Olive Press Newspaper – Issue 266

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May 24th - June 7th 2017

Bad craic!

A dozen expats sue Irish bar over pay and working hours

May 24th - June 7th

Nicholson and Pfeiffer

all stayed here

2017

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last year’s properties rate, while the total A massive sold in Spain rose amount of across the 40,461 homes by 26.9%. were country in highest amount March, which sold is the since February Malaga’s approves College of Architects,2011. which the rise as all new buildings, described Last year ‘very positive.’ amount of saw more than double the new homes on the previous given year in Malaga,licences is home to which Benahavis the key markets of and Mijas.

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EXCLUSIVE

By Alexander Brown

OVER a dozen ex-members of staff are taking a popular Irish pub to court in a dispute over pay.

Disgruntled ex-employees of Healy Mac’s, in Estepona, claim they were forced to work more than three times the hours in their contracts, and in some instances were not even paid for their work.

The bar, which opened last year, is currently facing a series of legal battles connected to treatment of staff.

One alleged victim, Kayleigh Smith, 22, said: “They treated us with complete disdain and no respect.

“It was bullying and after countless legal letters, visits and requests we’ve got nowhere.

“Going to court is PORT our last re-Irish in Bar court&this week to accuse ESTEPONA Restaurant sort.”

Healy Mac’s S.L of unfair disSmith, who was a supervisor missal. at the bar in Estepona Port for He told Malaga court he was nearly six months, claims she fired without explanation, frequently had to work up to only for the company - which 60 hour weeks, and was bul- has various Irish pubs around lied by other members of staff. the world, including Thailand A former manager at the bar, - to later accuse him of stealAlvaro Mendo, 30, appeared ing from them.

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Employed by the bar from June 2016 to Feb 2017, Mendo also accused them of making him work 60 hours a week, despite being placed on a 20hour contract.

He said: “It was a nightmare from start to finish and the same for many other staff.”

A judgement on his case is expected on June 6.

When contacted by the Olive Press, Healy Mac’s declined to comment.

MP for expats Lib dems would ensure local MPs

Page 10

The factor Crunch time

Our voting guide for UK election

DISPUTE: Smith and Mendo

MARIANO Rajoy has condemned the terrorist attack that rocked Manchester this week.

At least 22 people were killed and more than 50 injured after an explosion at Manchester Arena during an Ariana Grande concert on Monday night.

“I condemn the attack in Manchester. My thoughts are with the families of the deceased victims and I wish speedy recovery to the injured,” said the Spanish Prime Minister Podemos leader Pablo Iglesias added: “Our solidarity goes to the victims of the bombing in Manchester. Counter-terrorism: The rule of law, democracy and human rights.” Newly-elected leader of the PSOE Pedro Sanchez said we need to remain ‘united’ to fight such terror.

ISIS has claimed responsibility for the attack while its affiliates were celebrating on social media shortly afterwards. The UK election campaign was suspended yesterday as Prime Minister Theresa May chaired an emergency Cobra meeting.

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www.theolivepress.es News IN BRIEF

Parking options Estepona Town Council has announced plans for 140 new parking spaces.

Costing €50,000 euros, the spaces will be in San lorenzo Avenue.

Brown Sugar Police in Malaga have arrested a teenager suspected of using a sweet shop as a front for drug trafficking.

They believe the store

New path Construction has begun on an 11-kilometre path between Torremolinos beach and the nearby mountains.

The route will also accommodate those travelling by bike and horse.

Charity Walk More than 1,600 people have completed a walkathon for cancer charity Cudeca in Benalmadena.

Supporters marched routes of ten, five or two kilometres, before finishing up near the Sunset Beach Club.

Crime outbreak More than ten different shop owners in Arroyo de la Miel have reported break-ins and thefts in the past three weeks. Police believe there is an organised gang involved.

SEIZED: Drugs and cons

was used to sell cocaine and heroin, with some of the deals even taking place in front of children.

Police arrested a 19-yearold man.

May 24th - June 7th 2017

Policeman knocked out A 38-YEAR-OLD policeman has been hospitalised after being hit by an SUV while cycling in Malaga.

The policeman suffered five broken ribs, one of which pierced his lung, as well as numerous fractures and bruises.

White way forward!

SPANISH authorities have taken part in one of the biggest drug busts in history.

The incredible haul of 7.9 tonnes of cocaine came in two shipments, destined to land in Spain, before filtering around Europe.

Amy dad - Not my fault DAVE Mahon is appealing against his sentence for the manslaughter of his stepson.

The former Fuengirola estate agent, whose daughter Amy Fitzpatrick went missing mysteriously in 2008, has a court appeal in October.

Mahon, 46, pleaded not guilty to murder of Dean Fitzpatrick, 23, last June.

He claimed Dean’s death was an accident because he ‘walked into the knife’ while they were arguing.

The family made headlines in 2008 when his wife Audrey’s daughter, Amy, who would be 25 now, went missing near their home after a night out.

She has never been found.

Largest haul in history worth more than €200 million busted en route to Spain

The street value of the haul is estimated to be around €226 million.

Spanish police worked with Ecuadorian, Venezuelan and other European forces to intercept the ships off Latin American.

The US Drug Enforcement Agency and Britain’s National Crime Agency also took part in the joint operation.

“It is one of the largest cocaine seizures in history and it takes apart a large drug-trafficking organization between South America and Spain,” said Spain’s Interior Minister

Juan Ignacio Zoido.

It’s not the first time such huge hauls have been busted.

In 2015 and 2016, Spanish police captured almost nine tons of cocaine from four vessels and arrested 80 people.

The most recent operation began after Spanish detectives discovered in January that a South American ring with links in Spain was organizing a mammoth shipment.

Spain and particularly the southern coast by Cadiz, is seen as a major entry point for drugs into Europe.

151

Stories and features in this edition of the coast’s number 1 English newspaper

Storage unit probe SPANISH and UK cops have joined forces to probe a so-called ‘storage pod pension’ scam.

The fraud, which involved investing in storage units, is believed to have claimed thousands of victims in Spain and the UK. The UK’s Serious Fraud Office (SFO) is probing how up to €140 million could have been invested into various schemes including Capita Oak Pension and Trafalgar Multi Asset Fund.

The fraud is linked to pension funds and is often aimed at expat investors in Europe.

The SFO said it will look into whether investors were tricked into the ‘self-storage’ investments.

The SFO has urged anyone who invested in the funds be to get in touch.

Promoters of the scams persuaded clients to buy a long lease on a storage unit - containers that are used to store belongings - and rent it out in the hope of making a good return.

This rarely happened.

NE WS

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May 24th - June 7th 2017

3

The Hill station RICHARD Armitage and Rhys Ifans have been spotted filming a hit US spy series in Ronda.

The British actors, who starred in The Hobbit and Notting Hill, have been seen in the picturesque mountain town alongside 100 actors and

ON SET: Filming in Ronda

New venture RECOVERING alcoholic Danniella Westbrook has opened a bar in Marbella.

The actress, who left Mijas’ Villa Paradiso rehab centre in March, said she doesn’t see the new endeavour as a problem as she will be working from ‘the other side of the bar’.

The 43-year-old said: "I am better on the other side of the bar, I am a people person. I'm known for nightlife and DJing anyway in Ibiza.

"I can't just stop my life."

Speaking on UK TV chat show Loose Women, the former Eastenders star was asked if returning home from Spain was a trigger for her alcoholism.

“Not for me personally, we are creatures of habit like animals, we need structure in our life.

I've just opened a bar with a friend of mine.”

She added: “I wanted something to put my money into. My son's dad is Spanish, he speaks Spanish. I want something that he can do and have a nice life.

Paz Vega’s new TV series set among drug dealers on the Costa de la Luz SHE’S best known for her sultry roles as a temptress in a string of Hollywood films.

But Paz Vega’s latest part couldn’t be further from that of hit movies, including Sex and Lucia and Other side of the Bed. In her latest role she plays the part of a nun based on the Costa de la Luz. Returning to Spain after 20 years in Rome, she discovers her old boyfriend Bruno has become a local drug lord.

In the TV programme, out this week, Perdoname, Senor, she tackles a subject close to home for many Gibraltarians and Andalucians.

Filmed in many local locations, including Zahara de los Atunes, Barbate, Canos

All change KEAN ON CORRIE: Pair enjoy Marbellla trip

Costa street

LIGHTING UP OUR LIVES: Paz Vega by two lighthouses in films Sex and Lucia and Perdoname

de Meca and Zahora, the drama starts on Telecinco

Hottyoaks

BAR WORK: Westbrook

crew for the second series of hit TV series Berlin Station.

Armitage plays a CIA agent who is sent to the German capital to investigate a leak to a whistleblower, who is assisted by a veteran agent played by Rhys Ifans.

Ifans posted a moody picture of himself (above) with other cast members on Twitter with the famous Ronda countryside in the background. A member of pop band Super Furry Animals, Welshman Ifans has also starred in Kevin and Perry Go Large, Twin Town and Harry Potter.

THE Hollyoaks cast are in Spain filming for the upcoming Six Weeks of Summer episodes.

Scenes have been filmed across Ibiza, and include the debut of Adam Woodward, 25, who has recently joined the cast to play Brody Hudson. The 25-year-old star has yet to debut in the show, but has been seen working out on the beach and posting pictures of the cast on social media.

The Manchester-born actor has previously appeared in Emmerdale, as well as BBC daytime drama Doctors.

tonight.

Stany Coppet plays the part

of the drug dealer, who meets Lucia (Vega), by the famous Trafalgar lighthouse.

Vega, 41, was born to a bullfighting father and housewife mother in Sevilla and won her first and only Goya in 2001, for Best Breakthrough Performance in Lucia y el Sexo.

The L’Oreal model - who is married to Venezuelan Orson Salazar - is currently starring in Netflix hit The OA.

CORONATION Street star Brooke Vincent has been spotted soaking up the rays in Marbella.

The 24-year-old, who has played beloved Sophie Webster on the popular soap since 2004, was seen splashing around with her footballer beau Kean Bryan in their private swimming pool.

The couple, who confirmed their romance last June, posted a quick pic to Instagram before they were seen strolling around the Old Town.

A source said: “She's been a little nervous about what people will say, because Kean's another ­footballer.

“But the two of them are really sweet together. They just click with each other.”

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Toddler drowns A BOY has drowned in a swimming pool in the Axarquia.

The three-year-old was rescued from the pool in Rincon de la Victoria and taken to hospital, but doctors were unable to save him.

This takes the number of fatal drownings in Andalucia to three this year, the same amount that occurred throughout all of 2016.

What a wag!

A SPECIALISED dog park with a see-saw, ramps and obstacles is to be built in Mijas.

The €360,000 space, in Las Lagunas, will even have specialised furniture for the dogs to relax on.

The park will even be divided into spaces for bigger and smaller dogs, as well as have its own water supply and toilet area.

Alleged Costa conman returns to UK after Olive Press story A SUSPECTED fraudster has returned to the UK following an Olive Press expose.

The boss of Andalucia Glass and Steel, Vincent Ware, has allegedly returned to London, where he is working in the construction sector.

Steeling away!

ADIOS: Ware returns to the UK

Stop the attacks hit him in the face with a plank of wood shouting: "F***ing Spanish, speak English" (pictured right). Attacks against foreigners appear to be on the rise since last June's Brexit referendum, with political party Podemos demand-

SUPPORT: Local sport

boss drove back last week after failing to find more work on the Costa del Sol. “He knew that he was finished here,” said Kaiser.

“He tried to set up shop again but people recognised him from the Olive Press story and felt uneasy going into business with him.”

He claimed that Ware had placed an advert in an English-speaking newspaper masquerading as another glass company.

“He had someone in tow who was fronting this for him and probably funding it as well,” explained Rudi, “But he was also hedging his bets as he was applying for jobs back in the UK.”

Forced

Ware - who advertised heavily in a rival newspaper - was forced to flee to the Kew area, where his father lives, after dozens of expats complained they had paid his company thousands of euros for work that was never finished.

Rudi Kaiser, 58, a former employee who blew the whistle on Ware, told the Olive Press that his ex-

SPAIN has demanded the British authorities tackle a worrying increase in xenophobic attacks against Spaniards.

It comes after a 27-year-old from Valencia was attacked by a thug as he talked to his girlfriend in Spanish after a night out in Poole.

Tomas Gil was seen on CCTV being attacked by Daniel Way who

May 24th - June 7th 2017

Athletics boost for Estepona A MASSIVE 6.1 million are to be used to improve Estepona’s athletics stadium.

The proposals include a 1000-space underground car park, plus improvements to the track, the football field, as well as the creation of a BMX circuit area.

The plans would make the stadium one of the most modern in Andalucia.

any such attacks.

"We have sent details of specific cases of which we are aware to the UK’s Home Office and have requested an investigation,” said a government spokesman.

Almost 5,500 racially or religiously motivated offences were reported to police in the month after the Brexit vote in June last year.

ing information on how many xenophobic attacks have been reported by Spaniards in the UK. The government has followed this up and Spain’s embassy in London has issued a statement asking for Spaniards to report

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Voted top expat paper in Spain

A campaigning, community newspaper, the Olive Press represents the huge expatriate community in Spain with an estimated readership, including the websites, of more than 500,000 people a month.

OPINION Good riddance HE is just the sort of unsavoury businessman that the Olive Press likes to tackle.

Offering shoddy service, failing to complete work and often failing to turn up at all, Vincent Ware deserved his cumuppance.

An unsavoury character who allegedly left dozens of expat clients high and dry he has been forced to leave the Costa del Sol after being splashed across our paper.

While it might not get the alleged victims their money back, it will at least prevent any further expats from falling victim to his shady glass company.

While he is back living the high-life in London, let’s hope karma will catch up with Mr Ware one day… as it will also eventually with all the sleazy cowboys and cut-the-corner-merchants, that sadly still exist in their droves in southern Spain.

Tell ‘em, Tim! WITH the general election approaching, it is more important than ever that expats make their voices heard.

We strongly welcome Lib Dem leader Tim Farron’s call for expats in Spain and for Gibraltar to have its own MP, as well as his call for the abolishment of the 15-years limit to vote.

That rule prevented many of us having a say on the EU referendum, a vote that could still directly impact our lives here.

Proximity to Westminster should have no bearing on your voice as a citizen, and this paper strongly endorses this Liberal Democrat policy.

Mr Farron’s suggestion is not just a political move, but the correct one.

Publisher/ Editor

Jon Clarke jon@theolivepress.es design@theolivepress.es SALES: sales@theolivepress.es Admin (+34) 951 273 575 admin@theolivepress.es

Newsdesk newsdesk@theolivepress.es Tel: (+34) 665 798 618 Joe Duggan joe@theolivepress.es Laurence Dollimore laurence@theolivepress.es Chloe Glover chloe@theolivepress.es Laura Duckett Laura@theolivepress.es Alex Brown Alex@theolivepress.es

Accounts Héctor Santaella (+34) 658 750 424 accounts@theolivepress.es Maria Angeles Vázquez mangeles@theolivepress.es Admin and account assistant Distribution Graham Warters distribution@theolivepress.es

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AWARDS

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2012 - 2017

Named the best English language publication in Andalucia by the Rough Guides group.

THE CONTENDERS: Vying for your vote on June 8

With two weeks to go, the Olive Press presents the ultimate expat voting guide for the UK General Election, by Chloe Glover

I

T has been hailed ‘as good as a second referendum’ by pro-European expats.

But what are the main contenders in the UK’s June 8 general election really offering to nationals living in Spain?

It is their future in the country, after all, that depends on the agreements thrashed out through Brexit talks.

Votes for life, free movement of labour, pensions, healthcare access and the possibility of a second referendum are among the issues we have scoured the three main parties’ manifestos for.

So there is no excuse not to get the information you need before casting this highly important vote.

The factor

A second referendum

leaves the EU. The Conservative Party said it will leave The Liberal Democrats and the Green the single market (free movement of Party are the only two to commit to hold- goods, services, people and capital) and ing a referendum to allow voters a final the customs union but wants to ‘pursue free trade with the European market’. decision on Brexit.

This would come after the conclusion of Despite a commitment to freedom of movement being essential exit negotiations with the to gain access to the EU EU and would offer people single market, Labour arthe choice of accepting the There is no gues that the UK will still terms or staying in the EU. be able to trade goods and excuse not to get Labour has ‘accepted’ the result of the referendum the info you need services without restrictions. and has not stated that it It promised to protect before casting will offer one on the agreed workers already living in final terms of Brexit. your vote the UK, in an attempt to The Conservatives’ maniensure the same for UK festo reiterates their comexpats already based in mitment to leaving the EU. the EU. Its ‘transparent and fair’ managed migration system would focus on labour shortages and could include employer sponsorship, work permits and visa reguAll three main parties have committed lations. to retaining existing reciprocal rights for Liberal Democrats, by contrast, will keep current expats in the EU and EU nation- freedom of movement to retain access to als in the UK. the single market.

But whether that will be truly possible They would also ‘simplify’ the process could depend on their policies regarding for EU nationals to gain permanent resiits key battleground policies concerning dence in the UK, and would seek to ‘sefreedom of movement and migrant ben- cure the same rights’ for UK nationals in efits and healthcare.

Europe.

