighting the dos and don’ts of Costa del Sol life for Scandinavians dreaming of a life in the sun, Sven explains that he wrote his books because he

STUNNING: New Hilton

wished he had the same advice when he moved to Fuengirola 31 years ago.

Alamo caters for a range of properties along the Costa del Sol from Nerja to Estepona.

And with an office just opened in Nerja and plans for a Marbella office in the pipeline, Sven’s team is growing quickly.

With properties ranging from

€100,000 into the multi-millions, Alamo has a property to suit all sorts of buyers.

To visit Alamo, their main office is in the centre of Fuengirola just beside the train station and Merca Centro.

For more information visit www.alamointernational.com or call 952 46 95 19

Hello Hilton Hilton hotels cashes in on the Costa dream

T

HE Hilton hotel brand is a true mark of quality.

So it is fantastic news to the Costa del Sol that the biggest name in hospitality has set up shop right here overlooking the bay of Fuengirola.

The lovechild of worldclass Hilton hotels and well-established luxury resort Reserva del Higueron opens this summer.

And with our famous 320 yearly days of sunshine, who can blame them for chasing the Costa dream?

DoubleTree by Hilton Resort & Spa Reserva del Higueron promises to be the latest hub of decadence with 177 guest rooms and suites, a spa with hydro circuit, wellness centre, two pools and sports facilities galore.

Upmarket

It will cater to the most demanding and eccentric of holidaymakers, with a semi-Olympic swimming pool and no less than 11 padel courts and two tennis courts.

It is the first Spanish venture from the upmarket DoubleTree by Hilton brand which was lured here when the Costa del Sol welcomed its 10 millionth leisure tourist in 2014.

“A culmination of Malaga’s 320 days of sunshine each year and cultural significance has driven continuous market demand for upscale hospitality, with the number of hotel travellers increasing by 127% in the last 10 years – our first DoubleTree by Hilton in the Costa del Sol will provide further economic stimulus to the local area,” said Patrick Fitzgibbon, senior vice president of development, Europe & Africa for Hilton Worldwide.

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The company manufactures glass curtains, stainless steel windows and doors and pool surrounds.

With its own ‘glass toughening’ plant and the use of only the the highest quality materials, including 316 marine grade stainless steel, you get the best quality products on the coast… and there will be no corrosion problems.

“We also manufacture UPVC and aluminium windows and doors, roofs sliding (electric or manual), complete steel structures, acoustic glass for bars, mirrors, table tops, sealed units, splash backs, shop fronts, shelves, walk-on glass, stairs and glass balustrades,” explains a spokesman.

He adds: “The system we use is a German system, typical of German design, and much time, testing and thought has gone into it. “It is completely different to other systems of similar cost and it is top hung, which means that the weight of the glass is distributed evenly and not all sitting on the bottom rubbing metal against metal.

“It runs on stainless steel wheels and thrust needle bearings, each panel of glass has four holes drilled into it so that the profile can be bolted to the glass as well as glued, this is the only system to do this, all other system are merely glued to the profile.

“Other companies will claim that a bottom hung system is better however as glass manufacturers who make our own glass and understand the weight that is in-

Family firm RDMC glass has been making glass curtains - and much more - for years volved per square meter for 10mm glass. sidering glass curtains should visit the “We know that the best way for a sysfactory and see where they are being tem to function correctly is to hang the manufactured. glass so as not to impose such weight “With this financial climate many comand strain onto the system below causpanies have filed for bankruptcy, unforing scraping and juddering over a period tunately you will find that these compaof time and regular use. nies are still trying to trade without prop“Also being top hung you do not need er premises and licences and merely to maintain the system like you would change their company names. a bottom hung system where you would “Do ask questions, a reliable company have to clean the bottom track out reguhas nothing to hide.” larly so as to keep it running as smooth as possible, with the top system this is Contact us on 952477963, not necessary as no dirt, leaves rubbish 677712742 or at rdmcsglass@hoetc.. can get in there. tmail.com. Visit www.rdmcsglass.

“Our glass curtains also come with an com Pol Ind El Cañadon, Nave 16 additional adjustable bar, meaning if & 18, Km2, Camino De Coin, Mijas there is any movement at all they can Costa be adjusted up or down with just an alan key instead of AMAZING DESIGN: All RDMC products are German having designed to take all the panels of glass out and s t a r t again.”

T h e c o m p a n y is also keen to stress that anyone con-

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the Olive 33Press June 11th - June 24th 2015

33 33

June 25th - July 9th 2015

since ‘50s

SALE NOW ON! MASSIVE SAVINGS ACROSS BOTH STORES

HOW TIME’S CHANGE: Fish has always been central to Fuengirola life, while the castle (centre) used to overlook bare fields before the tourism boom. The train (above in its previous guise) has been a major factor in the town’s success

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ENTREPENEURS: Julie and Steph are branching out

I

T may be located just outside the municipal boundary of Fuengirola, but anyone who’s anyone in this town knows how to find the ladies at Yorkshire Linen.

Steph Smith and Julie Law opened the doors of the shop seven years ago and it has gone from strength to strength, recently opening a second store, Beds and More, two doors down.

Yorkshire Linen provides everything from furniture to cookware and electrical items from the UK’s biggest brands. While the bedding range is the biggest that you will find on the coast with everything from the cheap and cheerful to exceptional quality Egyptian cotton sheets and duvet covers.

Beds and More boasts over 20 different mattress types, from soft through to firm and with pocket sprung, memory foam and memory foam gel avail-

able in all sizes (even the really unusual ones!) and various bases.

“We have known each other for ages and are like a family here,” explains Steph, from Wolverhampton, who has lived in Fuengirola for 17 years.

“We are also friends with our customers and always stop for a chat when they come into the store.”

She is also upbeat about the number of good furniture and bedding stores that have opened up around the nearby area, which include Discount Warehouse next door, providing enough competition to keep them always on their toes.

“We are competing on prices and offers, which has turned this area into a real commercial hub, it is so busy these days,” adds Steph.

Visit www.yorkshirelinen.es and www.bedsandmore.es

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Tel: 952 197 577 Email: info@yorkshirelinen.es Visit our new website at www.yorkshirelinen.es VISIT OUR NEW FURNITURE STORE BEDS AND MORE SITUATED RIGHT NEXT DOOR tel: 952 667 095 info@bedsandmore.es

www.bedsandmore.es

34the Olive Press June 11th - June 34 34

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WHERE TO EAT

No need to fish for compliments Jon Clarke tries out everything from Fish Alley to fancy fish in Fuengirola

W

WINNER: El Toston and (top right) its winning gazpachuelo

HILE bustling with eateries and bars of every description, unsurprisingly Fish Alley is best known for its fish.

Famous around the Costa del Sol for its heavy concentration of restaurants, the place comes alive at night with entertainment, not to mention its great mix of places to eat.

One of the best spots, particularly if you are feeling homesick, is the Kings Road Pub, which offers a Sunday carvery with all the

trimmings.

With an all-you-can-drink champagne and wine menu, it is not surprising that Kings Road is a favourite with locals and holidaymakers alike.

But if you are looking for a different type of fine food you should look out for a fabulous restaurant El Toston right beside the bus station.

Well established and now with its own diffusion tapas spot De Tapas next door, this is one of the definitive spots to eat well on the coast.

In particular, you need to look out for the fantastic tapa of gazpachuelo, with prawns, mash potato and a cold fish soup with sherry and truffled salt.

It is stunning and unsurprisingly won the ‘best tapa’ at prestigeous Madrid Fushion in 2011.

Authentic Asian Cuisine

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We serve a fine selection of Reserve Wines, Cocktails and Draught Beers -----Kings Road Pub Calle de la Cruz (Fish Alley) • Fuengirola

English Pub Grub

Quality Burgers and Steaks

Italian Dishes

Healthy Salads

Delicious Desserts

35 www.theolivepress.es 35

35 June 25th - July 9th 2015

TABLE WARS: Dozens of restaurants vie for trade in Fish Alley while (below) Diego at Sollo I also liked the mushrooms sion, it was little surprise to discover him snapped up by the with a poached egg.