Reciprocal rights

Freedom to continue to Access to healthcare work and live in the EU Labour has promised EU migrants in the Both the Conservatives and Labour have said that freedom of movement (the right to move and live freely and work in the EU without a visa) will end when the UK

UK continued access to free public services through a ‘migrant impact fund’, financed by monies paid through high net worth individual visas.

It remains to be seen, however, whether it will seek the same assurances for expats in the EU. Although they have not commented on the specific issue of health, the Liberal Democrats have ‘committed to guaranteeing the rights of UK citizens living in Europe as well as the rights of EU citizens living in Britain.’

They will also try ‘retain access to European Health Insurance Card (EHIC) for tourists.

The Conservatives have vowed to increase the immigration health surcharge to 600 pounds for migrant workers.

Benefits No set plans on benefits for EU nationals in the UK or UK citizens in the EU have yet been announced.

Pensions Both Labour and the Liberal Democrats have voiced their support for an end to pension freezes for UK citizens living abroad in certain countries.

Following Brexit, this could include those living in the EU, who have until now being exempt from such penalties.

Many Conservative backbenchers also want an end to the freeze, with one, MP Roger Gale, even timetabling a debate on the issue in April.

Votes for life At present, British citizens lose their vote after living outside the UK permanently for 15 years.

In 2016, the Conservatives committed to restoring voting rights to all overseas voters.

But many were left enraged after it was revealed that they would again not be able to vote in the upcoming general election. Votes for life have also been promised under the Liberal Democrats, who have also vowed to ‘create dedicated constituencies for all overseas voters to elect MPs, such as what France and Italy has done for their own expats.’

The Labour party has given no indication as to whether it would grant votes for life.

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The real reason why Spaniards eat late

Each print issue of the Olive Press can be read in its entirety on May 24th - June 7th 2017www.theolivepress.es And our site is updated daily with the latest news, making it one of Spain’s most visited news websites.

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I

t is 10pm in the Madrid neighbourhood of La Latina, one of the city’s oldest areas, and the cobbled streets thrum with the sounds of people enjoying plates of gambas al ajillo (garlic prawns) and cocido Madrileño (a hearty chickpea, pork and chorizo stew).

Restaurants are bustling at an hour when, in most other countries, chefs would be hanging up their aprons for the night.

While travellers might attribute Spain’s late mealtimes to the country’s laidback Mediterranean attitude, the real reason is a little more peculiar. Spaniards are living in the wrong time zone, and have been for more than 70 years.

Glance at a map and you’ll realise that Spain – sitting, as it does, along the same latitude as the UK, Portugal and Morocco – should be in Greenwich Mean Time (GMT). But Spain goes by Central European Time (CET), putting it in sync with the Serbian capital Belgrade, more than 2,500km east of Madrid.

Spaniards are living in the wrong time zone, and have been for more than 70 years.

So why are Spaniards living behind their geographic time zone?

In 1940, General Francisco Franco changed Spain’s time zone, moving the clocks one hour forward in solidarity with Nazi Germany.

For Spaniards, who at the time were utterly devastated by the Spanish Civil War, complaining about the change did not even cross their minds. They continued to eat at the same time, but because the clocks had changed, their 1pm lunches became 2pm lunches, and they were suddenly eating their 8pm dinners at 9pm.

After World War II ended, the clocks were never changed back. However, in 2016, Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy announced that the government was working on a plan to implement a new workday schedule ending at 6pm as opposed to 8pm. One important element of the plan was evaluating the possibility of changing Spain’s time zone from CET to GMT – something that has sparked a heated discussion throughout the country.

Being 60 minutes behind the correct time

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Many travellers believe Spain’s late mealtimes are a reflection of the country’s laidback attitude, but that couldn’t be further from the truth, writes Jessica Jones

TRADITION: Above, al fresco dining, circle, napping man

zone means the sun rises later and sets later, bestowing Spain with gloriously long summer evenings and 10pm sunsets. Those who run Spain’s tourist resorts believe that more sunlight is a large draw for visitors. The regional government of the Balearic Islands which include Mallorca, Menorca and Ibiza is strongly against returning to GMT and has even campaigned to maintain year-round summer time (CET+1) to allow visitors to take full advantage of the region’s mild winter climate.

But for many Spaniards, living in the wrong time zone has resulted in sleep deprivation and decreased productivity. The typical Spanish work day begins at 9am; after a two-hour lunch break between 2 and 4pm, employees return to work, ending their day around 8pm. The later working hours force Spaniards to save their social lives for the late hours. Prime-time television doesn’t start until 10:30pm.

Meanwhile, in the northwestern region of Galicia, the sun doesn’t rise until after 9am in winter, meaning that residents are starting their day in the dark.

“The fact that the time in Spain doesn’t cor-

respond to the sun affects health, especially sleep,” said José Luis Casero, president of the National Commission for the Rationalization of Spanish Schedules, an organisation that has been campaigning for Spain to return to the correct time zone since 2006. “If we changed time zones, the sun would rise one hour earlier and we’d wake up more naturally, meal times would be one hour earlier and we’d get an extra hour’s sleep.”

Spaniards have traditionally coped with their late nights by taking a mid-morning coffee break and a two-hour lunch break, giving them the opportunity to enjoy one of the country’s most infamous traditions: the siesta.

It doesn’t fit with reality.

Changing the workday would threaten Spaniards’ customary naptime, although whether or not citizens would mind is still up for debate. A January 2017 study by research company Simple Lógica found that less than 18% of Spaniards nap regularly, while nearly 60% never take a siesta. In fact, business owners in many of the country’s major cities and holiday resorts remain open during the midday break to cater to tourists.

Meanwhile, those who do nap express frustration when changes in their daily routine prevent them from sleeping mid-day.

“We should really banish the siesta in Spain because it doesn’t fit with reality,” Casero said. “And with the change of time zone bringing meal times forward and giving us an extra hour of sleep, there would be less need for a rest at midday.”

When it comes down to it, economist Nuria Chinchilla, an expert in work-life balance at the Instituto de Estudios Superiores de la Empresa business school in Barcelona, feels that quality of life for Spaniards is more pressing than preserving an extra hour or two of evening light for tourists.

“We have continuous jetlag,” she said. “Tourism will always be there and tourists don’t care. The number of hours of sunlight will be the same, whether it is an extra hour in the morning or in the evening.”

This article first appeared on the BBC

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May 24th - June 7th 2017

Rest in peace Roland A MUCH-loved British expat artist has passed away.

Rowland Fade, 78, originally from Norwich, moved to Spain in 1969 and exhibited his works across Europe.

Fade, who made Almunecar his permanent home in 1995,

was known for incorporating items from everyday life into his work, including stickers, toys, string and playing cards.

His last exhibition, Nuevos Caminos, held in Almunecar last autumn, comprised of 30 pieces of work.

Off-track!

A SERIES of ex-mayors and councillors are to be probed over their links to the running of Mijas racecourse.

A court is to investigate ‘fraud, corruption and embezzlement’ over the running of the Hipodromo de la Costa

Three former mayors in Mijas racecourse probe del Sol. So far 17 individuals, including three ex-mayors are set to be grilled over the handling

of the race track, which was closely linked to two shady Eastern European gangsters.

It comes after Mijas coun-

That’s what makes EU beautiful HARRY Styles has revealed he will vote for ‘whoever is against Brexit’.

The One Direction Star, 23, made the claims in an interview saying: "I think the world should be more about being together and being better together and joining together, and I think [Brexit]'s the opposite of that.

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“I think what it symbolises is the opposite of the world I would like to be in.”

The comments suggest Harry would be most likely to vote Liberal Democrat, the only party vowing to block brexit.

Lib Dem leader Tim Farron said: “We should be heading in one direction towards a referendum on the final deal.”

cillor Francisco Martinez of the Podemos Costa del sol Si Puede party found sufficient evidence for the public prosecutor to take on the case.

Martinez claims official reports show that the track was illegally rented back to the town hall in a cosy arrangement that benefited councillors.

There were also clear irregularities in the awarding of the contract to run the racetrack, which the Olive Press exposed some years ago, as well as the re-classification of the land.

We revealed in 2008 how Mijas Town Hall had awarded a licence to two gangsters, Ukrainian Robert Gaspar, 55, and Armenian Robert Mani, 54, to run the track.

Under the guise of their own boss Roberto Fancini - described as the CEO of organ-

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ised crime in Europe - they used it as the perfect foil for money laundering.

Their company Carrera Entertainments failed to pay prize money, file tax returns or pay their workers.

They also failed to commit to promises to improve the venue by adding a covered stadium.

While Mani was arrested at Malaga airport a couple of years ago, Gaspar is still the subject of an international arrest warrant. Fancini is in prison in America over money laundering and fraud charges.

The trio were also involved in the so-called Majestic scandal at Casares Town Hall and linked to REM radio.

Calle Burgos 3 952 917 164 FUENGIROLA

Member of

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EU boost VELEZ-MALAGA is set to receive €10 million from the EU for works and projects in its historic centre.

The figure represents 80% of the total investment planned for 2017 in sustainable urban development projects, energy efficiency actions, mobility improvements and sociolabor insertion projects.

The Councillor for Employment, María José Roberto, said she was very pleased by the announcement.

She said the funds will focus on the historic center of the city, which has been labelled as a Property of Cultural Interest by the Junta.

Projects will also focus on the recovery of the old Arab fortress, the old castle of Torre del Mar and the 10 watchtowers of the municipality.

Elderly woman denies killing her cancerstricken husband with his crutch A PENSIONER accused of killing her husband with his own crutch has told a jury she has no recollection of attacking him.

The 85-year-old stands accused of using her cancer-

a xa r q ui a

Crutch killer stricken husband’s crutch to bludgeon him to death in their home in Rincon de la Victoria.

The woman first told investigators that her husband,

Paws for thought A VOLUNTEER is needed to help an animal sanctuary.

Axarquia Animal Rescue is looking for someone who can pick up, store and deliver tombola items to the Trapiche country market on in Velez-Malaga every Tuesday.

Funds raised through the sales will be ploughed back into the charity, which saves the lives of and rehomes abused and abandoned animals.

Anyone who is interested should call Ann on 693 462975.

who was suffering from lung cancer, fell.

But they soon became suspicious when they found blood stains on his crutch.

Prosecutors alleged that the woman waited until family visitors had left their home before she attacked him as he rested on the sofa, and ‘taking advantage of his helplessness, which prevented any effective defence, bludgeoned him with 14 blows from one of his crutches.’

In her defence, the woman claimed she could not remember the incident, and

May 24th - June 7th 2017

RISE: In donations

Positive suggested that burglars could have entered the property and committed the murder.

“I did not hit him with a crutch,” she said.

The woman faces the rest of her life in prison if convicted.

Spice up your night

RENOVATIONS: Velez

A MOORISH night will raise money to help preserve nomad culture.

Costa Women Axarquia is behind the foodie event on May 26, which will be held at the Table Mountain restaurant in Comares to fund the Vilostrada Foundation which works in Morocco.

A mezze of meat, fish and veg-

9

etarian dishes will be shared among female attendees, who will also hear a talk by the charity’s co-founder, Victoria Ahlén.

She launched the project in 2011 with her husband Joakim to help build schools in the desert for nomad families.

Tickets cost €22.50, with €2.50 going to the foundation.

THE Axarquia has been praised for its number of blood donors.

A total of 41 residents per 1,000 donated last year, markedly higher than the regional average of 33.49.

The news was revealed by Ana Isabel González, a regional Junta delegate, who said the total represented 10.4% of donors in Malaga province.

Frigiliana is one of the villages that has recently launched a campaign to encourage more donors, which included a blood drive which more than 50 people attended.

According to Gonzalez, 250 blood donations are needed each day in Malaga to meet needs.

People from Extremadura are the biggest donors in Spain, with 45.36 people giving blood per 1,000.

10

poli t ics

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Going rogue CATALONIA is preparing to break away from Spain, regardless of whether there is a referendum.

According to reports, the Generalitat have drafted a bill which indicates its intention to secede, even if Madrid forbids their referendum.

The bill defines the status of the Catalan citizens, the procedure of obtaining citizenship, and which Spanish laws would remain in force after the secession.

It suggests Catalan citizenship would be granted to every Spanish citizen residing in a Catalan municipality for at least one year, or can prove a minimum of two continuous years of residency in the region in the past.

The Catalan draft law also envisages establishing a republic, taking immediate control of the judiciary in the region and seizing state property in Catalonia.

May 24th - June 7th 2017

Resurrected

Boots on the ground THE Spanish Army is deploying troops in Russia’s backyard.

The country is sending a heavy armoured unit abroad for the first time as part of NATO's enhanced Forward Presence in the east of the Alliance.

Troops supported by Leopard tanks and Pizarro armoured vehicles will deploy from beginning of June for six months.

LIBERAL Democrat leader Tim Farron has slammed the ‘utter unfairness’ of British expats being denied a vote in next month’s general election.

Farron pledged the Lib Dems would grant MPs to expat constituencies to represent the 1.2 million British citizens living in the EU. Farron, who cancelled Tuesday’s planned trip to Gibraltar in the wake of the Manchester suspected terror attack, accused the Conservative Party of ‘breaking their word’ after stating in its 2015 election

Around 300 troops have been deployed, 250 of which are from the Mechanised Infantry Brigade Extremadura XI, including a logistics unit and a team of engineers.

They will constitute the second biggest contingent of the Latvian-based multinational battlegroup led by Canada.

The battlegroup will also be supported by Albania, Italy, Poland and Slovenia.

Not fair!

Farron blasts Tories for breaking their word on reversing the 15year voting rule manifesto it would grant the vote to expats who had lived out of the UK for more than 15 years.

No confidence in Mariano THOUSANDS have rallied in Madrid to support a no-confidence vote against Mariano Rajoy.

Podemos organized the gathering to bolster its no-confidence vote against Rajoy’s ruling Popular Party, which has been hit by a series of corruption scandals.

The rally under the slogan ‘We have to throw them out’ was held in the Puerta del Sol. “We are governed by a party that is not a party but is a corrupt institution that has

robbed the country,” said Jose Ramon de la Valencia, a 45-year-old unemployed worker. “If we don’t take over the streets and the parliament, the Popular Party is going to do whatever they want.” No date has been set for the no-confidence vote but the move by Podemos appears destined to fail. With only 71 members in parliament, Podemos needs help from other parties to reach the 176 majority needed 176, and no other big party says it will back the move.

“In their 2015 manifesto, the Conservatives pledged to remove the 15-year rule, but they refused to apply this to the referendum and in February this year, dropped the policy and broke their word,” said Farron.

“But the Liberal Democrats recognise the utter unfairness of a system which denies UK citizens living abroad a vote.”

He also warned that ‘millions here in Europe’ face ‘the uncertainty that an extreme Brexit’ would bring ‘possibly without any deal at all’.

“That is why in our manifesto, we’ve committed to establishing specific constituencies for all UK citizens who live

abroad,” he added.

Farron was speaking after May endured a torrid day on the campaign trail, with the Conservative Party leader grilled by journalists over her backtrack on the proposed ‘dementia tax’.

Accusing May of a ‘twisted view’, Farron blasted her record since taking office in July last year.

“Since the referendum, she has spent more time cosying up to regimes in Turkey and Saudi Arabia than she has engaging with the remaining EU states to work out the best deal for British people,” said Farron “But this twisted view of the world, where human rights are crushed, refugees trampled on and weapons exchanged with those who use them on civilians, this is not the Britain I love.”

PEDRO Sanchez has returned from the dead to become PSOE general secretary with a stunning political victory.

The Socialist leader, who quit his role last year, overcame his Andalucian rival Susana Diaz, securing 50% of the vote to Diaz’s 40%.

In the Balearics, Sanchez trounced Diaz, winning 71.4% compared with Diaz’s 17.8%.

“The PSOE will make a useful opposition in defence of the social majority who are fed up with the corruption of the Popular Party (PP),” Sánchez said from party headquarters in Madrid.

Confidence

“We will comply with the ballot’s mandate: make the PSOE the party of the country’s left.”

Patxi Lopez, a former Basque premier who also worked as speaker of Congress, came a distant third with just over 9% of the vote.

Sanchez quit as general secretary following the party’s decision to abstain in last October’s investiture vote, allowing PP leader Mariano Rajoy to return to government again.

The abstention ended a ninemonth political deadlock during which Spain had two general elections, neither of them producing a winner.

Last week, Podemos issued a motion of no confidence in the PP, with Pablo Iglesias’s hard-left party looking to the PSOE to help fight Mariano Rajoy.

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May 24th - June 7th 2017

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gibr a ltar

May 24th - June 7th 2017

Getting on track

Victims of the Marrache brothers will have millions paid back after new ruling

BOOKED: Local band Jetstream wil perform

Local gems JETSTREAM, Afterhours, Reach, Angelwings, The Layla Rose Band and The Undesirables 141 will join a glittering list which will bring thousands to the Rock.

Richard Coram of Neon Angel Gibraltar, one of the festival's producers, said: "There is so much talent here in Gibraltar, so it has been very hard to reduce the list to six groups, but we believe our selection shows the best of today’s Gibraltarian music talent.”

With just four months to go, festival goers are counting the days until legendary acts like Fatboy Slim, the Kaiser Chiefs and Steve Aoki descend on the Victoria Stadium in what’s set to be one of Gibraltar’s biggest music festivals of all time.

Fabian Picardo, said: "The huge success of the music festival has now allowed us to go global with the Gibraltar branding associated with this fantastic event.”