Best of all, it has one of the fin- Hilton group. est wine cellars on the coast, This young Brazilian is on a fast stocking more than 600 dif- trajectory to greatness and this ferent references from around is one meal you are unlikely Spain and abroad. Many of to taste anywhere else in the them can be drunk by the world.

For starters it is entirely fish glass.

Another exciting addition to the based - and ‘sustainable’ fish, Fuengirola dining scene needs to boot - and secondly, it is to be hunted down in the hills mostly fish you rarely try and above the town in Reserva de parts of the fish you probably Higueron, where a new Hilton is didn’t think you wanted to try.

And then there is the attento open this summer.

Recently moving from Benal- tion to detail; the driftwood on madena where it was before, which the food is served, the there is nothing ordinary about attractive presentation and the Sollo, the restaurant of Anda- seductive lighting and settings lucia’s chef-of-the-moment Di- of the dining room.

If it is more basic fish and chips ego Gallegos, 31.

Crowned ‘revolutionary’ new you are after, then look no furchef of the year at Madrid Fu- ther than La Parra Gold in Los

the Olive Press June 11th - June 24th 2015

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June 25th - July 9th 2015

Fantastic wine and traditional cuisine in the heart of Fuengirola Bodega el Toston, San Pancracio - Alfonso XIII Edificio Terminal, Fuengirola 29640, Malaga tel: (+34) 952 475 632 / (+34) 952 466 190

Boliches.

Run by John ‘the fish’, La Parra Gold offers everything from cod and chips to home-made steak pies.

The four-course meal deal is also great value at just €7.50.

A great starter is tomato soup and garlic bread while the cod and chips with the mushiest of mushy peas are excellent, as is the homely apple pie.

Brand new difusion tapas restaurant from the team at El Toston

36

the Olive Press June 11th - June 24th 2015

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Property

www.theolivepress.es

the Olive Press June 11th - June 24th 2015

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June 25th - July 9th 2015

Sun block

EXPAT writer Chris Stewart has slammed draft regulations that would make solar power generation at home completely unaffordable for all but Spain’s richest inhabitants.

Solar power exclusively heats and powers the writer’s Alpujarras farm thanks to Andalucia’s 320 days of sunshine a year.

But if new government regulations are passed,

tariffs will be 27% higher for those generating energy at home.

“I am appalled by the cynicism, hypocrisy and downright dishonesty of this act by the government, but I have lost the capacity to be surprised by them,” Stewart told property expert Mark Stucklin.

And Spanish union UNEF claims the average consumer would need 31 years to get back the investment needed to install their own system, with fines of up to €60 million for non-regulation installations.

UP IN ARMS: Expat author Chris Stewart and solar panels

Your home is your castle BRITAIN’S former number one tennis star Andrew Castle is luring UK expats to southern Spain.

Castle - who has a luxury holiday home in Murcia and often plays tennis at the esteemed La Manga club - has been appointed ambassador for Spanish developer TM Real Estate Group and is promoting newly built homes in Almeria.

“The apartments and villas built by TM are by the sea in Almeria and are finished, done and gorgeous,” the 51-year-old BBC pundit said.

“In hindsight I would have

Tennis ace Andrew Castle is making a racket about life in Andalucia in his new role as property ambassador bought a house by the sea as your view is guaranteed all year round.”

TM which has just launched in the UK has been building holiday villas and apartments in Spain for over 45 years.

The newly built homes being championed by the tennis ace are in the charming coastal village of San Juan de los Terreros and are de-

Hotel hunting SPANISH property firm Hispania has bought two hotels on Fuerteventura in the Canary Islands for €105 million.

The firm has purchased five-star Gran Hotel Atlantis and 382-room Suite Hotel Atlantis.

“These two acquisitions give new impetus to Hispania, and help to strengthen its presence in the Canary Islands, a key market in the holiday company strategy,” said the company in a statement.

HITTING HIGH: Castle

scribed as ‘perfect for retirees’.

The number of new build licences granted in Spain is on the up, with 10,000 permits dished out in the first quarter of 2015.

Expat buyers are also making a return to Andalucia with the number of British buyers predicted to triple compared to last year’s figures.

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The house is a fully modernised 5 bedroom, 3 bathroom finca with natural spring water, solar power with generator back up, solar hot water, underfloor central heating, partial air conditioning, and full internet connectivity. The interior has fully tiled floors, fitted Neptune kitchen, and the build size extends to 228sq m. plus 180sq m. of terraces, including a totally private 11 x 4.5 m pool, with casita.

The land covers 45,000 sq m. and is planted to Olives, Walnuts, and Almonds with many fruit trees and is fully fenced, with a hard tennis court. It has been called the most beautiful spot in Andalucia and a unique opportunity to live a truly sustainable life in ‘real’ Spain and enjoy complete peace and relaxation.

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CONTACT: dj.imrie@btinternet.com A-7 dual carriageway Km 150 Sabinillas – 29692 Tel. 952 89 15 65 Fax. 952 89 12 49 info@ortegaaviles.com

www.ortegaaviles.com

38 38 the Olive Press June 11th - June

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Property

www.theolivepress.es the Olive Press June 25th - July 9th 2015

How NOT to get caught in the wicked web of online rentals scammers

I

F you’re planning to rent a property in Spain, or elsewhere, for your holidays this year, it’s worth asking a few questions and demanding to see documentation before parting with your money.

According to an article on the BBC’s website earlier this year, prospective British holidaymakers were conned out of more than €3 million (£2.2 million) in 2014 by online scams involving holiday bookings.

A report by the National Fraud Intelligence Bureau of the City of London Police calculated that the average loss suffered by individuals affected was over €1,200; while, in one case, one unlucky prospective timeshare buyer lost more than €85,000 (£62,000) through fraud.

The most frequent type of fraud involved scammers posing as potential tenants to ‘phish’ for information from owners, often via leading holiday accommodation websites. Once they establish contact with unwitting owners, they send a Trojan horse or similar attachment, via email, enabling them to hack into the owner’s mailbox or listing accounts.

Then, they intercept communications between other would-be tenants and the bona fide owner, diverting emails and payments to their own accounts.

ABTA, which represents British travel agents, says holidaymakers may only realise they have been taken for a ride once they arrive at their destination to find the accommodation they reserved and paid for is not booked in their name or, in the worst-case scenario, may not even exist.

And, as most people pay those who claim to be property owners via the internet, using electronic transfers or Paypal, they have no means of seeking redress or compensation for their loss and disappointment.

The Property Insider by Adam Neale

So, what can you do to protect yourself against internet holiday-rental cons and make sure the property you have seen online actually exists in the real world, and that the person renting it is really the owner?

If you see a listing you like, check how long it has been listed (most websites give this information) and that a street address is provided. Google it to confirm there is a number 47 on that street.

Then, if you decide to contact the owner, don’t just do so only using email. Always ask for a phone number - preferably a fixed line, rather than a mobile - and speak to them personally.

When you call, ask them to prove who they are. This should be no problem for bona fide owners, even if they have never been asked before. You should request a copy, via email, of his or her passport or ID document, ownership deeds and even a recent utility bill.

Of course, all of this could possibly be fake or forged, but the more you ask for, the better. If you are dealing with someone running a scam, rather than a genuine owner, they will most likely get cold feet and move on.

When I booked a holiday property in Portugal last year, via an agent, I asked to pay the owner direct, using a credit card rather than a bank or online transfer, as this does offer some fraud protection. As this was not possible, I requested a copy of their bank statement to prove that I was paying the right person.

And always be wary if a discount is offered for prior payment in full. It’s safer to pay, and only risk, a deposit, then hand over the balance in cash in exchange for the keys when you arrive.

Finally, as with any online offer, if it seems too good or too cheap to be true, it probably is... Happy holidays!

Holiday renter beware!

Terra Meridiana. 77 Calle Caridad, 29680 Estepona. Tel: +34 951 318480.

Office Mob: +34 678 452109 Email: info@terrameridiana.com. http://www.terrameridiana.com

Property www.theolivepress.es

39 thethe Olive Press June 25th - July 9th9th 2015 Olive Press June 25th - July 2015

the Olive Press June 11th - June 24th 2015

Cut-price Spain Madrid and Barcelona among the cheapest cities in the world for expats SPAIN is back in business as one of the cheapest countries for expats to live.

According to global rankings of most expensive cities, cost of living for foreign workers in Madrid and Barcelona nosedived last year.

This is largely as a result of the devalued euro.

Madrid tumbled from 63rd to the 115th most expensive city, while Barcelona plummeted from 71st to 124th in the rankings, published by international consulting firm Mercer.

Leipzig, Germany Incredibly, both were Nurnberg, Germany among the ten least expensive cities in western EuLyon, France rope, with the study focusing on factors such as housLisbon, Portugal ing costs, transportation, food and clothing.

Stuttgart, Germany Most other Spanish cities Belfast, UK came in the middle of the list.

Hamburg, Germany The report cited the Eurozone’s economy, as well as Barcelona, Spain falling interest rates and rising unemployment, as Madrid, Spain major factors for the actual decrease in the price of livDusseldorf, Germany ing.

Europe’s ten cheapest cities

CHEAP AND CHEERFUL: Madrid (top) and Barcelona

Wizard move SPAIN’S largest real estate company, Merlin Properties, is expanding its portfolio.

In a deal worth €1.79 billion, Spanish builder Sacyr has agreed to sell property management company Testa to the realty giant.

The sale will ease the financial strain currently threatening Sacyr and is a further example of Merlin Properties’ continued growth.

Last year, the company bought up €1.2 billion worth of BBVA bank branches.

Land grab PRIVATE-equity firm Lone Star Funds, owned by billionaire John Grayken, is set to invest up to €500 million in buying up land in Spain for housing developments this year.

The decision follows a rise in market demand and the stated ambition of of Lone Star’s development unit, Neinor Homes, to become the biggest home builder in Spain.

“Despite the glut of homes in Spain, there are areas where stock is running out and we aim to fill that gap,” said Juan Velayos, Neinor’s CEO. The firm has already signed contracts to buy 230,000 square meters of land to construct 2,050 homes, Velayos confirmed, with the intention of targeting middle-class homebuyers aged 40 to 50.

39

Top Dollar

40 40 the Olive Press June 11th - June

NEWS IN BRIEF Business brains BARCELONA’S Esade Business School has been named the second best place in the world to study finance, behind France’s HEC in Paris.

Iglu building ONLINE British travel agent Iglu is targeting an overseas expansion in the Sierra Nevada and the Formigal ski resorts in Spain.

Virgin venture SIR Richard Branson’s Virgin Group is looking to buy Spanish mobile operator Yoigo for a reported €1 billion.

Hit the road ONE in five British holidaymakers is opting to hit Europe’s roads this summer to take advantage of cheaper petrol prices, with 47% of drivers heading to Spain.

Mine blowing IRISH exploration firm Ormonde Mining has received €21.9m of equity investment for its Barruecopardo mining project in Salamanca.

www.theolivepress.es

24th 2015

the Olive Press June 25th - July 9th 2015

Football fat cats Spanish soccer stars make top four on Forbes’ sporting rich list

THE days of wracking up shock mobile phone bills while on holiday could soon be a thing of the past.

Hidden roaming costs and internet charges running into thousands of pounds and euros have left countless holidaymakers in financial ruin.

But now, five major networks - Vodafone, EE, Three, Virgin and O2 have signed up to a new code of practice to protect customers.

LA LIGA’S two biggest stars, Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi, are among the world’s richest sportsmen.

Real Madrid star Ronaldo (€70 million) pipped rival Messi (€62 million) to take third place on Forbes magazine’s ‘rich list’.

The only two sportsmen to earn more last year were boxers Floyd Mayweather (€270 million) and Manny Pacquiao (€142 million), who earned most of their year’s money in their recent mega-fight in Las Vegas.

The highest-ranking Spaniard is Formula One ace Fernando Alonso, who comes in 17th place overall with a pay packet of €31 million.

While Tennis ace Rafael Nadal sits in 22nd place with an annual wage of €28 million.

La Liga stars Gareth Bale (€31 million) is the 18th highest earner, while Barcelona’s Neymar took home €27 million last year and is 23rd on the rich list.

Regulations

CASHING IN: Ronaldo and Messi, and (left) Mayweather

Top 10 sporting earners: 1) Floyd Mayweather (boxing) - €270 million 2) Manny Pacquiao (boxing) - €142 million 3) Cristiano Ronaldo (football) - €70 million 4) Lionel Messi (football) - €62 million 5) Roger Federer (tennis) - €60 million 6) LeBron James (basketball) - €57 million 7) Kevin Durant (basketball) - €48 million 8) Phil Mickelson (golf) - €44 million 9) Tiger Woods (golf) - €43 million 10) Kobe Bryant (basketball) - €42 million

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The new regulations will see the networks cap phone bills when they go uncharacteristically high.

In December, the Olive Press reported on 21-year-old Brit Corey Pye, who received a massive €24,000 bill from Vodafone after he lost his phone in Ibiza.

Despite initially being told he would have to foot the bill, Pye eventually ending up paying just €650 as the phone giant took pity on him and showed some muchneeded Christmas spirit.

Top Dollar

www.theolivepress.es

Making money is plain sailing “LEAVING your investments to the so-called professionals is like embarking on a round-theworld voyage using the stars to navigate,” says Douglas Chadwick, the outspoken founder of Salty Dog Investor.

The 72-year-old is at home with maritime metaphors, having worked at sea for much of his life.

But now he’s set his compass in a new direction to help Olive Press readers navigate choppy financial markets and make the most of their savings with his outspoken new column.

Starting in this issue, he’ll be offering advice on how to play the money markets DIY-style.

And he doesn’t mind if he rocks a few fund managers’ boats in the process.

Douglas began his working life on trawlers, aged 14, and later studied theoretical physics at Sussex University. But the investments world is far from

New Olive Press columnist Douglas Chadwick talks to Tom Powell about delivering upfront advice for those at sea with their investments being uncharted territory. He has doubled his money since deciding to manage his own finances.

He developed his passion and knowledge after ploughing the profits from his successful flatpack furniture businesses into investments and failing to see a return.

“I invested a lot of money in bonds but after some years I was annoyed to find out they hadn’t grown at all, so I started doing some research into the markets,” says Douglas, now living in Oxfordshire.

“In five years, I had doubled my money. And I realised it isn’t actually difficult at all.”

Tired of seeing savings and investments festering in ISA’s and ‘dog funds’ at the hands of professional financial invest-

ment firms, Chadwick set up Salty Dog Investor four years ago.

Named after the sea he knows so well, the firm aims to keep clients’ funds on a steadier course for success.

“The purpose is to help people who have been conned by the financial industry to make better use of their money,” explains Douglas.

“There is no readily available information on which sectors are doing well, making it hard for people to manage their own money.

“So we do the work, looking at only the top 20% of funds to make sure people get a secure and steady return on their investment.”

Get started yourself by reading his first column below...

The DIY guide to growing your money There’s an alternative to paying someone else to manage your investments, writes Salty Dog in our new financial column

I

T is a sobering thought that, according to the Investment Association, €281 billion-worth of people’s savings is languishing in cash ISAs, while Hargreaves Lansdown claims there is a further €562 billion lying unloved in non-performing ‘dog funds’.

With today’s low interest rates, this money is earning virtually nothing! If you are one of the people using this ‘under-the-mattress’ technique, then it really is time you woke up and smelt the coffee.

If you want to maintain your ambitions regarding your current and future lifestyle, be selfsufficient in your old age and leave an inheritance, then you must start to make your savings work hard now, and continue to graft for the foreseeable future.

Seeking assistance from the personal finance industry is unlikely to help you in any meaningful way, as their efforts are concentrated on maintaining the Godrewarded enterprise they have created to enrich their own pockets.