JYSKE Bank ‘knowingly and dishonestly’ helped the Marrache brothers steal client funds, the Supreme Court has ruled.

In a case brought to the court by former clients of the Marrache firm, the judge ruled that Jyske Bank, the main bank for Marrache & Co, is liable for their employee’s actions.

Isaac, Benjamin and Solomon Marrache were convicted of conspiracy to defraud almost £30 million of client monies.

While Jyske Bank argued claims they were involved were misconceived, representatives of the victims of the Marraches Adrian Hyde and Edgar Lavarello said the bank failed to report the brothers’

ORDER: Jyske bank must repay ‘stolen’ funds

Banking on it

actions, and received funds they knew were obtained illegally.

In his 104-page judgement, Judge Mr Justice Adrian Jack said Senior Credit Ad-

Tied in knots

GIBRALTAR’S first gay couple granted a civil partnership have been told to get ‘divorced’ before they can officially marry.

They have been told they are not able to convert their current status into a full legal partnership, despite a new gay marriage bill being passed in December.

It comes after Nadine and Alicia Muscat, 47, fought a 20-year battle to get their relationship recognised by Gibraltar law.

“Now the new law has come in I am happy, but we are still no clearer about what is going to happen. It has been six months and we still don’t have full legal status,” explains Nadine, 48.

The couple claim they have been calling the Gibraltar registry office ‘every week’ since December, but due to ‘a lot of paperwork’ they still have no

answer. “We asked could we just get married instead? But they told us we would have to get a divorce first.”

The registry office confirmed to the Olive Press that there was currently no legislation for converting a civil partnership to a marriage as yet. However, Equality Rights Group chairman Felix Alvarez was told that the legislation was in existence, but it was a matter of getting the paperwork sorted.

He told the Olive Press that the changing of the law affects 40 other types of legislation, so it’s a complicated process.

“I think it’s understandable that there are complications with the changing of legislation, but six months is an unreasonable amount of time to wait to convert a certificate,” he said.

ministrator at Jyske Bank Bill Bishop - who had no formal training in the Solicitor Accounts Rules governing the use of client accounts- ‘did knowingly and dishonestly assist the Marrache brothers to steal client funds’.

Jyske Bank said in a statement: “Today’s ruling comes as a surprise to the Bank. We chose to take the matter to court as we believed in our case and are therefore very disappointed with the outcome. However we will now take some time to digest and study the comprehensive judgement before we decide on the next steps, which may include an appeal”.

Lawyer Adrian Hyde, partner at CVR Global and jointliquidator of Marrache & Co, said: “This judgement will result in millions of pounds being repaid by Jyske Bank, along with substantial further interest, and is a very positive outcome for those defrauded so badly.”

ALGECIRAS residents have taken to the streets to demand more funds for the Bobadilla rail link.

The protest started at Algeciras train station, with the motto 'The train of the region'.

It ended at the Plaza Alta, with the majority of the region’s political parties present.

Vice-President of the Board and advisor to the Presidency and Local Administration Manuel Jimenez Barrios said the Algeciras-Bobadilla line is a fundamental investment for Andalucia.

Susana Diaz cited the potential for job and wealth creation as one of the reasons for constructing the line near Antequera.

The PSOE has requested a €250 million investment from the state budget, but so far, only €27.8m has been offered.

STATION: Algeciras

They fought the law DRUG smugglers have attacked a Guardia Civil officer on his way to work in La Linea.

The Cadiz agent was just 15 minutes from his post at 5.45am when the attackers pursued his car in an Audi A3.

When they caught up to him, they swerved in his path and forced him to stop, officials said.

They then beat the officer, who has been working in the town for the past 11 years, calling him a ‘chivato’ (grass).

He was treated at the hospital for multiple blows, mostly to his face.

The Spanish Association of Civil Guards has demanded that incidents like these are dealt with more forcefully in order to prevent further violence towards police officers.

“These types of events, which are occurring relatively frequently not only in La Linea, but throughout Spain, are more reason for the Government to have a discussion on whether members of the security forces are well protected legally and criminally,” said a spokesperson.

It comes after La Linea police were attacked last month by a 100-strong mob while out on a hashish bust.

G reen

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Green dream THE Junta has restated its commitment to making Andalucia a green energy powerhouse.

Jose Sanchez Maldonado, a Junta spokesman, said he wants to reduce the region’s energy consumption and increase the amount of energy created by renewable sources by 25%.

He made the announcements at a conference in Sevilla, where he admitted that 80% of carbon dioxide emissions in Andalucia are due to energy use.

He hopes in part to meet the target by better-integrating solar businesses based in the region, which are some of the most forward-thinking in Europe.

May 24th - June 7th 2017

Clean living

ANDALUCIA RESERVOIR LEVELS This week: 53.50% Same week last year: 60.55% Same week in 2006: 60.49%

Zero tolerance

Andalucia companies pioneering renewable energy revolution in the Americas

Slashed THE Government has denied it has unfairly slashed a national park budget. Partido Popular spokespeople Belén Bajo and Carmelo Romero said that Andalucia’s PSOE party was wrong to criticise it for massively reducing Donana’s state funding from €428,000 in 2016 to only €142,000 this year. This was because it said the Junta had failed to provide written justification on how it had spent the grant last year. Bajo, who works in the congress’s Commission on Climate Change, also said the region ‘ran the risk’ of not receiving its share in the future, should it not start submitting adequate accounts, which it has to submit by law.”

ANDALUCIAN companies are leading the way in a green energy revolution in the Americas.

Forward thinking businesses in Malaga, Sevilla and Granada provinces are among those who are now in the process of developing the renewable energy sector in countries such as Mexico, Panama and Chile.

A total of nine have been invited to discuss or develop

major projects, with more hoping to work there in the future.

Torsa, a Malaga company, has just constructed three wind farms in Chile, which will generate more than 250 gigawatts per hour to the country’s central grid from next year.

Meanwhile, seven Sevilla companies and one Granadino firm are now in serious talks with Mexico and

13

Panama’s governments about their own clean energy products following successful participation in energy fairs in the countries.

The countries sought out Andalucian firms due to its position as Spanish leader in the renewable energy sector, thanks in part to its abundance of solar-power focussed companies.

The high profile of Extenda, the Junta’s trade promotion

agency, has also helped the companies break into the markets.

Speaking about his company’s success, Mariano Barroso, Torsa president, said: “Having having pioneered the development of renewable energies in Spain, we have now been able to face a major challenge in a country like Chile that is clearly betting strongly on clean energy sources.”

A NEW law has been demanded to stop animal abuse in Spain.

Animal rights political party PACMA is behind the campaign to create a law that ensures the general wellbeing and protection law for animals.

An end to Bullfighting, animals in circuses and the euthanasia of healthy animals are just some of the objectives in its ‘Ley Cero’, which it hopes to present before Spain’s parliament with a petition it has also launched.

The law was motivated by the party’s unhappiness with the ‘disparity between laws in autonomous regions’ and the increasing awareness of animal cruelty among Spaniards.

The law contains clauses to ban other traditions which involve animal mistreatment and enforce obligatory sterilisation of pets, to reduce the numbers of abandoned animals.

To sign the petition, go to https://pacma.es/leycero .

14

LE TT E R S

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Number crunching

Sleuths

Leave it be

Not sure digging up the past is a good idea (Parliament to vote on moving Franco’s body, issue 265). Wherever his body is placed is likely to become NE WS a shrine for his the number of kilome-Big cheque followers, and Hands Free for small tres a man from Cataloniachildren as most of the drove on the wrong side people who lived Take Over during the war to avoid paying the toll in are dead, it's Manilva Giving probably better back Buen provecho to let sleeping dogs lie. Sorry PROBE OVER the number of proNAZI SALUTES for the mixed AT FUNERAL Very irrigated perties registered with the metaphors!

4

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LA Cala Lions Club has donated €1200 to a group supporting local children.

The Lion Club presented DRANG (which stands for Diversión, respecto, amistad, naturaleza y generosidad), with the cheque for local activities, overalls, a changing tent and wellington boots.

The charity helps underprivileged children from the ages of 4 to 11.

33

tourism authorities every day

A MARBELLA clinic has teamed up with charities to perform surgery on 25 Kenyan patients.

A team of six medical staff from Ocean Clinic Marbella went out to Kenya on a five-day reconstructive surgery camp last month as part of its ongoing mission to ‘give back’.

Head surgeon Dr. Kai Kaye said: “I can change lives in Kenya and have much more impact than I can here in Spain, where nobody lacks basic medical services or care. I call it part of our social responsibility.”

Kaye said one of the highlights was performing knee surgery on a young girl called Maryam, who thanks to the treatment, hopes to learn to walk again.

173

Dictator’s remains set to be exhumed from controversial burial site near Madrid

By Joe Duggan

GENERAL Franco’s body is set to be removed from his Valle de Los Caidos tomb after a vote in Spain’s parliament.

Deputies were expected to vote to support the Socialist PSOE motion to exhume the dictator’s body from the controversial site near Madrid.

The public site was constructed by thousands of Republican prisoners and is the final resting place of 33,000 Civil War victims.

His body is now set to be disinterred and, most likely,

9

May 10th - May 23rd 2017

Final journey

News IN BRIEF

THIEVES have stolen approximately €800,000 worth of mobile phones from a warehouse in Malaga.

The group are said to have smashed cameras inside the building before making off with the goods.

EXHUMED: Franco

os, ERC, PNV and Bildu with only the right-wing PP voting against it.

Granada PSOE deputy Gregorio Camara said: “We have to take this step forward, to comply with the law and establish new ways of developing.

OP readers react to last issue’s in-depth Madeleine McCann

THE Andalucian president and candidate for the PSOE primaries, Susana Diaz, has said that she wants her party to ‘take over’ the country.

Speaking in Sevilla, she added Spain ´deserves it and needs it´.

Victory

taken for a private burial at his family’s estate in Galicia.

MOURNERS are under investigation after giving fascist salutes at a funeral near Malaga.

Madrid government representative in Malaga Miguel Briones, is currently gathering information on the funeral of ex-Franco minister Jose Utrera Molina in Nerja last month.

It comes after dozens of attendees are said to have raised their arms and sang the fas-

The motion was supported by Unidos Podemos, Ciudadan-

cist hymn ‘El Cara al Sol’ outside the church where a service was held.

The event could be considered a crime under the Historical Memory Law if deemed to have been public.

While the Junta insisted it did not have enough evidence to presecute, Briones has not yet reached a conclusion yet.

“There is nothing in this law that can be rejected from any democratic point of view.”

Socialist leaders Adolfo Suarez, Felipe Gonzalez and Jose Luis Rodríguez Zapatero have all previously failed to disinter Franco’s body.

Every November 20, farright supporters visit Valle de Los Caidos to pay homage to Franco Falange party founder Jose Antonio Primo De Rivera at a Mass.

“It would be impossible to carry out the process of rebranding Valle de los Caidos without removing Franco and ensuring the remains of Primo de Rivera don’t occupy a prominent place,” continued Camara.

SPAIN will host next year’s The World’s 50 Best Restaurants awards. The 2018 Basque location marks a return to Europe for the prestigious annual gourmet gathering. This year three Spanish restaurants made it to the top 10 of the list.

This has to be one of the most common sense and knowledgeable articles in the Olive Press for a long time. Great stuff.

J.S, Marbella

since 1987

We went to Puer to Banus beach a couple of years ago (Spain has most Blue Flag beaches in the world, issue 265). There was no lifeguard to close the beach, no flags flying to say whether the water is safe. Children and adults were walking and swimming among the raw sewage unaware of what it was. This shop now cottontraders.com is a very affluent area with millions of holidaymakers coming and going every year!

Cops flop

20

The Portuguese police were totally incompetent.

Have you spoken to anyone in the UK Judiciary? I have, with someone who deals with child abuse and paedophiles all the time. I do not believe any of the lies printed by sick, depraved people who just want to earn money out of this tragedy. What a sick world we live in.

Some people have no idea how paedophiles operate. They watch, they photograph and they order. They wait for an opportunity and pounce.

That is what happened and most normal people know that.

Brenda Jones, Jerez

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700

number of marchers in Malaga supporting Antonia Banderas's project in Astoria

Alison Hardey, UK

Well deserved

€15,5m amount awarded to the winners of

I have lived here for some time and have been in some fabulous restaurants with excellent food and service (Spain comes out on top with restaurants voted some of the best in the world, issue 265). The same food in UK would be very, very expensive but here it's fairly reasonable. The Spanish cuisine has a marvelous reputation and well deserved!

the Champions League.

€21,5m amount to be spent on health profes-

Guilty by proxy The minute the McCanns left their three children home alone and went out for tapas and drinks at a bar, however far away from the apartment, they became guilty and no charges against them from the UK. Disgusting parenting. Any other parent would be in prison for neglect. So yes, the McCanns are guilty.

Agnes Fryer, Malaga

Lynda Addi, Malaga

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I read one of the so-called ‘detectives’ books and it is nonsense. Just a load of speculation dressed up as fact. Online they can be whomever they like, but there is a reason why these online trolls operate anonymously from their sofas. I'm glad to see an article that addresses these pests. Calling them trolls is an insult to trolls. Trolls are harmless pests in comparison to these people. They are malignant conspiracy nuts. You will find their type all over the internet. They latch on to major tragedies and target the victims of them with their stalking, abusive behaviour. They feel entitled to do it and call it 'freedom of speech'. Unfortunately, their behaviour has become a fact of modern life and

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Anything but a dump

Mogul’s Marbella TV debut

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BAD PRACTICE

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I’m backing British expats ALBERT Rivera is giving his ‘total support’ to British migrants living in Spain.

The Ciudadanos leader told the Olive Press he realised the importance of British expats and tourists on the costas.

In the week Brexit is being invoked, he promised to back our rights to stay here.

He later told a rally in Mijas he was going to be fighting corruption in Andalucia over the coming years and hoped to bring a train line to the coast.

BACKING BRITS, PAGE 9

T is a practice that most property professionals had hoped was a thing of the past.

But Olive Press Property can reveal that tionable practice of charging buyers the ethically quesrearing its head again on the Costa del as well as sellers is Sol. According to sources, at least two agents in the Marbella area have recently stung their buyers with bills of up to 5%. scene’, especially when you consider The so called ‘finder’s fees’ are in addition they already have very from taking com- high purchase taxes mission from the seller. which are often in “We as agents are paid by the sellers excess of 10%.

“It’s disgusting,” said Terra Meridiana’s and we never nothing wrong with finder’s fees if you Adam Neale, “I have a fee to a buyer,” he said, “On the whole our industrycharge works ent beforehand, but I have heard from agree it with the cli- very well as it is, without the need to start charging such high certain agents are adding a 5% fee with several buyers that additional fees to buyers. We should be encouraging them to invest here!”

“It’s bad ethics and gives agents on the no prior warning.

Costa del Sol a bad Ben Bateman name.” of Holmes in Sotogrande added he was aware of the practice happening ‘in a few cases’.

Mike Smith, Chairman of Marbella-based agreed that charging potential buyers First Choice Spain, “It is totally unethical and gives our business a bad reputasuch fees was ‘ob- tion for sharp practices,” he said.

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EXCLUSIVE: Agents unite as some ‘bad apples’ are slapping finders fees on buyers without warning

“I have no objection to agents operating but I do object when these so called with a finder’s fee, without declaring from the outset that buyers bill both sides He added: “When unscrupulous agentsthey will be doing so.” abuse the system by adding extra amounts, the whole industry suffers.

“Beware of this sharp practise.”

Legal expert Antonio Flores added that such practises can be deemed illegal.

“It is not illegal to have your commission with the agreement of the vendor,” he built into the price, The problem is when an agent adds told the Olive Press. but does not tell the buyer or seller. a commission on top “This happens when the agent is the middle man and the parties are not in touch via their lawyers.

This is actually a criminal offence.”

Granada’s new eco-village

PAGE XIV

Andalucia’s highest towns

Have you been a victim? Email newsdesk@theolivepress.es

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PAGE XVII

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WHAT A PANE! Expats take legal action on double glazing firm over thousands of ‘missing’ euros

AN employee at a well known glass and windows company has come clean after dozens of clients complained about unfinished work.

Expat Rudi Kaiser, 58, revealed that tens of thousands of euros of work has not been completed by his former firm Andalucia Glass & Steel.

He admitted he ‘could not take it anymore’ after receiving a barrage of complaints and being cited in various court cases.

“I have been tarnished by this company and I’m not happy about it,” the German told the Olive Press this week.

“We are talking about large Lastpaid MARBELLA of money, amounts LANDMARK FOR ditch NEWS

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ber of bone marrow donations.

Raez sadly lost his battle to leukaemia in February, but not before launching a campaign that went viral, its aim being to increase donors from 230,000 to one million.

The petition has now been submitted to Marbella mayor José Bernal.

MISSED: Pablo Raez

Homeless plea 4

€245 +IVA

Eviction

“We are really grateful we have this hut for now, but it has no running water, electricity, heating or gas.

“I’m really worried what effect living in these conditions will have on Paul’s health and my own,” she continued.

The couple, who moved to Spain 15 years ago, had fallen into financial difficulties last year when Paul had to stop working when he had a pacemaker fitted following a heart attack.

As he was unable to continue running his mobile car valeting service they quickly fell behind in the rent.