Now is the time to take control of your own financial destiny. Your savings and your investments are your ‘baby’. Ask yourself a simple question. Will you, or an outsider, have the most interest in securing you a well-financed retirement?

the Olive Press June 11th - June 24th 2015

41

Not everybody will have the ability and mental approach to run their own investment portfolio. But there are many more people who can, than think they can. Today, DIY investing is easy for anybody with a computer and access to the internet. The arrival of fund-supermarkets has made it cheap, quick and easy to manage a portfolio.

The Saltydog Investor has been developed to assist people in making these initial steps. We are enthusiastic advocates of active fund momentum investing and, in the four-and-a-half years we have been operating, our cautious demonstration portfolio has grown by over 47%.

This is the first of a b i - we e k l y Saltydog column in the Olive Press to guide you through our methodology and safely build your c o n f i dence, allowing you to reap the benefits of becoming a DIY investor.

As an example, the graph below shows a handful of funds that could be an alternative to having all your savings in cash.

For a better understanding of our practical approach to momentum investing in funds, please have a look at the Saltydog website. www.saltydoginvestor.com

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the Olive Press the June 25th - July 9th 2015 olive press - March 19th - April 1st 2015

AGONY ANT YOUR LEGAL PROBLEMS ADDRESSED BY ANTONIO FLORES

Crying out S for clarity

Lawyer Antonio Flores delves into the murky world of inheritance tax and how it affects expats

UCCESSIVE Spanish Governments are not celebrated for bringing clarity to the matter of inheritance taxes (IHT), whether on a domestic level –there are 17 different IHT tax regimes within the countryor internationally, in the very relevant cross-border investment context.

Notably, Spain has only signed agreements to avoid IHT double taxation with Sweden (1963), France (1963) and Greece (1920), rather bizarrely. If you think about it, a country that is trying all sorts to lure foreign investment, yet fails to specifically address the IHT situation of an investor from Britain (the largest exporter of property buyers to Spain!), is a country with massive inefficiencies.

Spain signed its latest Double Taxation Agreement with the United Kingdom on March 14 2013, which entered into force in June 2014.

As far as Spain is concerned, the treat is meant to cover the following: […] income tax on individuals; (ii) the corporation tax; (iii) the income tax on

non-residents; (iv) the capital tax; and (v) local taxes on income and on capital; Yep, no trace of inheritance taxes, as if the thousands of British investors in Spanish property were immortal or this was a point of (tax) law that nobody ever asks or worries about. Paradoxical and incomprehensible.

Still, national laws in each country provide the solution: In Spain, a rather unknown binding resolution of the Spanish Directorate for Taxes, with number V0148-08, applies the 1987 Spanish Tax Act to address the scenario of double taxation of

a Spanish resident who inherits from a UK resident (where the estate is taxed).

In this case, the resolution establishes that any taxes paid in the UK will be deducted off the taxes to be paid in Spain… if these assets are at all declared.

What if it was the other way round i.e. a UK domicile inheriting a Spanish property?

In this instance, as Spanish taxes will be paid on local assets, according to the UK government website, HMRC gives credit against Inheritance Tax for the tax charged by another country on assets sited in that country. Interestingly, the web page cites an example of Spanishbased property and the ‘relevant double taxation convention’… when there isn’t one!

So while there is an understanding as to where and how IHT will be paid where Spanish/UK residents and/or assets are involved, surely it cannot be too difficult to sign up a treat on the matter for complete clarity...

Just look at the wholly superfluous 1920 Double Taxation Agreement with Greece.

Email Antonio at aflores@lawbird.es

Top Dollar

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the Olive Press June 11th - June 24th 2015

the Olive Press June 25th - July 9th 2015

Beach bonanza Spain reigns as top of the summer pops with European holidaymakers… even the Spanish A TRIO of Spanish destinations are set to be Europe’s most popular resorts this summer.

The survey by lastminute. com lists the Canaries, the Balearics and the Spanish mainland as the first three favourite spots for holidaying Europeans this year.

The poll of 6,000 Europeans also reveals that Spain is not just tops with the British… but also with the French, Ital-

Teen dream

SPAIN’S young guns are going for it in the hunt for work.

Shaking off the ‘lazy’ label harshly attributed to under 25s, Spain’s unemployed teens and 20-somethings are the most active in the job market.

According to a report by international recruitment agency, Randstad Workmonitor, 19% of unemployed under-25s are actively seeking work, compared to 16% of 25-to-45-year-olds and only 10% of those over 45.

Clubbing all age groups together, just 14% of Spain’s unemployed are actively looking for work.

ians and Germans.

Even the Spanish themselves spend more holidays here than abroad.

Indeed, half of all Spanish holidaymakers are set to choose a staycation in their own country, rather than travel further afield.

And economic worries seem to be a thing of the past, with a healthy 86% of Spanish set to pack their suitcases for a summer holiday, up 4% on last year.

According to the poll, the Spanish also spend one third of their holiday at the beach or by the pool.

While nearly one third sign up to a gym six weeks prior to their holiday, aiming to shed 2kg, on average, before hitting the beach and only 8% are satisfied with their beach body image.

HOLIDAY HOTSPOTS: In Spain

Summer shifts SPANISH supermarket giant Mercadona is expanding its workforce this summer.

The Valencian company is creating 4,000 new jobs to cover the summer tourist influx, with the majority of vacancies in ‘holiday hot spots’ like the Costa del Sol. The jobs are mostly temporary contracts and will run from June to September, with a net monthly salary of €1,100 There are currently 1,536 Mercadona stores throughout Spain.

Rags to riches SPAIN’S biggest retailer is getting even bigger.

Clothing giant Inditex - parent company to Zara and Massimo Dutti - is celebrating a massive 28% rise in profits.

For the first quarter of 2015, the company owned by Spain’s richest man, Amancio Ortega, made €525 million and opened 63 stores.

Road to Riches, by Richard Alexander

Which Tax Man to pay – some confusion!

Financial expert Richard Alexander clears up exactly who’s taxing who

A

LETTER received recently from a reader has prompted me to cover this subject to try to clarify any misconceptions.

June 30 is the deadline for filing your tax returns in Spain for Income Tax and Capital Gains Tax so if you have not already done so, you will need to complete this now to cover the calendar year ending 31 December 2014.

The letter was saying that having lived in Spain for 3 years, tax returns had been completed in the UK each year and tax paid – however, they were now being asked to pay tax in Spain as well – paying tax twice on the same income!

Let’s be clear; Tax Residency is not a matter of choice but rather one of fact.

If you have moved to Spain and now spend more than 183 days per calendar year in Spain, then you are Tax Resident in Spain and should file your returns (including M720) and pay your taxes in Spain accordingly. This should include your world-

wide income and gains, not just those arising in Spain.

There are however some circumstances when a tax return still needs to be considered in the UK. Many people have retained a property in the UK for example and they are receiving rental income.

This may be managed by a UK agent and tax may even be deducted from the rent unless you have an agreement with HMRC as an overseas landlord in which case you can receive the rent gross. If this is below your UK personal allowance, there will be no UK tax to pay.

If this is the case or if the rental income is sufficiently high to exceed the personal allowance and some tax has been paid in the UK, the income still needs to be declared for income tax purposes in Spain and if Spanish tax is due, typically any tax paid in the UK will be offset against or potentially reclaimed from the UK. The purpose of the Dual Tax Agreement

between countries is to help to avoid double taxation arising on the same income or gains.

Just to add one slightly confusing addition, certain types of pension income are exempt from tax in Spain where they arise from UK Government employee schemes – for these arrangements, the point of taxation remains in the UK, even if the individual concerned is Spanish Tax resident.

For the person who has already paid UK tax over the last three years and is now being asked to pay tax again in Spain, it sounds as though they have been subject to an investigation of some kind which has highlighted the non-declaration in Spain.

If this is the case, while there are likely to be penalties levied in Spain, they should be able to reclaim the UK. These are general principles only and should not be relied upon by any individual – you need to consult a tax specialist in Spain in order to be absolutely sure you are fully tax compliant.

Richard Alexander Financial Planning Limited is an appointed representative of L J Financial Planning Limited, which is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority in the UK. Contact him at Richard@ra-fp.com

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FORWARD-THINKING: Jose and Mamen

Helping hand

WHAT happens when you cross a psychologist with an occupational therapist?