“The heart attack left him dependent on crutches to walk which meant he couldn’t work for 18 months,” added Leslie.

After receiving a letter in January from the landlord telling them he was taking them to court, they were evicted on March 7.

“It was horrible to find police and bailiffs banging on our door telling us

We’ve got Andalucia covered

March 14th

2017

Drug plea

4

of EU citizens fibrosis believes THE numberUK actually inExpat with cystic leaving the last year. help save lives

By Chloe Glover creased by 17% new pills could the amount In the year of Brexit,to the EU or is pleading for of people returning increased A BRAVE expat denied a vital moving elsewhere help after being 103,000 in one operation. from 85,000 to lung transport who has cystic year.

Becky Baker, revealed that relies on an New figures also fibrosis, currently as UK breathe.

Spaniards registering oxygen mask to from Coin, is fell by 2,000. a residents also The 32-year-old, readers to get has been Meanwhile, there asking Olive Press campaign in the number sharp increase the country folbehind a nationwide new US of Brits leaving June 23 result to legalise a pioneering lowing the shock drug called Orkambi. for somelast year.

She is also searching the Office for able to help her The figures from one who may bemedication. show that National Statisticsthe UK rose find alternative live,” said Becky, emigration from “I just want to Spain with her in 2015 to now and before by 9%, from 297,000 who moved to lungs. from Burn- BRAVE: Becky Baker, cluding my newa chance that I 323,000 in 2016.

20 mum Sarah Spencer Málaga to push in Somerset “If there was treatment or a Fibrosis Quística ham-on-Sea more its legalisation. to could get in the UK I would go years ago. campaigning stay alive every for there is re“I’m fighting to life and am in “We’ve been for the past year transplant back but the weather I don’t get it legalised single day of my to repair for my lungs and expensive costing now if I’d WORK is underway constant pain. kilos (1.25 stone) and yes it’s patient per year…. ally bad wrecked by I would be here Malaga beaches “I’ve lost eight months alone, €120,000 peryou consider that think other last December’s floods. it stayed. in the last few pills a day and but when knows of any will be spent who are using have to take 50 fed at night as some people to take their oth- “If anyonethat may help I would A total of €4.1m sand and rehave to be tubemany calories as now don’t needor stay in hospital treatment them as I am on restoring of love to hear from at the mo- pairing the infrastructure er medication I’m burning so so high. from feeling very down my heart rate is Spanish doc- it’s not bad.” coastal areas stretching recently refused ment.” the Axarquia.

Spanish doctors “At the moment, been who has a campaigning Manilva to a lung transplant, anything to help tors won’t do only keep me to give Becky her main hope Becky, called See Off CF Spain, Diggers have alreadystretch website which had been me. They will sand from one a fundraiser for hopes to launch cystic fibrosis moving to another in Estein of survival. stable. of beach which is legal I have amyloidosis Marina, research into more “But Orkambi, that has been “It’s because Becky. pona and at Casares a cures. as well,” said the US, is a drug both badly hit with Becky to lung function by “They said that even if I had To get in touchhelp, go to www. which were proven to boost too the conhow to from floods. of kidney transplant and would find out thinning mucus. it, as would lots dition would return organs, in- seeoffcfspain.com “I’d love to try know here.” other other people I up with charity damage my She has teamed

back on your ter when I began to campaign to get Due money long ago is so gutting,” said Becky, originally from it so mortgage?

Spanish Somerset.

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“If anyone out there has any would like to fundraise to enable more research into CF that would be great,” said Becky’s mum, Sarah.

In association with...

By Chloe Glover

A BRITISH couple have pleaded for help after eviction left them living between their car and a shed.

Leslie and Paul Dunt are desperately hunting for somewhere to live for themselves and their 17 rescue dogs after being thrown out of their home in Coin.

Paul, 56, who has a pacemaker, and Leslie, 63, who has a serious back problem, now fear for their health, as they struggle to survive on a small plot of land of a friend in Alora.

“We can’t believe what’s happened,” said Leslie, who comes from east London.

5

A DETERMINED expat is devastated after being told she cannot have the drug she has been campaigning for.

Doctors told Coin resident Becky Baker, who has cystic fibrosis, she is now too ill to have the Orkambi drug, despite being well enough when she first requested it a year ago.

It is the latest blow for Becky, 32, who spoke to the Olive Press last issue (see left) after Malaga’s Carlos Haya hospital, where she NEWS Br-exodus - as they is a patient, said she was no longer fight to leave UK!eligible for for a lung transplant due to having too low a lung function.

She had been campaigning to have American drug Orkambi legalised in Spain, which thins mucus, to help Coast clear those with the progressive lung condition.

“For the hospital to only say now I could have had the drug were I betMarch 1st -

www.theolivepress.es March offer

Long term expat couple need urgent help after being forced to live between their car and a hut

Contact spencersarah46@yahoo.com or visit www.seeoffcfspain.com if you can help

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MAKESHIFT: Leslie and Paul are living between a Ford Fiesta and a hut

are desperate and don’t know what to do.”

Their good samaritan, a local Spanish landowner, jumped in to help after seeing a plea a friend of theirs had posted on Facebook.

He quickly offered blankets and dog food and allowed them to live in the hut on his land.

“But now we need someand permanent thing would be over the moon if anyone out there could help us.

“We almost have enough to pay a deposit and would find enough money somehow.

“We just need a little help to get us over this hump.

It is incredible how quickly you can fall here.”

to leave.

“Fortunately we were able to move our belongings to

our neighbours’ houses temporarily and live in our Ford Fiesta, but we

Anyone able to help can contact Leslie and Paul via newsdesk@ theolivepress.es

Huge increase in Continues Page 4 cycling accidents ‘a major concern’ STRUGGLING for tourists and TO SELL associations YOUR SPANISH

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You wouldn’t need beer Olive Press story helps homeless couple goggles for THIS winner!

March 15th - March 28th 2017

CANCER BATTLER

MORE than 160,000 people have signed a petition on Change.org asking for a street in Marbella to be named after brave cancer sufferer Pablo Raez.

The campaign has been set up in response to Raez's inspirational campaign to increase awareness, as well as the num-

SOUGHT: Boss Vincent Ware and (above) Rudi

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A BRITISH expat is in intensive care after a serious bike crash that killed two people in Spain.

Scott Gordon was taken to hospital after the accident on the Costa Blanca, which killed two cyclists from a local triathlon club.

The oil worker was one of three members of the Athletic Llebeig Club in-

OLIVE PRESS – 70mm x 40mm FRONT COVER 29 March

Cycle of death

jured in the crash some 60 miles north of Alicante.

Police in Gandia have arrested a 28-year-old woman on suspicion of manslaughter and serious wounding.

She tested positive for alcohol.

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It was hardly a winner for pulling in the punters (Outcr y over plans for ‘great traditional’ bullfight in Andalucia’s Ve l e z - M a l a g a , BULLFIGHT issue 265). A CANCELLED decent music festival would do the job far more efficiently, with the added bonus of happy, exhilarated audiences, as opposed to slavering, wildeyed sadists, sating their blood-lust!

May 10th - May 23rd 2017

A CONTROVERSIAL bullfight has been pulled after a large campaign.

Animal rights activists celebrated the cancellation of the event in Rota, which would have been the first fight in 12 years.

Mayor Javier Ruiz Harana took the decision after various protests and an online petition on Change.org, signed by almost 16,000 signatures.

The town’s IU party, in coalition with the mayor, also insisted that local rules forbade any event with live animals.

The mayor blamed the cancellation on ‘bureaucratic processes out of the control of the council.’

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No stone unturned

Rodriguez.

“More cycle lanes need to be introduced and urgently around Spain,” added Amy Watton, of travel booking site HundredRooms.com.

Much of the increase is due to the large increase is the rise in cyclists, with 20% of Spaniards claiming they cycle.

For this reason director of cyclists organization Con-

Bici and Luis Montoro, Professor of Road Safety at the University of Valencia, urged caution to ‘not spread alarm’.

However a lack of infrastructure on large roads and lack of road safety campaigns has also been cited as a source of the problem.

Meanwhile a petition was handed in to central government last year for improved safety measures.

It comes a fortnight after another Around one in five British cyclist Bryan Stout, 86, was of Spain’s populakilled by a drug driver while on a cy- tion list the bicycle as their mode of cling holiday in Mallorca.

Stout - a member of the London Cy- transport, with citcling Campaign and Stop Killing Cy- ies like Valencia clists - was killed instantly by the and Zaragoza surreckless 48-year-old driver near Port passing that figure with around 45%. d’Alcudia.

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I

As the case of missing Madeleine McCann reaches its tenth anniversary, Olive Press editor JON CLARKE – the first journalist on the scene – analyses why her parents were not involved... and nor was he!

RECEIVED the call at 7.15am from the Daily Mail foreign desk. It was a Friday morning as we approached deadline for one of the first editions of the Olive Press, then in its early fledgling stage.

The daughter of a pair of British doctors had gone missing on the Algarve the night before. Could I get over and investigate?

I was on the road half an hour later from Ronda, where we had our office, based out of a cowshed next to my home.

As a stringer for Associated Newspapers in Spain, I was long used to these early morning calls that invariably led to wild goose chases around the Iberian countryside…but this journey would lead to one of the biggest news stories in history.

It was a tale as sad as it was intriguing, and it would keep me in Praia da Luz where four-yearold Maddie went missing for the best part of a month.

It would lead to over a dozen stories in the Olive Press linked to sightings and possible culprits around Spain, with a number making the front PROBED: Malinka and Murat pages in the UK. There were claims that she was put on a ferry ents were in Tarifa, claims she had been sold in Barcelona Finally - guilty. possibly in part, thanks to him - I and even claims that she was living in a small would even find myself accused, more of village in Malaga province. which later.

There was even the deluded former deputy chief Of course, superintendent, who trolled long and hard from complex the best whodunnits are always and far-fetched. But for a couple of his villa in Andalucia, ‘convinced‘ that the par- loving parents to murder their daughter, bury

Decade of digging The Olive Press has investigated the Maddie case on many occasions over the last decade via our own leads and those fed to us by the UK national newspapers.

After a series of initial articles in 2007, we reported on various suspects and photofits issued in 2008 and again in 2013.

In 2009 we investigated whether a British woman may have been linked to the purchase of a child in Barcelona at the time of Maddie’s disappearance.

Two years later we looked into the claims of an expat reader that she had seen Maddie in a supermarket in Alhaurin with a man who she described as ‘looking like a gypsy.’

She was also allegedly seen with a Swiss couple on a campsite in Cabopino, but we finally tracked down the holidaymakers to discover it was their own ‘lookalike’ daughter.

We also probed whether she had been seen on an Axarquia beach in 2011 and in May 2012 our search intensified after another expat claimed to have seen her between Torrox and Nerja with a ‘party of Spanish people.’

In 2014, we again investigated a claim that she was spotted in Nerja by an ex soldier.

We also probed whether she had been seen taking a flight from Ibiza to Munich by a German holidaymaker, who had contacted Scotland Yard.

Like most of our articles it was heavily followed up in the global media and led to former Met detective Ian Horrocks to praise us for continually probing the case.

Whodunnit

www.theolivepress.es

News IN BRIEF

Top PP

MAYOR of Nerja, Jose Alberto Armijo, has been re-elected as president of the Partido Popular (PP) in Nerja for the fifth consecutive time, taking 97% of the vote.

Trashed

THREE illegal settlements under the Nerja aqueduct have been dismantled and 200kg of rubbish removed from the site.

Sand savers

TORROX council has asked the government to protect the town's beaches, two of which were badly damaged in the summer.

To visit the archive see http://www. theolivepress.es/spain-news/tag/ madeleine-mccann/

Thief caught

THE main suspect in a string of summer thefts on Nerja's beaches has been arrested.

It is thought the 23-year-old man hid in the rocky terrain waiting for opportune moments to strike.

AXARQUIA

Could it be Maddie?

Ex-soldier claims he saw missing girl by a Nerja pool, in the latest alleged Axarquia sighting EXCLUSIVE

By Tom Powell and Joe Chivers POLICE are investigating another reported sighting of Madeleine McCann in the Nerja area.

Former prison worker and military man David Fullman (pseudonym) spotted a blonde girl speaking Spanish in an English accent at the communal pool at the Tropicana SPOTTED: The apartment complex pool in question, in La Herradura and (left) a and was immedidigital photo-fit ately reminded of Maddie. want to make a scene or apAfter checking the online pear to be a pervert. photo fit, he immediately “She looked similar to the British expat Rose Johnson, contacted police in the UK. digital construction, but more 70, believes she saw the miss“A Spanish couple were by like her mother.” the pool with a very Spanish Fullman, added: “I felt like I ing girl playing on nearby daughter and a blonde, white- had to report this, even if it Penoncillo beach – between Torrox and Nerja – in the skinned girl who looked Eng- leads to nothing.” lish and spoke with an Eng- Maddie disappeared from her summer of 2011.

Another Olive Press reader, lish accent. bed in a holiday apartment in “I tried to take a photo but Praia da Luz, Portugal in 2007. Yvonne Tunnicliffe, claimed the parents were keeping an The Olive Press has reported to be ‘100% sure’ that she eye on me, it was obvious I on previous alleged sightings had spotted Maddie at a Mercadona store in Alhaurin el was watching them so I didn’t of Maddie in the Axarquia.

Grande in 2010.

No bull in Malaga

THE man who tried to paint 300 Axarquia houses pink is offering Malaga residents a chance to ban bullfights.

Mayoral candidate Javier Checa – representing the Andalucian Party of Malaga – will hold a referendum on January 11 on Calle Pedro Gomez Chaix.

AMBITIOUS: Checa

and cover all traces in an hour while on holiday is stretching it just a bit too far.

But this didn’t stop the Portuguese police from charging them… and to this day, one notorious ex-detective continues to publish books claiming they were involved.

No care that Kate and Gerry McCann were educated doctors with not a blemish on their names.

That they were on holiday with two other families.

And that they had invited the world’s press to help in the search.

These are just some of the reasons why I am convinced the McCanns did not kill their daughter.

It is perhaps too obvious to point the finger at the parents.

After all, they say that in cases of child molesting and abducting, more than half the time it is family members to blame.

But accusing them had more to do with the ineptitude of the Portuguese police investigation, which didn’t bring in specialists to pick up vital strands of DNA evidence strewn around the flat, until THREE months later.

Then they seized the hire car of the McCann’s, found so-called ‘key, crucial DNA evidence on the back seat,’ and finally allowed them to have it back to drive around.

And, of course, they allowed dozens of local people, including one of the main suspects, Robert Murat - and even me - to wander around the crime scene.

Nor did they shut the border with Spain until the next day.

From the word go, they did not take this crime seriously.

And, in a way, who can blame them?

Praia da Luz sits in the sleepy south west corner of Europe, just short of Sagres. There had been no kidnappings, murders, or any serious crime reported for three years, as it turned out.

The Mark Warner holiday club that charged thousands to parents like the McCanns, did not even have security cameras, or secure premises.

There was no suggestion of putting families on higher floors and anyone could walk right into the complex through a small side gate.

All the more perfect for a predatory paedophile who lived in the area.

I was completely shocked by the laid back manner of the local authorities who were dealing with the case that Friday morning.

Checa has pledged to halt the bloody tradition if he is voted into government next year and the vote comes out against bullfighting.

Checa remarked: “For the first time one political party takes the pulse of Andalucian society to hear their opinion about the national festival and find out if the majority wants to end centuries of animal torture.”

Checa has a reputation for ambitious projects after attempting to paint 300 houses pink, rename roads in honour of gay icons and create a park designated for outdoor sex and 'cruising' in Moclinejo.

Bullfighting has been banned in Barcelona since January 2012.

the olive press - October September 2- October 18 - October 15 2014 1 201411 11

COVERAGE: The Olive Press has followed up countless leads

When I arrived at about midday I was firstly able to walk into the apartment, where I introduced myself to the McCanns and told them I would do everything I could to help.

The only reporter on the scene till late that evening - apart from Sky News reporter Kay Burley, who happened to be on holiday there - I spent time grilling neighbours, before noticing that a road crew was still digging up the street to lay sewage pipes literally right outside the apartment. The trench was nearly two metres deep and three men continued to shuffle around inside it.

Nobody had stopped them.

Incredibly, we had to wait till late afternoon before a couple of sniffer dogs had arrived, which was amateur to say the least, given that Maddie had been reported missing a full 18 hours earlier.

I am not going to be able to solve the mystery, but I am convinced she was snatched by a local paedophile, who had been watching

Each print issue of the Olive Press can be read in its entirety on

FEATURE

7

May 10th - May 23rd 2017www.theolivepress.es And our site is updated

olive press online

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paranoia that everyone felt in the resort that month.

Whatever happened I am sure the McCanns could not have done it.

Much has been made of the missing hourand-a-half window between 7pm and 8.30pm on May 3, between Madeleine being put to bed and the parents coming down to dinner.

While Gerry was seen playing tennis, Kate was apparently in the flat . . . she must be guilty then? Not really. She was probably relaxing, having a bath, putting on her make up for the evening.

One Portuguese tabloid claimed Kate had killed Maddie and then hid the body in the fridge of their apartment before ‘passing it through various locations’ and finally moving it in a hire car, perhaps on a ‘suspicious’ trip to Huelva three weeks later.

But given that the apartment fridges are tiny, they would have had to chop her up first.

Would they have then calmly sat at dinner with their friends at 8.30pm, showing no sign of a struggle or the anguish of murdering their daughter to their pals?

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Shovel

OlivePressNewspaper

If they had killed Madeleine and then somehow driven her body away in the tiny time scale, they would have needed to have gone more than 25 miles – the distance from the resort sniffer dogs and police searched.

That would mean driving for at least half an hour on the windy backroads inland from the

Algarve. They did not know the back roads, nor a good spot to hide the body. How would they have hidden the body? Using a shovel?

Hold on, would not there then be a shop somewhere that sold them a shovel? Is anyone still missing a shovel? If so, please call the Olive Press newsdesk.

It is all so far fetched it is quite ridiculous. And then I got accused of being involved!!! the family’s movements.

It was sketchy and unsubstantiated, but It came after I inadvertently found myself It was coming to the end of their holiday. there was no doubt - as in any place where interviewing a former nightclub bouncer in The fifth night they had put their children to northern European expatriates drift in their Huelva, who claimed he knew who snatched bed and gone down to have dinner with their hundreds - there were a number of bad eggs Maddie. friends, all doctors bar one.

A huge Angolan chap, he told me she had among them.

The apartment door was shut, but within Then, there was the Russian connection. Mu- been taken on order and was now, most likely, easy reach and in full view rat’s friend Sergey Malinka, in America. of the road and the small vila handsome young man, We double checked his credentials, ran it past lage had apparently very little Maddie’s family and published who crime . . . until you scratched An English couple tate masqueraded as an es- worded and, I believe, sensitive a carefully agent and had a numpiece, which the surface. ber of connections to boats. then of course got picked up by The Sun to be While there had only been told me there were I discovered he worked out splashed on its front page. Not so sensitively. one murder of any substance of a small office in Lagos, And all hell broke loose. ‘half a dozen’ for nearly three years in the Within a week there was a 5,000-word essay where area, there was, it turned out, paedophiles living the daythe police had been from an anti-McCann ‘troll’ named before to find he had Tony Bena seedy underworld inhabited suspiciously just wiped his nett, a solicitor, who was later found guilty of there by numerous expatriates. contempt of court over his repeated claims computer clean.

One woman told me how she He refused to comment, that the parents were guilty. had been the victim of an atbut I discovered that he and In his article, still online, ‘Jon Clarke’s role tempted snatch at midnight in nearby Lagos Murat, who lived in direct sight of the Mad- in Maddie in US claim’, he made numerous a month earlier. A long term English couple, die apartment, allegedly talked a number wild accusations about me and my integrity, who lived in a nearby hamlet, told me there of times within half an hour of the girl going named my wife and children and even where were ‘half a dozen’ paedophiles living there I lived. missing. alone.

While he was never charged, and Murat was He accused me of lying about the case, and One of these is still being sought. later exonerated, it summed up the sense of crucially claimed I could not have got to Praia da Luz so quickly on the day after her disappearance.

He suggested I was actually staying there.

More alarmingly, it emerged, he had close connections to the aforementioned former UK police chief, who is still based in Andalucia.

When I went to confront this ex-copper, who I vaguely knew, he refused to back down and thrust me a pamphlet entitled ‘What Really Happened to Madeleine?’, which gave 60 reasons insisting she was not abducted.

It’s fair to say we do not see eye to eye, but he is sadly one of millions of people around the world who still think the McCanns are guilty.

One thing for sure, it made me think long and hard about doing my job and how evil and pernicious the internet and its many trolls can be.

I doubt the case will ever be solved, but I am certain the parents were not involved.

FAMILY RESORT: Praia da Luz in Portugal And nor, should I add, was I.

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VANISHED: McCanns’ villa and Maddie (right)

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COLOURFUL: Exhibition

Colouring Competa NEW gallery Luz de la Vida in Competa is to host an exhibition of works by German artist Maren Wellendorf.

Wellendorf, who has lived in Spain since 2008, is well known in Germany for her socio-critical paintings.

Wellendorf uses colour to ‘produce sensation and emotion, distilling objects into perfect studies of shapes and colour’.

The exhibition – also featuring sculptures by Dutch artist Lieuwke Loth – opens on October 3, with music provided by guitarist Rafael Nunez.

Visitors can meet Maren on October 11, and every Friday evening.

For more information, see www.luzdelavida.es

police seem powerless to deal with them.

Psychologists are starting to study them and they are coming up with some very similar conclusions, i.e. that the people who behave like this towards victims of terrible tragedies have a lot in common with each other. They tend to be anti-authority, anti-government, anti everything really. They are people who feel that life hasn't been kind to them whether it be through broken relationships or failed careers and businesses. They call themselves 'justice seekers', or 'truthseekers'.

I fear for the victims.Your article struck a chord though and I think it struck a nerve elsewhere!

Anonymous, UK

Jury’s out I have no idea what happened but I will never be convinced of the couple’s innocence. Every time new headlines appear I am just as convinced as I was 10 years ago that they are just making up stuff to cover something a whole lot bigger.

Katia Westerdahl, Cadiz

Guilty The McCanns are hiding a terrible, guilty secret – they’ve known Maddie was dead since her ‘disappearance’.

Anthony Sellars, UK

Field day

Wrong move

revealed that he was offered a €187 discount if he did a bank transfer immediately.

“The man’s impossible to deal with,” said Jones, 69.

“We could never get him again.

“We have used another company now. I just want my money back from Ware.”

Another victim, Pete Jones, paid Ware half of a €9,000 quote for bifold doors in his as deposits on contracts kitchen in October. that were never completed, After hearing nothing for some up to €20,000.” five weeks, Jones was told Kaiser, who lived in London

by Ware via text that he was for 30 years, began work at having computer problems the Marbella-based compaand that work would start ny four years ago working ‘imminently’.

Have you got real Specs appeal? as a salesman and on social “Of course, nothing hapThe hunt is on to find the best lookmedia. pened,” said Jones. “Since ing spectacles wearer in Spain.

However, it soon became then I have been constantly apparent that boss Vincent Expats and locals are being urged to trying to contact him withWare, also 58, was not de- Jones, claims he never two patio doors in Estepona out luck. take a selfie in their glasses and enter heard from Ware again af- last October. livering what he promised.

“I am sure, like others who Specsavers Opticas Spectacle Wearer One victim, expat Graham ter transferring €2,000 for Jones, from Cheltenham, have lost money, plea of the Year contest. for there is very little Becky Open to all glasses wearer over the age of 16, that can be done. the opticians hopes to find people who really ex“I think exposing his practices will at press their style and personality through the glasses least help people in choose. The lucky winner will become Specsavers Optithey the future.” model of the year and bag a €1,000 cash prize.

A HOMELESS couple towards a deposit for a

By Chloe Glover One client,cas hotelier have received much needflat, which they are in the Fivewas semi-finalists from different age categories will each win a Andy Chapell, ed financial help thanks to plight last issue. process of looking for. of designer frames worth €159. forced to gopair to court Kennedy, who runs the “If it wasn’t for groups an Olive Press story. to demandEnter the re-the competition, which closes to entries on June 11, via Leslie and Paul Dunt, who Help the Homeless Costa and people like Joel, we turn of €800 paid Facebook at or online at en.specsavers.es/loveglasses. were left sleeping between del Sol Facebook page, wouldn’t be as close to for a safety fence, their car and a shed, have said the money had been finding anywhere,” said which never arbeen offered €500 by left over from a recent Paul. “We are very graterived. good samaritan Joel Ken- group fundraiser. ful for their generosity and Malaga Court ruled nedy who read about their Paul will put the money support.”

DONOR: Joel

EXCLUSIVE

By Laurence Dollimore

A WORD IN YOUR SHELL LIKE: Olive Press reporter Joe Duggan interviews Ciudadanos leader Albert Rivera

March 29th - April 11th 2017

I

Brexits burning The decision of pro-Europe campaigners to host an anti-Brexit bonfire is welcomed by this paper, ensuring our voice is heard across the sea.

As the fate of British nationals abroad or EU nationals at home are used as bargaining tools, it is important to remind UK politicians for many of us it is our lives they are playing with.

It seems fitting on the anniversary of the referendum result to ensure those at home know the flicking candle of our EU membership still burns bright in Spain.

May 10th - May 23rd 2017

A paedophile, NOT her parents killed Maddie

OPINION

Jon Clarke jon@theolivepress.es

John Harper, Ronda

COMMENT

Voted top expat paper in Spain

PUBLISHER/ EDITOR

Really?

200

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A campaigning, community newspaper, the Olive Press represents the huge expatriate community in Spain with an estimated readership, including the websites, of more than 500,000 people a month.

NEWSDESK newsdesk@theolivepress.es Tel: (+34) 665 798 618

British style

number of books donated by British resident to Nerja Museum

WEBSITE

6

THE recent attempted kidnappings on the Costa del Sol serve as a dispiriting reminder of how important it is to follow up on all leads involving missing children.

And in the wake of the 10-year anniversary of Madeleine McCann’s disappearance, the timing could not be more pertinent.

While hoaxes are not uncommon, most information comes from genuine people who are convinced they have seen Madeleine, or spotted a kidnap attempt.

If it weren’t for these members of the public coming forward to talk to the police or the press, many investigations would have reached a dead end.

The Olive Press was the first paper on the scene when Maddie was snatched in 2007 and it has been a story consistently close to our hearts.

We have investigated over a dozen leads and genuinely hoped to crack the case.

When sightings are reported - whether erroneously or not - it makes parents realise that in times of tragedy, they are not alone, because collaboration and publicity lend a huge advantage to crime-solving.

Nice work

WORLD Wildlife Fund has said World Heritage Site Donana is at risk due to large levels of irrigation. The organisation slammed the emergence of 251.9 hectares of irrigated crops as illegal.

Best of

Number of years the Civil Guard has existed

May 24th - June 7th 2017

Stefanjo, Estepona

Don’t all these tour companies claim to have inspected the hotels and their facilities? If guests arrive to find the hotel not even able to accommodate them, is the tour operator not guilty of making fraudulent claims?

Seems like a lawyer’s field day for success to me. That won’t help those that were disappointed but they should end up with adequate compensation and the tour operator’s reputation in tatters.

David, Sabinillas

Lesson learnt My deepest sympathy to the family (ABANDONED: Family of Briton killed by drug driver in Mallorca slam British and Spanish authorities’ handling of case, online). But there’s a lesson to be learnt, don’t go anywhere without Travel Insurance!

Tamara P, Mallorca

Has anything piqued your interest in this week’s Olive Press? Have your say on the matter by emailing letters@theolivepress.es or alternatively message us on Facebook at www.facebook.com/OlivePressNewspaper or Twitter @olivepress

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US debut

la cultura May 24th - June 7th 2017

Do you have a what’s on?

May 24th - June 7th 2017

Send your informati on to newsdesk@theolivep ress.es

Home grown Local fashion

Download our app now and designer taking A SPANISH graffiti artist has begin enjoying best Spanishthe world by taken his viral workthe stateside. news on the go.

Felipe Pantone’s latest piece sees his signature work take storm with up the back wall of a row of gender-bending shops in California.

His murals adorn build- campaign ings, cars and motorbikes all around the world, from Bris- AN Andalucian fashion house bane in Australia to Israel’s has won international acclaim for its new campaign.

West Bank.

Palomo Spain’s Fall 2017 collecThe Olive Presstion has been praised by the likes of noted fashion publications W Magazine, Papermag and TOP for news in Spain!

PHILIPPE Starck has un- Vogue, as well as the New York veiled his first solo exhibition Times. in 14 years at Malaga’s Pompidou Center. Starck’s work is now headlining the French gallery with a temporary exhibition comprising over 4,000 of his drawings and sketches.

“Starck transports us to the heart of his creative process through an immersion into thousands of drawings, sketches and investigations.”

The exhibition also includes 30 of some of the most iconic objects he has designed, including his famous fruit squeezer ‘Juicy Salif’.

Stark display

GENDER-BENDING: Models flaunt designs

Best of friends

JOAN Miro and Pablo Picasso’s work is being celebrated with a major new exhibition in Mallorca.

‘Pablo Picasso and Joan Miro, History Of A Friendship’ runs at Soller’s Can Prunera Museo Modernista until November 26.The exhibition features seven never-before-seen works by Malagueño Picasso as well as an original recording from Miro dedicated to Picasso. “[The exhibition highlights] the manifestations of mutual respect and admiration,” said museum director Santiago Mayol.

el Arte Japonés visita Delfos

It comes after the menswear label, headed by Alejandro Gomez Palomo, from Cordoba, wowed the industry at its New York Fashion Week debut in February.

Shot by 19-year-old photographer Kito Munnoz in the Cordoba countryside, the new campaign sees nude models sensually stroke gender-bending men dressed head to toe in Palomo designs.

Papermag said: “The team hasn't abandoned that sexy sense of freedom and rebellion with their FW17 campaign, the images are just as romantic, decadent, and rich as the clothes themselves.”

Palomo said of his work: “I wanted to create the feeling of that sexual desire you get for clothes.”

The label is on a mission to create the industry’s most beautiful gender-neutral fashion.

Palomo told Vogue magazine: “Boys need to discover different ways to wear clothes that we haven’t been able to wear up until now.” Palomo is only oneyear old and has created three collections. Its headquarters are still in Cordoba.

what’s on

S

unset Beach Club 30th anniversary fundraiser May 26 THE Sunset Beach Club hotel is to celebrate its 30th anniversary by attempting to raise €12,000 for three children's charities with a live concert.

Guests will enjoy live performances from celebrated cabaret singer Ricky Lavazza.

R

onda Romantica May 25- 28 THE town's residents decorate the local streets and dress in 19th century costume to celebrate the region’s history. Local businesses also celebrate the period.

D

ay of the Snail May 28 GUESTS enjoy a culinary festival in Riogordo, that sees some 350 kilos prepared to the region's recipes.

There will also be dance performances and local music.

P

eter Doig: “studiofilmclub” May 31 MALAGA’S Contemporary Art Centre hosts a display of 166 works by Scottish painter Peter Doig. The centre is transformed into a cinema entrance lobby complete with film posters from his cinema club in Trinidad and Tobago.

NETSUKE exposición

Inauguración 16 junio - 21:00 h. exposición y venta - 17 y 18 junio

www.delfosmojacar.com

Arte

Copas

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Música Flamenco Terraza

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la cultura

May 24th - June 7th 2017 May 24th - June 7th 2017

Looking for George

Documentary to be made detailing the life of local Irish expat artist George Campbell

H

E was one of Andalucia’s best-loved artists.

But few expats and holiday makers today have heard of George Campbell, Irish artist who was annointed Knight Commander of Spain in 1978 due to his influence on Malaga’s bohemian cultural scene during the 1960s and 70s.

Yet that could all be about to change thanks to Andalucian media company Cedecom, which has published an English language documentary on the much-loved painter on YouTube.

Called Looking for George, journalist and friend Antonio Sierra traces the life of

TALENTED: George in action

Campbell, a ‘master of cubism’ originally from County Wicklow.

Filmed in both Ireland and Malaga, it features many of his friends, his impressive oil paintings and the Iberian haunts that inspired them.

It also logs his obsession with Malaga, where Campbell, who also created stained glass windows for Galway Cathedral, decided to live for half of each year after being left enchanted by his first visit in 1951.

“He detested the Irish and would count the days until FEATURED: Campbell’s work was regularly exhibited

CELEBRATED: Campbell

he could come to Spain,” said one unnamed friend in the 50 minute long film, which was originally broadcast on the video-sharing website in Spanish.

The eastern Malaga district of Pedregalejo, the Axarquia and countless other white-washed villages were among the greatest influences of Campbell, who was said by critics to bring ‘modernism into provincial scenes.’

He painted most of his canvases back in Ireland, where he also exhibited a lot of his work as well as becoming a full member of the

Royal Hiberian Academy in would let his friends choose 1964. pictures from his portfolio This left him free to visit to hang on their walls for his favoufree. rite haunts, His talent which includearned him ed two bars the Irish Bolivia 41 He would spend Douglas Hyde and La Buena Gold Medal Sombra and all night gathering in 1966 and a nearby art the Oireachmusicians workshop. tas Prize for There he met Landscape in dozens of 1969, while Spanish and the then foreign artists, such as Spanish government made Stefan Van Reiswtsz, Jorge him a Knight Commander Lindell and Albert Meagle, in 1978. created murals for the His death aged just 62 in drinking dens’ walls and 1979 while in Dublin from perfected his flamenco a brain haemorrhage was guitar playing skills. lamented by other artists.

“He would spend all “He died so young and was night gathering at the height of his powm u s i c i a n s , ” ers,” said Manus Walsh. said Van Re- “He should have had anothiswtsz. er 20 years.”

“You would His legacy was commemowake up and rated in Malaga in 2002, they would still when local councillors unbe playing. “They veiled a roundabout in his were mad nights.” name, Glorieta Jorge CampA generous man, he bell.

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www.theolivepress.es

May 24th - June 7th 2017 May 24th - June 7th 2017

The carer of Alexander Fleming’s granddaughter reveals her extraordinary life as an artist in Andalucia

ER grandfather invented penicillin.

But surprisingly few people know about the fascinating life of Alexander Fleming’s granddaughter, Penelope Fleming, who made Andalucia her home.