The most ingenious, forward-thinking childhood centre in the Bay of Gibraltar.

Set up by Madrileños Mamen Martin, 32, and Jose Martin, 30, the pair have created the dedicated Centro Impulso, in San Roque, geared towards children and teenagers.

Heavy on personal attention,, the team of four trained specialists deal with developmental issues, as well as speech impediments.

Filling a vital gap in the market, the three-year-old centre deals with many issues, including thumb-sucking, attention deficit disorder and social interaction problems.

It also offers more regular nursery services for children up to three years old.

“But this is not like a normal nursery,” explains Mamen, who attained a Masters degree in clinical psychology, before moving to San Roque for a quieter life.

“We offer a whole range of intensive activities with the kids to help their development. It is very much a personalised, small group service and we have seen amazing results.”

The pair saw a gap in the market four years ago, having met, after both making the move from the capital to the Gibraltar area.

In particular, they only take up to a dozen children at a time and are open all year round, even in August, unlike most nurseries.

The centre is currently making great strides with its ‘stimulation workshops’, popular for tots aged one to three.

Mother of twins Mirian Moreno, 31, also from Madrid, said: “I have been bringing my children here for three years and seen them take giant strides.

“They were born a few months premature and so this sort of specialised education has been a godsend for me.”

In the afternoons, the centre doubles up as a drop in clinic for adults with psychological problems.

The team of therapists also deals with depression and anxiety issues.

To contact the clinic about spaces in September call 956694234 or visit www.centroimpulso.com

OP

treme

Great outdoors Children urged to get out of the classroom as Barcelona study links green space to brain power CHILDREN’S performance in the classroom is directly related to the amount of time they spend outside it.

A Barcelona research group has HERO’S RETURN: Herrera

found that pupils’ thinking skills develop faster if they encounter ‘green spaces’, such as parks and woods, on a day-to-day basis.

Green space at school, in particular, was linked to improved brain development among schoolchildren in Spain.

“More green spaces around the school is better for cognitive development and schools should make sure that kids can see and play in green areas,” said researcher Mark Nieuwenhuijsen.

“Existing urban schools should think about replacing concrete or other hard surfaces with green space, just a few trees may even help.”

Researchers tested more than 2,000 students over the course of

Herrera’s class act

MANCHESTER United and Spain’s latest boy-wonder Ander Herrera paid a sentimental flying visit to his old alma mater to surprise teachers and students.

After an indifferent start to life in the Premier League, the Spanish soccer star returned to familiar territory as he visited his former primary school in northern Spain.

The 25-year-old midfielder posted pictures of himself with the class of 2015 on Instagram.

“It was a pleasure to come back to my school and to be able to share time with students and my ex-teachers, great memories,” he said.

Herrera is not the first Spanish international to return to the classroom this year. In March, Real Madrid star Isco returned to his former school in Arroyo de la Miel to surprise the latest recruits.

Arty party A BIG bash celebrated two decades of excellence for Marbella Design Academy.

The prestigious international design school hosted a party for 300 people which coincided with graduation and the students’ summer exhibition.

This year sees the first batch of students complete their Bachelor of arts in fashion design, graphic design and interior architecture – all awarded by Middlesex University.

“The visitors were given the opportunity to get a true taste of the international talent and creativity available, plus meet all the talented students,” said spokesman Alan Gomez.

GET OUTSIDE: Kids

a year on attentiveness and memory.

Students surrounded by green space improved more than pupils from schools with fewer green areas.

The presence of green space is believed to help mental development due to the reduction in air pollution and background noise, and because it encourages physical activity.

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the olive press -June 25th - July 9th 2015

Born in the bath

SINCE its launch in December last year, Hospital Ceram in Marbella has been offering an alternative way for women to deliver their newborns – in water.

Water births have played a new role in Spain’s private medicine health sector and

RELAXING: Hospital Ceram birthing suite

The ‘Reidernator’ Ex-MMA star Alex Reid launches fitness retreat in Marbella

KATIE Price’s former hubby Alex Reid has traded in cagefighting for juicemaking on the Costa del Sol. From now on the retired MMA fighter, - aka ‘the Reidernator’ will be beating Spain’s famous oranges to a pulp to promote his new health venture.

Reid, who was married to the model formerly known as Jordan from February 2010 to January 2011, has launched a retreat in Marbella to ‘get people fit’.

From the newly-opened Alma Juicing Retreat, 39-year-old

DO hold your breath

has landed Reid is hoping to share the expert knowledge of health and fitness he acquired through his professional fighting career. “ M y mission is to help you get fit, stay healthy and achieve your ideal weight in a safe and sustainable way,” he said.

“Now that I’m getting older and not competing, I have found new ways to embrace my passion for health and fitness.”

The Celebrity Big Brother winner has designed his own exercise programme and is currently studying to become a natural juice therapist.

SCIENTISTS in Spain have found that holding your breath can reduce sensitivity to acute pain.

Researchers at the University of Jaen reached this conclusion after an experiment in which they briefly squashed an index finger of 38 healthy men and women.

So next time you need an injection, try holding your breath.

Ask the Optician – Summer Amrik Sappal, Store Director, Eye Care BySpecsavers Opticas Fuengirola As temperatures rise and everyone hits the beach, we see more and more people coming into the store with sore eyes. Here’s how to protect yours this summer.

Q: Can the sun damage my eyes?

A: Yes, I am afraid it can. Exposure to UV rays causes a painful irritation to the cornea at the front of the eye. In extreme circumstances this can lead to cancer of the cornea, age-related macular degeneration, cataracts and even blindness. You can protect your eyes by wearing large or wraparound sunglasses which are marked UV 400.

Q: I am really suffering from hay fever, how can I stop my eyes watering and being sore?

A: Hayfever can irritate the

eyes and make them water, which is especially bad news if you wear contact lenses. There are many hay fever remedies available, such as tablets and nasal sprays, which help reduce all the symptoms, including issues with your eyes. If you find your usual brand has stopped working, try a few different ones as every year can be different. If your eyes are reacting quite badly, you could also try antihistamine eye drops although, unfortunately, you cannot use these with contact lenses.

Q: What should I do if I get something in my eye?

A: It is easy for sand or small particles to get in your eyes when you’re swimming and spending time on the beach. If this happens: Try not to rub your eyes as this

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could scratch the cornea.

Do not rinse your eyes with running water, they will water naturally to flush out the object.

If it is still painful or you think the object is still lodged in your eye, go to your nearest opticians who will try to locate and remove it.

If this doesn’t help, the Optometrist will refer you to the nearest hospital for treatment.

All Specsavers’ sunglasses offer the maximum UV protection and we are now offering two for one deals, including sunglasses.

There are Specsavers stores in Marbella and Fuengirola on the Costa del Sol. To make an appointment or find your nearest store, visit www.specsavers.es.

Hospital Ceram is championing an alternative way to give birth in Marbella

are considered to be just as safe as non-water births, with some studies suggesting that

they even speed up labour.

They supposedly offer less stress for a newborn, as they are born from water into water.

Antonio, a nursing and midwifery coordinator at the hospital, said: “Being immersed in a water bath helps the mother and baby to feel more relaxed as they conserve their energy better.”

“We’re very popular among the international community,” Antonio continued.

“We’ve actually had more non-Spanish clients here than Spanish.”

To find out more about the centre, contact gestion@hospitalceram.com

Smoking gun SMOKING is the number one killer in Spain, leading to more deaths than AIDS, alcohol, illegal drugs and traffic accidents collectively.

A report on premature mortality lead by Castilla y Leon’s regional health office revealed that smoking-related illnesses saw off 60,500 Spaniards in 2012, while 15% of deaths were tobacco-related. Lead researcher Gutierrez Abejon blamed the rise in mortality on the increasing number of females taking up smoking after tobacco companies’ marketing campaigns.

Esteve Fernández, President of the Spanish Epidemiology Society, is calling on health companies to introduce stricter measures on generic packaging.

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www.theolivepress.es the olive press -June 25th - July 9th 2015

I’ve seen the light

A

FTER a long week of grafting at the Olive Press my mind was racing and my arms were still stuck in the typing position.

Shoulders arched in the air and a lowlevel headache developing, I arrived at the Source of Wellbeing late on Friday afternoon, with one of the more

unusual assignments I have been handed.

Let me explain, it came after I admitted to the team that I had NEVER in all my 22 years had a massage.

Not a deep tissue massage, not a round with a physio, not even a head massage.

Like some sort of revelation in a crime novel, I was duly summoned to see the editor, who immediately had an idea.

And that’s how I found myself in this hidden valley paradise, between Marbella and Coin, listening to the birds and the nearby trickling of streams and an infinity pool.

Like a kid who

RELAXED TO THE EXTREME: On the massage table

Tom Powell goes on an unusual assignment to discover the delights of a massage - for the very first time

has never been to a football match being suddenly thrust straight into the World Cup final, I felt I had literally landed in the Garden of Eden.

Sipping an icy cold bottle of Corona beer with a wedge of lemon, I first explored the gardens, breathing in the delightfully fresh air, all to the peaceful backdrop of relaxation music.

Next I plunged into the pristine pool, lapping up the last of the sun’s rays as all my troubles began to melt away.

Before long the lovely masseuse arrived and I was beckoned into the treatment room, perfumed by incense.

But by this point, the need to find tranquillity had become something of a challenge, and I couldn’t seem to turn my brain off.

The more I tried to find zen, the more I began thinking about an investigation that I couldn’t get my head around, not to mention the tuna steak I had forgotten to defrost.

I was worried the masseuse would hit a brick wall with me, and find me too tense and knotted to know where to start.

But, no such problem with

I

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A complete pro, within 10 minutes the world of computers, deadlines and inanimate objects was but a footnote on this massage melody.

She began on my head, firm and thorough, before working some deep tissue magic on my upper back.

Everything after that is rather a blur, as I felt the toxins in my muscles massaged out and sent on their way.

It was easily one of the quickest 45 minutes of my life, and I wanted it to never end.

As I drove back down towards the coast, with the sun’s orange rays splashing all around,

ing’s luxurious pamper days.

With a 20% reduction, the day includes healthy lunch and drinks, a facial, a massage and a welcome pack for just €144.

I felt brilliant.

And while a young journalist’s wages can’t sadly afford this every week, I’m certainly making

plans to do this each month.

Visit www.thesourceofwellbeing.com for more information.

PARADISE: The Source of Wellbeing near Coin

Columnists

WAS invited to a wedding in mid June, up in a beautiful hacienda in the countryside between Jerez and Sevilla.

The weekend was absolutely perfect and the guests, who had flown in from London, California and all the fashionable points in between, managed to lower the European wine lake by a good three metres.

The bride looked stunning and, reflective soul that I am, it had me pondering on all things matrimonial. Not my own of course.

Being based in Marbella, my relationships tend to work in dog years, where a year with me equals seven years in the real world.

The only other place on the planet that this applies is LA, although relationships there tend to involve a higher percentage of feng shui experts, life coaches and divorce lawyers...

If you and your beloved do take the plunge and decide to get married, take advice and do it as far away from Marbella possible, without telling anyone.

Otherwise you are in danger of becoming the ‘wedding of the year’ in one of Marbella’s society magazines.

You know the type. They usually take place at one of the big hotels. He normally runs a property or internet company, she is a hairdresser or beautician and one of the pageboys/bridesmaids is the kid that they had from a previous relationship three years ago.

All the blokes wear cream suits or try and do that ‘Resevoir Dogs’ thing with the sunglasses. Although none of them has been to church in decades (apart from births marriages and deaths) a priest/ rabbi/druid is flown in from the Old Country to conduct the service. The first song at the reception is normally something by Ronan Keating, at which point everyone rushes to ransack the bar.

Which brings me to another good reason for holding your wedding as far away from ‘Marbs’ as possible. If you have friends like mine they’ll come to your wedding reception, drink the bar dry and make obscene

Giles Brown (a bachelor) dishes out some matrimonial advice ...

Happily ever after

PICTURE PERFECT: Marbella wedding suggestions to the bridesmaids, WHETHER INVITED OR NOT. And never, ever, hold your reception by the beach. It’s an easy target for the hardened wedding crasher. All you have to do is take your customary stroll along the shore about an hour into the party, walk past the venue and bingo! You’re in.

No one will question the fact that you don’t habitually stroll along the paseo in Armani every day...

None of the above applied at my friends’ wedding of course. The ceremony and celebrations were superb and Tom and Charlotte, I wish you both the very best.

And apologies for the minibar incident...

C lassifieds

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Welcome to Aris Real Estate for your place in the Sun! We have been in business for more than 25 years in Alhaurin de la Torre specialising in properties inland and on the coast.

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Esme and Julia, familiar names in the area, will listen carefully to your requirements and select only those properties which will be of interest to you. All documentation pertaining to the properties are thoroughly checked to ensure a smooth sale when a decision is made.

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ARIS INMOBILIARIA Calle Nogal, 13. Alhaurín de la Torre 29130 (Málaga) Tlf: +34 952 415 358 / +34 629 487 762 f.aguilar@arisinmobiliaria.com

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Bronze for Mama Lottie Gibraltar comes third in Gourmand World Cookbook awards

By Iona Napier

BUDDING author Justin Bautista has won global recognition for his homeland with his cookbook on Gibraltar’s cuisine.

Mama Lotties – Gibraltarian Inspired Recipes beat entries from 205 countries in the self-publishing category of the Gourmand World Cookbook Awards, held in China, coming third behind Barbados and Canada respectively.

Graphic designer Bautista, 25, developed the book from a recipe-sharing website created in his London student digs when he missed his grandmother’s home cooking.

“I am very proud of Gibraltar, to have achieved such a level of recognition and to share a part of its culture internationally,” said Bautista.

PROUD: Bautista

Holiday hells HAPPY snappers who post pictures of every meal and drink have been named ‘the biggest irritant’ by holidaymakers.

Obsessive Instagram uploaders took 32% of the vote, followed by children playing on tablets at high volume, according to TeletextHolidays.

The selfie-stick revolution appears to be a marmite

issue, with 18% of holidaymakers against the latest technological must-have.

Nothing to wine about NOT only is Spain the biggest exporter of wine in the world but Spanish wines are officially the cheapest.

Spain exported over 2,280 million litres of vino in 2014, which was 800 million more than France, mostly due to early maturing vineyards in 2013.

As a result, the price of wine fell 20% - the lowest globally.

The Spanish vinery sector is hoping to increase the global image of Spanish wines to make up for the drop in prices.

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Cut off from the rest of the world, I can feel a deep connection to nature.

Time slows down and all becomes extraordinarily bright and beautiful.

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FLOWER POWER

by Steven Saunders of the Little Geranium

Diving for your dinner Chef Steven Saunders, star of Ready Steady Cook and proprietor of The Little Geranium Restaurant in La Cala, on how to exact revenge on scallops

Y

EARS ago I went SCUBA diving in the Maldives and as a treat the divers decided to take me scallop diving.

You can’t imagine my excitement when I saw these little devils relaxing at the bottom of the sea, like the English basking in the sunshine with their arms behind their heads. This is easy, I thought, just dive down and grab the little blighters.

What I didn’t account for is that somewhere in their complex system they have sensors and as I went in for the scoop, they slid away from me like chattering false teeth!

I returned to the surface ashamed and empty-netted. The masters of diving got quite a few, I got none! So since then whenever I have any opportunity to buy dived scallops, I do, just to get my own back! After all, revenge is a dish best served with pimienta posa...

Here is a signature recipe of mine straight from our menu at The Little Geranium, La Cala, as it is my missus Michele’s favourite dish it’s not likely to ever come off the menu!