The daughter of esteemed crime author Joan Margaret Fleming and Harley Street eye surgeon Norman Bell Beatie Fleming was also sister to UK Green Party developer David Fleming and a renowned artist in her own right who found fans around the world.

Now, her long-serving Moroccan carer has told the story of the talented Brit who spent the last 30 years of her life in Cadiz province’s tiny village of San Pablo de Buceite.

Jamal Benblal Zayout, 30, is the sole beneficiary of the estate of Fleming, who died in February 2016 in La Linea Hospital of a suspected heart attack. aged 83.

Initially unbeknown to him Fleming, who is buried in the San Pablo Buceite crematorium, enjoyed an illustrious career as an artist whose work was sought-after in Gibraltar and worldwide.

“She was a truly talented woman,” said Zayout, who still lives on Fleming’s country estate where she lived from the late 1980s.

He started to look after Fleming around

“Well-known people from the art world would come to the house” 13 years ago. She had a fascination with the country.

“I had no idea who she was when I first started working for her.

“I knew nothing about her art or her grandfather.

“She did not really paint by that time due to having problems using her hands so I only found out about her art gradually as I gained her trust.

“The breadth of her work was fantastic.

“She loved to paint landscapes. One of the reasons she came to live in Andalucia, aside from the climate and lifestyle, was the beautiful surroundings.

“She told me she had painted since she was a child and worked in all manner of mediums, from oils to pencil drawings.

“She created hundreds of paintings, maybe 400, during her career and was considered unusual because she used to paint with her left hand.

“A lot of very well-known people from England and the art world would come to the house but I didn’t know who they

HEIR: Carer Jamal Benblal Zayout

whole

SEDUCED BY ANDALUCIA: Penelope loved the landscape of Spain

The

18

picture

PASSPORT: Her original document, below

EVOCATIVE: Flemming’s paintings sell for thousands

were. She was very well-regarded in the art world.

“Her buyers came from places as varied as England, Gibraltar, France, Morocco and Germany.”

Along with her remaining paintings, Zayout closely guards a folder that contains scores of articles illustrating her exhibitions, held everywhere from London to Istanbul.

“She travelled very widely, which suited her as she had a love of visiting different countries, especially places like Iraq and Turkey.

“Even though she didn’t paint while I knew her, I travelled with her to many places where she was still holding exhibitions.

“We went everywhere from La Linea to Morocco.

“She had a big exhibition in Tangier and we also went to my home town of Sidi Kacem five times.”

As Zayout and Fleming’s bond deepened, he also learnt more about her family’s fascinating past.

“It was around seven years before I found out who her grandfather was but after she opened up to me she would refer to him often.

“She said Alexander was the best man and doctor in the whole world.

“She was also very proud of her brother David, a leading green thinker who wrote a lot of books. I still have them, along with those of her mother who wrote Deeds of Dr Deadcert which was turned into the Rx for Murder film.

“But Penelope was also a writer in her own right. I have kept her work safe but unfortunately I have not been able to read it as it is written in English.

Fleming tasked Zayout to sell her remaining paintings following her death and gave him permission to keep the proceeds.

“A Gibraltarian gentleman is currently interested in buying her whole remaining collection, but I can’t disclose who,” said Zayout.

“She was just a wonderful person to be around, so very good and kind.

“She was the best person in the world and was as important as my mother to me.

“She never married or had any children of her own and told me I was her son.

“She was always concerned about me and was holding my hand when she died, I miss her so much.”

Property www.theolivepress.es

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May 24th - June 7th 2017

VISITORS: Cruise, Nicholson and Pfeiffer all stayed here

Issue 14

Introducing our new Mallorca property magazine...

Property

May 24th - June 7th 2017

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Mallorca

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Malaga market booming with 100 properties sold per day, as Spain sees growth of 27%

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ROPERTY sales in Malaga ince are at their highest provsince 2008.

An incredible 2,925 properties were sold in March, which is nearly 100

Hot island per day.

soared at 121% over 2016’s equivalent

The increase of 37% on last year, was only beaten by the number between January and of new builds March, which

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The Andalucia region has excellent growth with salesalso registered at 28% above

e se e 3 g pa last year’s rate, while the properties sold in Spain total amount of rose by 26.9%.

A massive 40,461 homes across the country in March, were sold which is the highest amount since February 2011.

Malaga’s College of Architects, which approves all new buildings, described the rise as ‘very positive.’

Last year saw more than double the amount of new homes given licences on the previous year in Malaga, which is home to the key markets of Marbella, Benahavis and Mijas.

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In Property Monopoly Page VI

Where Di and Audrey stayed History hotels

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ROPERTY sales in Malaga province are at their highest since 2008.

An incredible 2,925 properties were sold in March, which is nearly 100 per day.

The increase of 37% on last year, was only beaten by the number of new builds between January and March, which soared at 121% over 2016’s equivalent period.

The Andalucia region has also registered excellent growth with sales at 28% above

Hot 100

last year’s rate, while the total amount of properties sold in Spain rose by 26.9%.

A massive 40,461 homes were sold across the country in March, which is the

highest amount since February 2011.

Malaga’s College of Architects, which approves all new buildings, described the rise as ‘very positive.’

3

pagesee

page VIII

Malaga market booming with around 100 homes sold per day, while Spain sees growth of 27% Last year saw more than double the amount of new homes given licences on the previous year in Malaga, which is home to the key markets of Marbella, Benahavis and Mijas.

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May 24th June 7th 6th 20172017 May -24th - June

XVII 21 21 21

Showboating!

HIS team has just come second in the English Premiership for the first time since 1963.

So Tottenham Hotspur owner Joe Lewis has every right to be showboating around the Med in his 68-metre superyacht, Aviva.

The €126 million stunner has been seen in Gibraltar and Malaga this month and is believed to be en route to the Balearic Islands.

From €50m...

... to €36.5m

Falling Down

Basic Instinct star slashes price of his Spanish mansion to €36.5 million

FOR MORE INFORMATION: www.marisisofia.wordpress.com PHONES: +34 653 919 246 and +49 151 53838122

HIDDEN: Unique estate of Michael Douglas (pictured with Catherine Zeta Jones) in Mallorca Amanda Butler, who is marketing the property.

She added: “It is an amazing property in one of the most

beautiful parts of the island. I am sure there will be no problem in selling it now.”

Basic Instinct star Douglas

Out of jail card

Zorro Sorrow

ANTONIO Banderas has pulled out of a cultural project he hoped would revolutionise the city centre of Malaga.

The 56-year-old Hollywood star has withdrawn from the scheme at the site of the old Astoria and Victoria cinemas.

It came after opposition councillors criticised the bidding process, which his team won, leading to allegations of irregularities and fraud on social media.

“The chorus of voices against our project, inside and outside local politics, which didn’t just criticise it, but entered into sarcasm and nastiness, made me wonder if it was really worth risking so much,” said Banderas.

Finca crossed by a small brook Trees – Oak, Olive, Fig Fruit and vegetable garden Independent water (well) & Power-supply (fotovoltaic) Pool and big water tanks 350m2 country villa, 2 floors, 8 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, spacious living room with fire place and hot-air heating

E-MAIL: marisisofia2.0@gmail.com

I

DREAM´S OVER: Banderas

Self-sufficient life in paradise-like nature. West Andalucia 10 hct.

Selling Price: 395.000E

EXCLUSIVE

By Joe Duggan

T could probably best be termed a slasher!

Michael Douglas’s palatial Mallorca mansion has come back on the market with a third snipped from the price.

Originally on the market for €50 million, the mid-19th century villa - where the likes of Tom Cruise, Jack Nicholson and Michelle Pfeiffer have stayed - has now come down to €36.5 million.

“The property was originally €50 million, so it’s now a very good price for the uniqueness of the property and position,” said MJC Associates director

FOR SALE

IT was perhaps only a matter of time.

Disgraced political fraudster Juan Antonio Roca has been spotted enjoying a break from prison at his two Marbella properties.

The convicted Marbella planning boss - who made millions from crooked real estate deals - was given a break from his 20-year sentence due to good behaviour.

Neighbours in the Poseidon building, where he owns two apartments, said he was accompanied by his daughter Maria and kept ‘a very discreet profile’.

He only left the building by car and went to houses of friends in Marbella.

"He does not let himself be seen in the streets of Marbella," an unnamed source said.

The former planning svengali - who has been involved in countless fraud cases - has had dozens of properties seized plus millions of euros of cars and other luxury items over recent years.

However, prosecutors allowed him to keep the two properties in the Poseidon building (see below) valued at €727,000, for agreeing to plead guilty.

Roca effectively ran Marbella town hall from his private offices for more than a decade, paying officials each time they voted to approve permits to build or provide municipal services.

has been a long-term homeowner on the island, snapping up the 247-acre estate for an undisclosed sum in 1989 with ex-wife Diandra Luker.

As well as stunning gardens, the stylish pad holds a gymnasium, games room, jacuzzi, library and wine cellar and cinema.

Nestled in the Unesco World Heritage-protected Tramuntana mountains, it boasts seven separate buildings, including five individual apartments with 10 bedrooms and two cottages.

Its stunning setting, in 247 acres of rolling Valldemossa countryside, offers glorious vistas of the sea and surrounding countryside.

Douglas, who scooped an Oscar for 1987 film Wall Street, used to tend to the vineyards on the property, which offers crystal-clear sea views of the Mediterranean.

Douglas, who is married to British actress Catherine Zeta Jones, originally put it up for sale in 2015 but took it off the market last year.

The property was built in 1867 by the Austrian Archduke Ludwig Salvator after he fell in love with Mallorca.

Douglas’ films include Basic Instinct, Falling Down, Disclosure and Wall Street.

Email Amanda at amanda. btlr@gmail.com for more information.

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NE of world’s biggest realtors has opened up shop on the Costa del Sol. Barnes International, whose 60 offices spread from London and Paris to the Americas, has opened a new base in exclusive Sotogrande.

Director Philippe Pellegrino said: “Wherever we have a presence in the world we choose locations renowned for their exclusivity, elegance and quality.

“Sotogrande’s reputation has extended beyond Spain’s borders thanks largely to the expansion of its impressive golf courses.”

He also praised the peaceful quality of life which manages to attract expats from across the globe.

“It’s a fact which is evident from the number of children attending

Bonjour Barnes May 24th - June 7th 7th 2017 May 24th - June 2017

Huge global agent lands in exclusive Costa del Sol resort of Sotogrande

the international school who represent no less than 35 different nationalities.”

Barnes’ strategy for renting your home uses a unique software

PERFECT BASE: Barnes International has chosen Sotogrande

CAREFUL OF THE CLOWNS

Beware of property conman operating in Spain, warns leading analyst Mark Stucklin

R

EPUTABLE local agents warn that a fraudster is offering bargain properties in Spain to trick the unsuspecting out of their deposits.

The fraudster is offering ridiculously cheap property to trick victims into handing over deposits that will never be seen again.

The fraudster is someone who used to work for a local real estate agent, then legged it to Thailand with the client database, and is now hammer-

ing the mailing list with astounding bargains that don’t exist.

“So far we have found three clients who have paid him approximately €22,000 in deposits,” I am told.

Once he has got his hands on the money, the fraudster no longer responds.

An example of how he operates: He is hawking a villa for sale in Las Ramblas on the Costa Blanca – actual price €400,000 – as a bank repo with pool for just €99,995, which can be secured with a €10,000 deposit if you move fast and transfer him the money. Apparently the Police have been informed, and legal action is underway.

As reputable local agents point out: ” If something

looks too good to be true, it probably is”.

They also offer the following advice: 1. Ensure the agent has an established office 2. Check for AIPP membership 3. Do your research, if a property is at an unbelievable price, why is it still for sale?

4. Do your research on the agent The Spanish property market is plagued with incompetent clowns, cowboys, and crooks. Be careful who you deal with. www.spanishpropertyinsight.com

programme that can tap into 200 million potential candidates and short-term rental clients across the globe.

“The main attraction for renters is golf, and Sotogrande is ideally placed to capture that market,” explains Pellegrino, “We only accept top quality properties and we work exclusively on behalf of their owners.”

For those selling, the apporach is no less rigorous.

Safe

Following a solid valuation and the creation of a detailed marketing plan, the company will present your property to clients and investors via 80 of their worldwide branches, reaching more than 100,000 potential buyers.

“And the majority of our clients are high net worth individuals who choose their destinations on the basis of proximity to the coast, plenty of sunshine and secure and safe locations,” adds Pellegrino.

Contact Philippe Pellegrino on: 0034 747860304 or visit the website: w w w. b a r n e s - i n t e r n a t i o n a l . com

www.theolivepress.es

May 24th - June 7th 2017

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34 9, 00 0€

Tel +34 952 816 250

LOFT- APARTMENT IN AGRUPADAS , NUEVA ANDALUCIA 3 Beds • 2 Baths • 105 Built m2 • Terrace 17m2 • REF 176-01359P

2,

09

5,

00

0€

A fully refurbished apartment with a separate Master suite upstairs. Large living and dining room with an open plan kitchen and direct access to a lovely south east oriented terrace with beautiful garden and pool views. Ideal location close to amenities and town but still quiet and peaceful. Tastefully decorated in a Scandinavian style with 3 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms plus cloakroom.

VILLA ON THE GOLDEN MILE, MARBELLA 5 Beds • 5 Bath • 467 Built m2 • 1.027 Plot t m2 • REF 176-01249P Beautiful villa project now finished on the Golden Mile, with high spec and contemporary design all according to the 1986 PGOU. The villa is within walking distance to the beach and promenade. All materials and fittings are of highest quality creating a luxury feel. Offered fully furnished.

Centro Comercial Plaza 63, 29660 Nueva Andalucia, Marbella Tel +34 952 816 250 • info@andadev.com • www.andadev.com

Roll the dice and Benahavis top the ranks.

And while prices may not have advanced to Park Lane and Mayfair prices, Mar€524,000

Fuengirola station

Ronda

€668,000

Cadiz station Casares

€212,900

€220,000

€330,000

Jimena de la Frontera

Sanlucar, Cadiz

€89,500

€190,000

€880,800

Torre del Mar Sabinillas

€911,000

VelezMalaga

€212,000

Duquesa

Malaga station

Marbella

Nerja

€226,000

ion e g ay r e M om ds in thear in he o B buil on-y t in - ar% w n e ye 8.6 by o d for 7.2% d s i le y asee per Sa se b e r c m ro s in sa ce i r P

ing

Benahavis

Cordoba

€351,000

€468,000

Alhaurin el Grande Granada

€225,000

Sevilla station

€340,000

Los Remedios, Sevilla

€314,000

Antequera

od

lev e h a s d w l in and nedel So k Loo t of brCostay 69% ed to ct un he d b p e ye a r mo on t ase x a e e s re his Thement incr s a .5% t e p c o pri y 2 r ty ase b e p e Pr o incr

o gg

Casco Antiguo, Sevilla

€460,000

Cazorla (Jaen)

€377,000

Carmona, Sevilla

Benalmadena Estepona

Our Monopoly board tracks Andalucia’s cheapest and most expensive markets.

Unsurprisingly, luxury hotspots Marbella

bella is home to three of the country’s most expensive streets, with properties on Calle Alcala fetching a whopping €38,950 per m2.

Benahavis, known as the town hall with no budget, sits at the top - with the average house price at €911,800 - thanks to the likes of Zagaleta, the luxurious urbanisation that is one of the most expensive postcodes in Spain.

Sevilla follows and, as the capital

Mijas

See where’s hot and where’s not in Andalucia on our property monopoly board

€410,000

L

IKE the fast-moving family parlour game, Monopoly, Spain’s property market has been full of ups and downs.

But a fresh surge in house prices could be its get-out-of-jail free card as the country’s economic recovery continues unabated.

While Brexit threatened to put a spanner in the works, the market has been left largely unaffected as Swedes, Germans and even Spanish nationals have picked up the slack.

Last year saw property prices increase by an average of 1.8% across the board.

There was a 15% rise in purchases on the previous year, while 2016 finished with four consecutive quarters of growth.

of Andalucia, boasts some of the hottest properties in the region.

If you’re looking for a bargain, Cadiz offers up plenty of properties under the €200,000 mark in stunning areas like Sanlucar and Jimena de la Frontera.

On the Costa del Sol, resorts like Estepona, Benalmadena and Mijas are rising in popularity as Marbella and satellite towns like San Pedro begin to outprice the middle and lower markets.

Estepona in particular holds many of the cards, with plenty of spare land to put up houses, while building licenses can be issued in around three to four months from the project submission date, whereas currently in Marbella it can often take more than a year.

Roll the dice to discover whether your area is ahead of the game.

€437,000

By Laurence Dollimore

24

May 24th - June 7th 7th 2017 May 24th - June 2017

€235,000

Property www.theolivepress.es

€402,000

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The Alfonso XIII, Sevilla This Andalusian institution was opened for the Sevilla Expo of 1929 and nothing much has changed. The noble arches and columns are still here, and the corridors gleaming with iridescent tiles in Moorish tones, the fluted ceiling mouldings and gold-trimmed lifts. And guests still sip fino in the patio, as they always did.

The hotel was a favourite with the current king’s mother, Doña Maria de las Mercedes de Borbón y Orleáns, as well as Sevilla’s most glamorous and celebrated visitors including Princess Grace of Monaco, Rita Hayworth (whose father was Sevillano), Orson Welles, Audrey Hepburn (above), Sofia Loren, Jackie Kennedy and Princess Diana, right. Some scenes from the 1962 epic Lawrence of Arabia were filmed here.

Abadia Retuerta LeDomaine, Valladolid This stunning spa hotel is 900 years old.

The former abbey in the wine-producing area of Ribera del Duero in Valladolid is one of the most luxurious hotels in the country.

One of the former stables is now the Santuario Wellness & Spa, where a dedicated spa sommelier offers guests a glass of wine before advising on suitable vinotherapy treatments, then running a wine bath in your room, so you can gaze across vineyards to the mountains beyond. The abbey is a celebrated Romanesque building founded in 1146 by the Premonstratensian Order - a Roman Catholic monastic sect founded in 1120 by St Norbert (1080-1134), a German bishop. Much of the original structure has been respected - the monks’ former cells are now smart rooms and the abbey’s grand refectory is now an acclaimed restaurant where chef Marc Segarra Saune uses the estate’s produce to inspire his menus.

Parador de Santiago de Compostela, Galicia This Galician luxury hotel is one of the oldest continually running lodgings in the world. The parador was founded by King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella at the end of the 15th century as a refuge for pilgrims. It was designed to allow them to rest their feet after walking across Spain to pay homage to St James, who is buried in the cathedral on Obradoiro square. The most impressive guestrooms overlook the square and feature four-poster beds and antique Castilian furniture.

The massive granite building in gothic, Renaissance and baroque styles is set around four cloisters.

Hotels with history Spain has some of the oldest lodgings in the world

S

PAIN is littered with postcards from the past.

From the Romans to the Vandals, almost every civilisation has set up shop on its shores.

And to this day, some of their palaces, castles and magnificent villas remain intact and are available to stay in.

For a romantic weekend away or a time travel trip through history, these heavenly hostelries have the coolest of back stories.

La Torre del Visco, Aragon This 15th century former farmhouse is set in 100 hectares of olive and almond trees.

It was bought by a British couple - Jemma Markham and Piers Dutton - in 1995 and turned into a stunning luxury retreat. Fashion icon Karl Lagerfeld, right, once nominated it as one of the three most romantic hotels in Spain, and fell under the spell of its wonderful breakfasts of breads, hams, cheeses and homemade quince jam.

Parador de Jaen, Jaen This spectacular restored castle hotel was built as a 12th-century Moorish fortress, connected to the city by hidden tunnels.

During Arab rule the castle kept the city at peace, until it was captured by Ferdinand III in 1246.

He extended the castle, which held out against the repeated attacks by the Moors over the next two hundred years, until all the Moors were expelled from Spain. Soaring vaulted ceilings, wooden beams and tiled floors add to the majestic splendour but the decadent comforts of its 45 bedrooms are far from medieval.

The 17-room dwelling has a big library stocked with 3,000 books and a gleaming Bechstein piano.

Guests, who include the former king and queen, above, of Spain, also have the option of arriving by helicopter.

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an edited collection at

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DREAM: The stunning estate has amazing views, complete privacy and even its own golf course

Live

like a

king

This fairy tale home has a private golf course and huge library

A

ONCE upon a time opportunity has arisen for romantics looking to purchase their own kingdom.

The House of the Rising Sun, in the Serrania de Ronda, just 45 minutes from Marbella, has just hit the market.

The secluded estate is set on an unbelievable 1,000,000m2 plot and comes complete with a private nine-hole golf course.

A private 3km dirt track leads to the princely home from the main road to the stunning white village of Gaucin, which is just 5km away.

The property enjoys lush vegetation, mature gardens, a small river and a private chapel.

In the main house itself, residents will enjoy three spacious suites, an Andalucian

patio, ample reception rooms, a study and an exhaustive library that would leave My Fair Lady’s Professor Higgins more than impressed.

The 4-bedroom, 3-bathroom guest house is set well apart from the main residence, as is the 2-bedroom, 1-bathroom staff house.

If none of the above doesn’t seal the deal, how about the added bonus of stables, and the ability to ride unhindered to the polo pitches of Sotogrande?

For the dedicated country lover, your own renovation ideas will fulfil your dreams.

Anyone interested should contact Robert Germaux on 639 729 523 or visit www.fincasgermaux. com

Sitting on a gold mine

NOT everyone can claim to own a Roman ruin.

But the rural village of O Espino in Galicia is hiding a treasure trove of ancient artefacts, much of which have never officially been recognised.

The town holds the national record for the most Roman ruins per household, with practically every inhabitant owning at least one.

Homes in the village house stone sculptures of Roman gods and goddesses, stone mills dating back to the first and second centuries and chunks of a Celtic wall.

There are also millstones from the third century and Bronze Age carvings on rocks.

HISTORY TOWN: O Espino

www.theolivepress.es

GOLF VALLEY

Ref: OP9720

Villa next to The Westin La Quinta Golf Resort & Spa 5-star hotel

NUEVA ANDALUCÍA

Bright and spacious 5-bedroom family home with beautiful mature garden and pool. Located in La Quinta with all the hotel’s facilities at hand and within a short drive to Puerto Banús. Competitively priced.

GOLDEN MILE

Ref: OP9651

Stylish 3-bedroom townhouse with mountain views, close to amenities and walking distance to Puerto Banús and the beach. Private garage.

GOLDEN MILE

May 24th - June 7th 2017

Built: 80 m² Terrace: 42 m² Price: € 399,000

Bright 2-bedroom ground-floor apartment in a gated complex, beautiful gardens and pool. Only a few minutes’ walk to the beach and amenities!

Ref: OP9806

Rustic-style 3-bedroom, south-facing townhouse in Lomas Pueblo. Walking distance to the beach and the Puente Romano Hotel.

NUEVA ANDALUCÍA

Ref: OP9736 Built: 110 m² Terrace: 15 m² Price: € 280,000

Built: 279 m² Plot: 796 m² Price: € 899,000

Built: 164 m² Plot: 100 m² Price: € 490,000

Ref: OP9830

5-bedroom villa next to Centro Plaza, walking distance to Puerto Banús. Sea views, guest apartment, fireplace, 2-car garage and garden.

Built: 327 m² Plot: 812 m² Price: € 1,250,000

Offices at the Puente Romano Hotel & opposite the Marbella Club Hotel Tel. (+34) 952 863 750 info@panorama.es www.panorama.es An International Associate of Savills

Regulated by RICS

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High-end gated community gets underway outside Marbella

T

Luxury rising

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Loan rangers MORTGAGE volumes have increased by €10 billion in Spain since 2013.

It comes as a result of increased property transactions, which have risen from 300,000 in 2013 to just under 460,000 in 2016, according to bank BNP Paribas and UCI. The uplift in activity has led to renewed interest in Spain from abroad, with foreign buyers returning to the market in high numbers.

The numbers of overseas buyers has soared from just 6% in 2006 to 17% in 2016, with British buyers the largest group (19% of all foreign buyers).

New rules are now in place to help limit lending and make house buying a ‘safer process’ for lenders and buyers.

Love it!

we have the expertise to ensure the project is completed to the level of quality and perfection required by both the client and the project’s surroundings.”

Matias Villarroel, Director of Round Hill Capital in Spain added: “We are delighted

to have signed the construction contract with Grupo Avintia.

“The group is highly respected in the construction industry, and has expansive experience in national and international projects”.

Work is commencing on phase one and is expected to be completed by the end of 2018.

The community’s first residents can move in shortly afterwards.

Visit www.paloaltomarbella.com

THIS is the home set to become a hotbed of passion for this year’s series of Love Island.

The stunning villa, in Sant Llorenç des Cardassar, Mallorca, with sprawling terrace, outdoor pool and a barbecue area normally rents for €3,500 per month in summer.

The reality TV series, presented by Caroline Flack, sees a group of single people installed in a luxury villa in the hope of finding love.

CO

NS ST TR AR UC TE TI D ON

HE foundations have been laid for one of the most exciting luxury projects just around Marbella.

Building has begun at the Palo Alto gated community on the way to Ojen.

Teams have started work on the 75 apartments at the 50-hectare site, comprising a mix of two to four-bedroom homes and 15 penthouses, with prices ranging from €440,000 to €1 million.

A health club and business centre are also to be built and residents will benefit from 24-hour security.

The construction of the 75-home project, which has lovely views to the coast and nearby mountains, has been awarded to Grupo Avintia, whose companies include Avintia Construcción, Adh Hoteles and Avora.

Founded in 2007, Avintia has become one of the most active companies in Spain’s construction and real estate sectors, much in part to its internal management systems and innovative, cooperative company culture.

President of Grupo Avintia, Antonio Martin Jimenez said: “It is a great honour for us to have been selected by a world leader in property investment, Round Hill Capital, to build the project.

“The fact that we have been entrusted to carry out their first project in Spain, and in such a privileged area, demonstrates that

May 24th June 7th 7th 20172017 May -24th - June

Naturally Modern Living ”Bask in the light, breathe in the mountain air, enjoy complete peace and tranquillity, at Palo Alto your ideal home awaits” • Contemporary architecture by Villarroel Torrico • Premium quality fittings by Gunni & Trentino • Health Club, kids club, outdoor and indoor pools, concierge, rental management services, business centre

• Easy and secure payment plan • Limited availability • 2 beds from €440,000, 3 beds from €529,000 • 5 minutes from Marbella

TO BOOK A TOUR, CALL FREEPHONE 900 102 322 • REQUEST BROCHURE AT LP.PALOALTOMARBELLA.COM

PaloAltoMarbella.COM

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1

A massive black moggie stalks across an industrial building in Murcia.

Leaves suggesting a concrete jungle adorn the bottom of the building where a normal-sized man can be seen cradling his cat.

May -24th - June 2017 May 24th June 7th 7th 2017

Off the wall Murals are the new metropolitan art brightening up cityscapes, writes Alexander Brown

W

ALK through the backstreets of Estepona and count the massive murals adorning its high rise buildings - you could be forgiven for thinking Banksy had paid the town a clandestine visit.

Ranging from homages to Miguel de Cervantes to celebrations of the town’s seafaring history, the diverse daubs are a prominent part of one of the Costa Del Sol’s most aesthetic towns.

Prize

2 This stop-you-in-yourtracks mural with its nod to Hieronymus Bosch’s Garden of Earthly Delights can be found in Ordes, Galicia.

The work of Italian artist Blue, it features a tribute to vegetarianism with produce praying to a blender.

They are not a traditional feature, only appearing in 2012 as part of a council scheme designed to improve some of the town’s forgotten neighbourhoods.

But with the number of murals now standing at almost 40, the town is set to make a big deal of it with its first ever International Art Mural Competition. In July, 70 artists from all over the world are being invited to contribute their perspectives and compete for a prize of €10,000.

To mark the event, take our tour of some of the most eye-catching Spanish murals you won’t find in Estepona.

4

It’s not always apartment blocks or houses that are illuminated by murals. Here, the Plaza de Armas bus station in Sevilla has a sleeping girl offset by eye-catching vivid colours.

5

The Basque capital of Vitoria-Gasteiz is known as the ‘Painted City’ for its murals which are featured on a walking tour.

‘The Thread of Time’ recalls its medieval past when it traded in fine fabrics.

3 Street artists Shepard Fairey and D*Face teamed up for these two murals in Malaga. Located next to the Centre for Contemporary Art (CAC), the pair were created for a street art festival.

Don’t dig yourselves into a hole

Prevention of conflicts in joint ownership situations is worth dealing with early, explains lawyer Diego Echevarria

O

NE of the most common property problems is the conflict between joint owners.

The most typical case of this is the couple who purchases a house, only to break up later.

What happens then? If one owner, who owns 50%, wants to sell against his partner's wishes, what do you do?

What happens if just the wife paid for the property, or the husband paid alone for a pool that boosts its value?

It is normally a complex situation.

First and foremost it is not possible to force a joint owner to purchase your percentage, and in many cases the parties are unable to reach an agreement regarding the price anyway.

Consequently, when there is no agreement as to the use of the property and the property cannot be legally divided, any joint owner can force a sale through the court under Spanish law.

When sold like this, both owners receive the sale price in relation to the percentage they own, with whoever paid for improvements entitled to the extra outlay.

Despite the ability to legally auction a property in this way, it is not always effective, with the property

Seek proper advice before investing, or shortly after the purchase sometimes selling for less than it was bought for originally.

In these unusual cases, both parties have losses, as they would receive less than they paid for the property.

Another aspect that causes trouble is the percentage game.

Just because a couple share own-

ership 50-50, that does not mean both parties invested equally into the property. One of them may have worked three times harder on its garden, say.

Despite this, owners get paid directly in relation to percentage of ownership, so those who did not invest their time or money make a profit regardless.

It is always highly advisable then, to seek proper legal advice before investing, or at least shortly after the purchase of the property.

Signing agreements that establish appropriate shares should the house be sold, establish a fair distribution of profits will avoid drama later.

And both parties will save lots of money in legal fees in the future.

It is advisable to speak to someone trained in Spanish law to get the best possible agreement.

For more information contact email +34 952 77 11 50 diego@ fairwaylawyers.com

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Ronda Properties is a forward thinking contemporary Estate Agency rooted in traditional values.

It offers its clients a personal service and has a proven track record of successful sales.

Cortijo, Guest House, Pools, Stables Cortijo 800m2 with 240,000m2 (60 acres approx} land containing a mature olive grove, plus Guest House 120m2. The main living accommodation comprises 4 spacious bedrooms, 3 bathrooms and in addition 2 further bedrooms and bathroom situated in the Tower that afford fantastic vistas, lovely sitting-room with chimney, kitchen, terrace, patio, swimming-pool, stables and cobbled stone courtyard.

The Self-Contained Guest House comprises 2 further bedrooms.

A beautiful property which retains many traditional features with incredible views and located in an area of outstanding beauty, the Serrania de Ronda. A former Olive Mill, the Cortijo has been restored with much attention to detail, original tiles, antique doors and superb wooden beamed ceilings that add warmth to the interior. Equestrian facilities include 3 stables with excellent riding terrain on the doorstep. Water, electricity. Central heating. 14 km Ronda. 110km Malaga Airport. 60km Costa del Sol approx.

Bedrooms: Bathrooms: Build: Plot:

4 3 800m2 240,000m2

Ref: 81455

€800,000

Townhouse Ronda

Rural Tourism Complex

Historic Quarter. Renovated townhouse located in one of the most sought after areas of Ronda. A light, beautifully presented property comprising entrance hallway with cloakroom, fitted kitchen with direct access to interior patio, sitting-room with fireplace, library and dining area, doors out to interior patio.

Bedrooms: 3 Bathrooms: 2 Build: 88m2 Plot: 111m2

Rural Tourism Complex comprising 3 houses with private pools, located in an area of outstanding beauty.

The houses have been built to a very high standard, beautifully presented in a rustic style in keeping with the environment, and providing superior holiday accommodation.

Ref: 82241

Ref: 100770

€275,000

Bedrooms: Bathrooms: Build: Plot:

13 11 519m2 2800m2

€500,000

Established in 2006 we specialise in inland property with an extensive portfolio of white village and country homes.

Ronda Properties Estate Agent Inland Andalusia, c/San José, 1 29400, Ronda, Malaga, Spain

Tel: (+34) 952 187 313 Mob: (+34) 608 765 990 Email: info@rondaproperties.com www.rondaproperties.com

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MIJAS – ref: R213365

BARGAIN villa near the village with 5 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, spacious terraces, pool, private parking and open panoramic views!

Build: 200 m2 Plot: 1000 m2

Price: 349.995€ LEGO HEAVEN: The kit houses are set to be produced in Andalucia in European-first

Plastic fantastic

T

HEY are every big kid’s fantasy.

But now Lego-style houses are becoming a reality, thanks to savvy Ronda-based estate agent Thorwald Bodensiek who is creating one of Europe’s first recycled plastic brick factories near Malaga.

The brainchild of Colombian musician Fernando Llanos, the DIY builds will cost a fraction of normal house prices, with each basic pack costing only €10,000 euros.

“They’re just like Lego,” said Bodensiek, 56, who hopes to have the first ones rolling off the production line by August.

“I first heard about them last April and I contacted Llanos straight away because it is such a great and exciting idea. Now we have a commercial contract to create his blocks in Spain under the name Ecoplasso.

Palomino Properties – Avda. México, 43 Nuevo Pueblo Mijas, local 4, 29650 MIJAS (Málaga)

Tel: + 34 952 486 296 mijas@palominoproperties.com www.palominoproperties.com

FACILITIES: A shower room in matching style

“The roofs are made of thinner recycled plastic and the bricks come with drilled holes for plumbing and electricity.”

The houses are not just eco-friendly in terms of the plastic they save.

“Whereas standard builds only have an insulation rate of 25%, our houses have 70%.

“They are suitable for any environment, from -20C to African locations.”

Bodensiek is currently seeking grants to help fund the factory’s machines, which process the plastic into bricks.

“I imagine a day where someone will be able to go to IKEA, pick up a build-your-own-house pack and then build it next to their friends or family,” he said.

“But more than that, they will help resolve so many social problems.

“We could use them to build houses for refugees, or to house people living in bad conditions.

“I think plastic houses are the future.” For more info email info@rondaproperties.com

Homes with wheels AN estate agent is giving its next 50 customers on the Costa del Sol a free Mini Cabriolet car.

Anyone who buys a property will get the cool motor for free, no catches!