Steven Saunders FMCGB www.thelittlegeranium.com steven@thelittlegeranium.com 0034 722 232 274

Hand dived scallops with pimienta rosa Ingredients for four 16 large hand-dived scallops (You can get them from the food market in Malaga) 1 punnet of padron peppers (optional) 1 whole chorizo piquante cut into small slices 1 heaped tablespoon of pink peppercorns (Pimienta Rosa) Juice of 1 lemon 2 tablespoons of good extra virgin olive oil ½ tablespoon of honey Sprig of fresh basil A small amount of Rocket leaves (optional) 50 grms of salted butter 1 whole lemon cut in halves A little light olive oil for cooking Seasoning, Maldon salt and pinch of white pepper

Method 1. Ensure the scallops are cleaned well and remove the coral carefully. (You can then reserve the coral and make a lovely fish stock from them, or if you prefer you can fry them in a hot pan with a little butter and serve as a garnish to this dish) 2. Make the dressing by mixing the extra virgin olive oil with the juice of 1 lemon and the honey and warm gently in a small saucepan. Add the pink peppercorns and stir. Season and simmer on a low heat for 5 mins 3. Heat a heavy frying pan on a high heat until red hot, then add the chorizo slices and colour them, usually

51 the Olive Press June 11th - June5124th 2015 51 51

for 1 minute. Now add the padron peppers and season with flakes of salt 4. Remove and set aside. Wipe the pan clean with tissue and return to a high heat 5. Drizzle a little olive oil into the pan and add the fresh king scallops, season with white pepper and a little salt. Don’t move or turn the scallops, leave them until you can see that they are just colouring underneath, (1 minute) now add the butter which will burn a little and help colour, flavor and season the scallops.

Keep the heat high 6. Now turn the scallops and leave for 30 seconds only, being careful not to overcook them.

Remove onto a clean board and rest them. Squeeze the juice of 1 lemon over them 7. Serve 4 scallops per person and drop on the peppers and the chorizo (Use a porcelain white pasta style bowl for each person or even use a large platter and place them in the centre of the table) 8. Pour over the peppercorn dressing and garnish with some small sprigs of fresh basil and a few rocket leaves. Enjoy them with some lightly cooked fresh Spanish Asparagus and a crunchy salad

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Seven wonders of the dining world Fiona Tomas serves up tasters from the restaurants keeping Spain at the top of the food pile

S

PAIN is once again back on top of the dining world, with El Celler de Can Roca placed first in the World Restaurant top 50 rankings in London. Elsewhere in the country, Arzak, in San Sebastian, slipped down from eighth to 17th. But overall, seven in the top 50 - five in the top 20 - means Spain is well and truly winning on the global stage when it comes to the restaurant game.

Here the Olive Press presents the seven Spanish restaurants which made the cut.

1 - El Celler de Can Roca, Girona Run by the three Roca brother since 1986, El Celler serves traditional yet ‘creative’ Catalan food.

Peculiar dishes include those based on perfumes, including Calvin Klein’s Eternity and Carolina Herrera. Food is presented with a contemporary twist, such as caramelised olives served on a bonsai tree. The wine cellar also stores 60,000 bottles.

TASTY TREATS: Asador Extebarri (above), basil sandwich and duck a l’orange while (below) chocolate marbles

6 - Mugaritz, San Sebastian Chef and owner Adoni Luis Aduriz opened a restaurant in 1998 which offers a nature-inspired experience in the Basque country.

Famous appetizers include Eucalyptus smoked loin of lamb with its cultivated fur and gelatinous chicken Mille-feuille.

Local issue 46:The Local Issue 5 5/13/14 10:54 PM Page 104

13 – Asador Etxebarri, Atxondo Hidden deep in the Atxondo valley in Bilbao, Etxebarri is a more rustic experience, preserving the ancient technique of grill cooking, using carefully selected firewood. Cheaper than the other restaurants in the top 50, a meal will set you back €125.

The €5.00 Lunch

17- Arzak, San Sebastian A specialist in modern Basque cuisine, this three star Michelin restaurant offers an innovative tasting menu with impressively presented courses, such as tuna with rhubarb and lilies or chorizo in tonic water. Owner and Chef Juan Mari Arzak describes his dishes as having an ‘evolutionary, investigatory and avant-garde’ touch.

Tame your hunger!

19 – Azurmendi, Larrabetzu Also situated in Bilbao, modern techniques meet old world sophistication on the menu, with ‘Duck Royal a l’Orange’ or Kokotxas pil-pil (a traditional Basque fish dish). In addition to its own vegetable garden, it also has a vineyard, a winery, and a second, more casual restaurant called Prêt à Porter.

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39 – Quique Dacosta, Denia Snacks, pickles, tapas, mains, meats, desserts are the six stages of the unique ‘mood’ menu which diners can enjoy at Quique Dacosta. Named after the restaurant’s owner, this menu includes seasonal 31 imaginative courses which depict the Dacosta’s passion for creativity. Unusual tasters include egg in ashes, satay of crab or ice cream basil and tomato sandwich.

42 - Tickets, Barcelona Originally known as tapas restaurant El Bulli, it was later developed by Albert Adria to comprise six different rooms for authentic tapas dining. Food served at the Catalonian restaurant is not only a reflection of Mediterranean Barcelona, but Galicia and the Costa Brava. It thrives on its creativity, with adventurous dishes such as Xuxis made of hedgehog with avocado and mint jelly.

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The nifty nispero Nisperos are not your average summer fruit, but they’re now available at a town near you… writes Fiona Tomas

F

ROM a distance, they’re often mistaken for yellow plums, peaches or even miniature oranges.

But the nifty little nispero brings many more ideas to the table than the classic summer fruits and it’s maturing into quite a delicacy among local expats and tourists.

Known in English as the ‘loquat’, or ‘medlar’ fruit, these yelloworange-coloured gems grow on a tree with fragrant white flowers. Although the skin can be eaten, it is the succulent flesh which offers all the juicy sweetness and vitamin-rich goodness that is sought in a tropical fruit.

Perhaps the only inconvenience is the handful of hard stones inside which make the fruit rather messy to eat as a snack. In fact, the pips and young leaves are mildly toxic and, eaten in quantity, the fruit has a gentle but noticeable sedative effect, which is why it is so often used in more adventurous ways.

Chutneys, jellies and jams are popular ways to showcase the nispero’s versatility but it doesn’t end there.Gazpacho, upsidedown cake and tropical crumble are other great ways of eating these orange jewels.

They can also be poached or used to make wine or a simple pie or tart filling.

Home growers like to cook, peel and stone the fruit before freezing them into portions with their juice. When defrosted, they can be used as syrups, sauces for desserts or simply eaten as they are.

A great source of the dietary fibre pectin, rich in flavonoid antioxidants and bursting with vitamin A and potassium, the nispero is ideal for those trying to keep their cholesterol levels down and helps control heart rate and blood pressure.

Try out this delicious recipe for nispero upside-down cake and let us know what you think...

Ingredients For the topping: · 20-30 fresh nisperos (loquats) halved and pitted · 3/4 cups brown sugar · 2 tbsp butter For the cake: · 1 3/4 cups all purpose flour · 1 1/2 tsp baking powder · 1/2 tsp baking soda · 1/2 tsp salt · 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon · 1 stick butter · 3/4 granulated sugar · 2 tsp vanilla · 2 eggs · 3/4 cups milk

Instructions 1. Preheat oven to 190°.

JUICY: Nisperos are now in season

2. For the topping: melt the butter and mix with brown sugar.

Arrange loquats on a greased pan with cut sides down.

Then pour the melted butter with the brown sugar over the fruit.

3. In a bowl sift together flour with baking powder, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon.

4. In another bowl, cream butter with granulated sugar until smooth. Then beat in vanilla and eggs. Combine dry ingredients with the mix, then add the milk and beat.

5. Pour the mixture over the loquats.

6. Bake in the oven for 40 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.

7. Let cake cool for 10 minutes then flip it over a plate (before the caramel becomes sticky!)

Eat while warm. Even more delicious topped with a scoop of vanilla ice cream!

FOOD & DRINK with DINING SECRETS of ANDALUCIA.com

55

I’ll drink to that FOR any other 100th birthday, the done thing would be to crack out the champers.

But as Spain’s oldest white wine celebrates a century, it is only fitting to pour a chilled glass of Monopole.

The Bodega CVNE (Compania Vinicola del Norte de Espana) will celebrate, not with just one shindig, but an entire year of events for its famous, fruity white wine.

Although La Rioja region is famous for its reds, the area has a strong tradition for

Spain’s first and oldest white wine celebrates a century white wines - this one has been made there since 1915.

And the Spanish Monopole, produced in Haro, has performed in the polls, making the prestigious Wine Spectator magazine’s top 100 wines of 2014.

Acclaimed Madrid artist Eduardo Arroyo has painted a series of watercolours to illustrate the vineyard’s history,

A dog’s life,

and more activities are set to follow.

The oldest existing bottle of wine in the world is thought to be 1,650 years old.

It was produced in Speyer in Germany in 350 AD before being unearthed in 1867 and analysed by the Kaiser’s chemists.

It is sealed with wax – presumably for added flavour!

by Eddie the hotel hound

De Tail by De Dog H OW hard is it to run a small hotel? Sure, I could do it with my eyes shut. But you wouldn’t believe how long him and her who must be obeyed spend talking about stuff.

Details of this, details of that. They say the devil is in the detail… De tail is wagging the dog it seems to me. And this is all time when we could be out walking.

For example, I don’t know what all the fuss about food is. They spend hours on this alone! When I

run the hotel all the clients will get dog pellets and a bowl of water. I wouldn’t mind so much if the guests were chasing rabbits up and down the mountains – but mostly they just laze around the pool, eat, drink or go shopping... whatever that is.

Or they come on that train thing that stops nearby. Can’t see why you need to eat more than pellets when all you’ve done is sit on a train and walk 200metres to the hotel and then back to the station.

However, just occasionally him and her do something intelligent and this week has been one of those times. Lamb is back on the menu, and not just any lamb but lamb cutlets with bones. Mercy be. Finally something to get my teeth into.

When you are next eating these delicious morsels at the restaurant please feel free NOT to clean the bones completely.

There is a little mutt who is very happy to finish the job for you.

Your co-operation will be greatly appreciated.

To get in touch with Eddie, contact his owners Andy and Pauline at the Hotel Molino del Santo. Bda Estacion s/n, 29370 Benaojan, Malaga.

952 167 151 - 952 167 927. info@molinodelsanto.com

HOTEL CELEBRATES NEW AWARDS WITH

50% DISCOUNT! Very special offer for Olive Press readers A small hotel near Ronda has just been honoured with two brand new awards by the website Trip Advisor.

Molino del Santo, tucked away in the mountains in the village of Benaoján, has received great reviews on the website from over 1000 visitors. These reviews have led to the hotel and restaurant being honoured for five consecutive years with a Certificate of Excellence.

Each night between now and the 31st July ONE room is available at 50% of its normal rate meaning you could stay on a Bed and Breakfast basis for just 58.50 euros for two people – less than 30 euros per person.

Only one room is available per night on this special deal and the offer is restricted to one night’s stay per couple at this bargain rate. This deal only applies to new reservations and can not be combined with any other offers.

Extra nights are available at normal rates.

HOW TO BOOK

FIVE-TIME WINNER OF CERTIFICATE OF EXCELLENCE

As a result of this consistency, the hotel has now been granted the honour of entering the Trip Advisor “Salón de la Fama” or “Hall of Fame”.

The hotel is situated in an old Olive and Flour mill in stunning gardens by a running stream. Pretty terraces situated by the stream are used for all meals in the summer months. There is a large heated swimming pool, great food and excellent friendly service in a relaxed atmosphere.

SPECIAL OFFER To celebrate these new awards the hotel is offering a very special deal for Olive Press readers for the next month.

You must apply by e-mail directly to the hotel. Just send a message to info@ molinodelsanto.com with the dates that you are interested in.

This offer is not available on the telephone.

First come, first served.

The restaurant at Molino del Santo is open every day until November. Reservations highly advisable.

FREE GUIDE TO THE AREA Molino del Santo has Great edited a guide called “101 Ideas Great Ideas to Enjoy the Ronda Area.” The guide is packed with suggestions of activities to make the for all ages, places to eat most RONDA of the AREA and other sights that the casual visitor might never discover. You can receive a copy by contacting the hotel at info@ molinodelsanto.com

l0l

Compile d by And y Chapell

with the

help of

Eddie the dog

Limited Special Offers Available at Ronda’s Most Special Hotel ttttttttttttttttttttttttttttt

More information of any kind e-mail

info@molinodelsanto.com

www.molinodelsanto.com | info@molinodelsanto.com | 952 16 71 51 ESTACIÓN DE BENAOJÁN, NEAR RONDA, MÁLAGA

the

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Covering Andalucia in 2015 with over 200,000 papers (130,000 digital) and around 500,000 visits to the website each month… The Olive Press just keeps growing!

olive press F

Telephone: 951 273 575

GAME of Thrones is set to film the sixth series in Almeria as well as Castellon and Gerona with auditions for extras held in July.

IT is far from the ideal way to begin a five-year term as mayor of Jerez.

Mamen Sanchez caused a social media storm when a close up of her sandals – unable to contain her little toes – went viral on Twitter and Facebook.

The PSOE mayor took the reaction in good humour though, later tweeting:”I have never laughed so much about my shoes and little pinkies.”

Fighting fit BULLFIGHTER Marco Galan who lost a testicle to a Madrid bull will return to the sport and expressed his relief that ‘no serious damage was done’.

No bombing BRITISH holidaymakers heading to Magaluf will face €100 fines if they attempt to jump from their hotel balcony into a pool.

Power cut A FRENCH pensioner’s political protest saw a power company shut off electrical supplies to Spain after he climbed a high-voltage pylon.

LITTLE PIGGIES: Making an escape

Don’t nail me for this A DRIVER in Salamanca was more than a bit chewed off after being slapped with an €80 fine… for biting his nails at the wheel.

The man was pulled over by Guardia Civil officers after he was flagged up by speed cameras.

Officers claimed that he was ‘driving without maintain-

Motorist slapped with ‘ridiculous’ €80 fine for biting nails at the wheel ing proper freedom of movement’.

He will not lose any points but must pay the fine within 20 days or face criminal action.

Local pro-driver group Salamanca Radares has now come

Tranquilo,

they’re on their way home..

FRANCE - ITALY - PORTUGAL

out in support of the unnamed driver, labelling the fine as ‘ridiculous’.

“This is just the latest case of the Guardia Civil unreasonably targeting drivers with fines which can only be explained by the need to raise funds,” a spokesman said.

“It appears they are so desperate for money that they are making up offences.”

The group also stated that it had received a complaint from another motorist after he was fined for ‘fiddling with a chewing gum wrapper while driving’.

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Toe-tal nightmare!

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FINAL WORDS

June 25th - July 9th 2015

info@unionjackremovals.co.uk

www.unionjackremovals.co.uk

Serve and hollies SWAPPING his racket and tennis ball for a bucket and spade, Novak Djokovic frolicked on the beach in Marbella just one week before Wimbledon.

Opting to avoid the warm up competitions at Queens and Eastbourne, he didn’t look entirely phased.

But, then again, the 28-yearold Serbian player doesn’t generally have a problem preparing for grand slam tournaments, having already won a cool eight.

Close call

THE Olive Press came to the rescue when an Irish holidaymaker lost his phone in Sabinillas Fearing that he had been the victim of a pick-pocket while shopping in Super Sol, Tom McCormack stumbled on our office and asked if he could use a computer to track his phone

by GPS. In quick time, our techie wizards located the mobile, which had been handed in to the store!

Barca fraud probe BARCELONA ace Neymar has been dragged into a fraud investigation looking into the Brazilian footballer’s transfer to the Spanish giants.

Prosecutors representing Neymar’s former club Santos claim the striker, his father and Barcelona officials took backhanders from his transfer fee.

A Barcelona spokesman maintains the club paid €57 million to sign the Brazilian international but prosecutors claim the fee was actually in the region of €83 million.

The courts suspect that Barcelona president Sandro Rosell and his predecessor Josep Bartomeu hid the real cost from the taxman.