Javier Timoner, CEO of Lifestyle Homes, said: “We’re excited to launch this new promotion to be able to offer our prospective customers even more.

“We want to offer them a complete lifestyle when they purchase a home with us, beyond the four walls of their property. And by driving away in a brand new Mini, we hope to make their experi-

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“When you think that plastic takes hundreds of years to break down, creating houses out of plastic waste is such a great way to keep it from wreaking havoc on our environment.

“Think about all the waste plastic that comes alone from the huge greenhouses in Almeria and Huelva.

“Ours will come from a mixture of private waste removal companies and public authorities from all over Spain.”

Bodensiek’s 1,200m2 factory will be able to produce enough bricks for 50, 40m2 bungalows per month.

“The layout can be designed according to each buyer’s needs,” said Bonensiek (right), who moved from Cali in Colombia to England, then Spain.

“Each pack will have enough bricks to create up to three bedrooms.

“Buyers will put them together themselves, which is very easy, as each brick is interconnecting and there are metal connectors for the corners, so there is no need for glue or cement.

“They can keep them in the standard greyish colour or paint them whatever colour they like.

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ence of living or holidaying on the Costa del Sol even more thrilling, whether it’s for getting from A to B, or to explore everything the region has to offer.”

The promotion will end on June 30 and applies to properties priced €180,000 and above. The prize consists of a manual drive Mini Cabriolet valued at €19,557.

Full Terms and Conditions are available at http://lifestylehomes.uk.com/terms-andconditions-promotion/

36 XVIII

www.theolivepress.es Property

May 24th - June 7th 7th 2017 May 24th - June 2017

Why holiday rental sites aren’t always the best ones to use, explains Helle Heredia from

surance included in all rentals covering minor damage, so the homeowner gets payment for any small damages directly into their account.

“We care about our clients, there’s a reason our motto is ‘houses with a heart,’” explains Helle.

One of the biggest pitfalls when it comes to private rental, for homeowners at least, is last minute cancellations.

They can leave you in a tight spot when you had been relying on that income.

Novasol - which has 2,200 properties for rent across Spain - seeks to avoid that headache by guaranteeing you will be paid 28 days before your guests arrive.

T

FREE house presentation in catalogues and on the internet

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RENTAL But with the new technology has FREE INSURANCE for Novasol house owners come opportunities for scam artists to con unsuspecting homeownersContact and NOVASOL holidaymakers. on +34 868 864 800 “Some scam artists will use photos spain@novasol.com of real homes and market them as their own,” explains Helle Heredia from Novasol - Northern Europe’s longest running holiday rental company.

“But when the holidaymakers arrive, they knock on the door and find someone else is already there.

“The scammer has obviously marketed a property which is not theirs.”

Other scams are more complex.

“We have even seen people market properties under one identity, then steal people’s credit cards and use them pay for a stay at the same property, pocketing the stolen money, it’s quite clever.

“But this underlines the main problem, the lack of a personal service.”

Companies like Novasol, which began in a basement in Copenhagen some 50 years ago and now operates across 29 European countries, offer the antidote.

36

BOOKINGS through 20,000 travel agencies and main portals

Security

Portal of truth “We meet the homeowners, take the photos, do all the marketing, it’s extremely personal,” she explains.

It also creates a budget for every homeowner based on how much they need to earn and how fast.

“Anyone can rent out their home successfully in the summer, you can literally walk up to a random

guy on the street and he could do that for you, we actually plan and work to rent out properties all year around.”

The company also offers cheap contents and damages insurance and will always have a team nearby who can check on the home if something goes wrong.

The company has homeowner in-

“It gives them that extra sense of security which can be impossible to find with a typical portal.”

Usually, with Airbnb, cancellations can be made as close as two days to the arrival date, leaving many renters high and dry.

And while they have proven popular with scores of holidaymakers, it may also be a reason why many are still preferring to use the tried and tested ways of Novasol.

“Portals like Airbnb have actually helped us,” explains Helle, “they have encouraged more people to rent out their homes, which means more and more people come to us for help, so it has been great.”

Novasol, which has properties around the entire country, including the Balearics, is going on a huge expansion drive over the next few years.

Contact Novasol at www.novasol.com or 0034 868 864 800

FREE house presentation in catalogues and on the internet BOOKINGS through 20,000 travel agencies and main portals Good performance up to 42 WEEKS OF RENTAL FREE INSURANCE for Novasol house owners

EUROPE’S LEADING HOLIDAY RENTAL COMPANY NEEDS for civilised clients from Germany, Benelux and Scandinavia.

Contact NOVASOL on +34 868 864 800 spain@novasol.com

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ANDALUCIA lags behind the rest of the country financially due to its reliance on European funds, a study has found.

A Quality of Life survey FREE business events will help found the per capita GDP businesses up their game. was €4,700 below the avNew co-working office Our erage rate in Spain.

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Wine walks

TOP for news in Spain!

A MALAGA wine company has launched wine ‘pilgrimages’, where guests hike and visit a number of wineries.

El Cavino offers the week-long trips in which guests travel 13km through wineries.

Customers also sample food from the regions travelled, with areas including Rioja, Ribera del Duero, Toro, Bierzo and Ribeira Sacra.

The trip costs € 1,090 per person in a double room and includes accommodation, meals, visits to the wineries and transfers by bus.

BUSINESS

Andalucia relied too much on Europe, study claims

average in 1995, and by 2008 had grown to 80%.

Unfortunately, the crisis

Miniskirting around the issue SIX gas station employees claim to have been dismissed for refusing to wear a miniskirt.

Despite the official uniform being trousers, the women claim they were dismissed for refusing to wear the miniskirts during shifts.

The employees at AVIA in La Carlota, Cordoba are now

May 24th - June 7th 2017

The big fall back prior to the crisis the per capita Andalucian GDP was 68% of the European

seeking advice from the Andalucian Women's Institute.

The gas station owners responded on social media, claiming employees can wear leggings under the miniskirt, and even posted a picture of other female staff wearing trousers.

AVIA has now announced a review of the incident.

CAPTION.

39

39

May 24th - June 7th 2017

saw this growth plummet, seeing the poorer regions lose investment and growth, reducing in Andalucia by €7 billion in 2007, more than Madrid, Catalonia, the Basque Country and Valencia together.

Gaspar Llanes, Secretary General of the Economy, suggested the region had relied too much on ‘convergence’ with Europe.

He said: “Everything that was gained from convergence was lost in the crisis.

“If Europe is going well, Spain is better, when Europe goes bad, Spain is worse.”

The study, suggests in terms of time Andalucia lost nine years in GDP, 16 in investment, 11 in employment and nine in business.

NEWS IN BRIEF Factory closure

SOGECAM factory in Malaga is facing closure, with 52 workers set to lose their jobs. The company which makes electric meters, could face liquidation of they do not receive new contracts soon.

Official visit

SPAIN’S prime minister has bolstered relations with China through a recent official visit.

Mariano Rajoy met with president Xi Jinping to discuss bilateral relations and the Spanish companies interested in participating in infrastructure projects in the future.

Stocks slump

EUROPEAN shares dipped as a result of fresh political concerns in Spain. Pedro Sanchez's election to the PSOE means the government is less likely to get the opposition support required to pass legislation.

Keeping things civil

CHURCH weddings have declined by 50% since 2008. A study by KPMG has revealed people are opting for small civil ceremonies as a result of Spain's financial struggles.

40

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business

May 24th - June 7th 2017 May 24th - June 7th 2017

41 41

Property AGONY ANT

Get it together! Taxing issue YOUR LEGAL PROBLEMS ADDRESSED BY ANTONIO FLORES

Malta tax haven in the spotlight - The European Panama?

TRANSPARENCY International has slammed Spain for its ‘systemic corruption’.

The international corruption watchdog said ‘few aspects of public life in the country have remained exempt’ from corruption.

Spain has seen one of the fastest declines on the body’s annual Corruption Perceptions Index, sliding seven points since 2012, now scoring worse than most Western European democracies with 58.

“Corruption in Spain distorts policy making and hurts people’s basic rights for the benefit of a few. Just looking at recent scandals like the Pujol case in Catalonia, the linkages between the ruling People’s Party and the construction group OHL, the Gürtel case, the Bankia fraud and Rodrigo Rato, gives a sense of the scale of the problem,” said José Ugaz, Chair of Trans-

Spain slammed AGAIN for corruption affecting ‘most aspects of public life’

parency International.

“This does not need to remain this way.

Stand up

“Spain has the democratic maturity, the institutions and a vibrant population and can reverse this trend and stand up to corruption, including grand corruption,” added Ugaz The body has called on the Spanish government

to act immediately, saying that its first move should be to reverse the appointment of the anti-corruption prosecutor who has been called into question due to his links to the Partido Popular.

Ugaz added: “The institutional and legal infrastructure for preventing corruption and punishing corrupt acts needs to be improved in dialogue between the government, political forces and civil society.

“It is urgent that the judiciary operate in a professional manner, free of political intervention, so we can start seeing timely and effective sanctions for those responsible for corruption.”

T

HE EIC, or European Investigative Collaborations network, has recently launched The Malta Files campaign to denounce how the Mediterranean state works as a pirate base for tax avoidance inside the EU. Over the last three months, the EIC network has dug into hundreds of thousands of documents that show that Malta operates a tax system where companies pay the lowest tax on profits in the EU. Spanish newspaper El Mundo is now after such companies because it thinks that when carrying out their activities, a very high proportion of them cross the red line separating lawful tax optimization with tax illegal evasion and concealment.

Although moving to Malta for tax reasons is not illegal per se, some companies set up their main offices in the tiny island without having any infrastructure, staff, resources or economic substance to pursue their activities, thereby openly defying business logic and principles: such companies are typically only after hard tax avoidance.

Other companies do go as far as to open lavish offices with real staff and computers, but with a different mission: to approach residents of Spain or with homes in Spain and offer them

attractive Spanish inheritance tax avoidance schemes, often through offshore structures involving single life insurance policies and/or trusts where funds are held.

One example: one well-known financial planning company headquartered in Malta is operated by three staff, and they hardly have any local clientele. Conversely, it has a staggering 25 employees and four offices in Spain, where most of their clients come from. This company offers what they call ‘Maltese tax sheltered trusts’ to residents of Spain.

The very name ‘tax shelter’ already signals trouble ahead, and trusts are not recognised in Spain. The Spanish Tax Office AEAT, in several tax rulings (October 2008, January 2010 and May 2010), has simplified this discussion by disregarding their existence. In observance of Spanish laws, the transactions carried out through trusts are made directly between the settlor/s and the beneficiary/ies - even in cases where the trustees had certain discretionary powers to allocate or distribute the assets held by the trusts to the beneficiaries.

Furthermore, life insurance beneficiaries will be subject to Spanish IHT provided they are Spanish tax residents or where not, if the policy was taken out with a foreign company operating in Spain, which is typically the case.

Email Antonio at aflores@lawbird.com

42

www.theolivepress.es

Pay day FIVE Andalucian businesses are among those with the biggest earnings growth in Europe.

Cadiz’s Solcaisur, Malaga’s Cárnicas Discarpe and Aertec Solutions, Jaen’s Grupo Sicnova, and Granada’s Grupo Maeva were included in the Financial Times list of 1000 fastest growing companies.

Solcaisur, Carnicas Discarpe and Grupo Sicnova increased their earnings by more than 600% between 2012 and 2015, while Aertec Solutions and Grupo Maeva, grew theirs by more than 60% each.

HelloFresh, a German food and beverage company, grew the most at a rate of 13,159%.

The rankings included companies of varying sizes.

business

May 24th - June 7th 2017 May 24th - June 7th 2017

Signal failure MALAGA’S mayor has called for more ambition in the Malaga to Sevilla high-speed rail project.

Francisco de la Torre has urged the Spanish Government to reconsider its decision to choose the cheapest of three possible AVE schemes in order to create a high quality service that cuts down more journey time.

His plea comes after the Government revealed it was to spend 32 million on the link, which will chop commutes between the two cities from one hour and 55 minutes to

Malaga mayor urges Government to invest more in high-speed train link between Sevilla and Malaga

one hour 35.

It will also be used as a base for a future planned

high-speed link between Sevilla and Granada.

“There are connections in

the Spanish network that have more technical ambition,” said de la Torre.

“We could have a direct line without stops that would get people from one destination to the other in little more than one hour.

“As this line will benefit three cities, we should make the effort.”

Work will begin next year to construct a new 1.9km bypass in Almodóvar del Río in Cordoba to allow inter city trains to reach 100km per hour by bypassing Cordoba city, where they currently stop.

It will also act as a new diversion for the Madrid to Sevilla line.

Child’s play MARBELLA’S children-only hairdressers has celebrated its first year anniversary.

Paulina Ramirez, a Croatian expat who owns Pablete’s Marbella, spoke to the Olive Press about the day: “It was a lovely afternoon, and we even received some presents which was a lovely gesture from some of our clients.”

“This first year has been a wonderful adventure for the whole team of Pablete's Marbella.

“It has been a pleasure to help so many little ones overcome the anguish at the thought of sitting in a hairdresser’s chair,” she added.

The salon, based on Calle Jacinto Benavente, provides services for youngsters up the the age of 14, using highquality I.C.O.N. products with vitamins A, C and E which do not contain sulfates or parabens.

Malaga Malware BUSINESSES across Malaga have been asked to take extra precautions after a nationwide cyber attacks this month.

While the region was not affected, the Junta has sent out warnings and advised taking precautionary measures.

Companies and administrations across the province were told not to open messages from unrecognised emails, in case they contain viruses.

Reports suggest the attack was undertaken by the Lazarus group, believed to have been behind the hack on Sony Pictures three years ago.

The government is yet to confirm the scale of the attack at the time of publication.

Taxing protests PROTESTORS descended on Granada this month to voice their opposition to a tax 'robbery'.

More than 2000 Stop Taxes of Successions campaigners chanted and sang in the main square to rail against inheritance tax in Andalucia.

Compared to other autonomous regions, residents in the region pay significantly more on inheritance tax.

The group’s specific aim is to stop the tax on inheritances that exceed €250,000, describing it as ‘unfair CUSTOMERS buying iPhones and cruel’. are paying out more than three A spokesman said: times the cost of it’s parts, a "The inequalities due study has revealed. to the collection of inheritance and gift Conducted by IHS Markit, the taxes, ceded by the study found the parts needed central government to make an an iPhone 7 with 32 to the autonomies, GB costs 206 euros. have been accentuatHowever, those buying the high ed in such a way that end phone shell out at least 769 in Andalucia it pays to euros, leaving a margin of 563 inherit from parents euros.

100 times more than This margin is similar to that of in the Community the Samsung Galaxy S8, where Autonomous of Maproduction costs are 286 euros, drid or 1,000 times but retail price is 809 euros. more than in the Canary Islands.”

More than the sum of its parts

Green showcase FORWARD-THINKING sustainable businesses will descend on Malaga next month.

Architects, engineers and tourist firms are among those who will come together at the Greencities forum to showcase green inventions and ideas on June 7 and 8.

Taking place at the Palacio de Ferias y Congresos, the eighth event of its kind will also have a focus on low impact transport, with self-driving vehicles top of the agenda.

business

43

www.theolivepress.es Spain’s top division will bring in €20 billion a year by 2019 LA LIGA will account for almost 2% of Spain’s GDP by 2019, a conference has heard.

The success of Barcelona and Real Madrid, in particularly via global television rights, is expected to help the league account

La Liga scores big for 1.63% of Spain’s gross domestic product in two years’ time.

With Spain’s GDP currently just over a trillion euros, this would mean

Spain’s top two divisions would be generating almost €20 billion.

Thanks to leading players like Messi and Ronaldo La Liga has expanded its

When developing property on the Costa del Sol, the best quote is not necessarily the cheapest

A

client coming into our offices with a fistful of quotations from contractors to build his new home will often look to the big three firms that, as a rule, anyone thinking of constructing a substantial property on the Costa del Sol would include on their short list.

If you are planning on developing a new property here, I'd suggest you carry out two basic steps before choosing a builder.

1. Check the financial health of the company you are considering using to build your new home.

If a company was set up recently and has never made a profit, that should raise an alarm.

Even if you have a bank guarantee in place, if the firm building your new home goes bust, goes M.I.A. or the build goes awry, you not only have to get your money back, but also find a new builder to take on an existing project and guarantee work they have not done, and, potentially, still find that the plumbing is connected to the lighting at too late a date.

2. Check the track record of the corporate officers.

By looking not just into the status of the company itself, but also at the individuals associated with it, you can decide whether they are the kind of people that you feel comfortable doing business with.

With a little research into a firm's current and former administrators and directors, you can find out about any bankruptcies, legal judgements, and pending claims in regard to those who have held positions of responsibility and

If it’s too good to be true... look back in time to previous roles they may have in other firms.

You should always ask a company to prove they are up-to-date with their obligations to the Spanish Tax Agency and Social Security, and that they provide a bank-issued certificate of solvency. It’s advised that payments are made against work done (and certified by the client's architect or project manager, not the builder's) and that 5% of every payment is retained for a period after completion, just in case.

For turnkey developments, where a single company is responsible for delivering the entire build, it is worth asking about and doing research into any subcontractors for the same reasons. And always ensure the contractor you choose applies for and obtains a building license from the local town council for architectapproved plans.

In a recent case, we helped a client who opted for the 'cheap' company uncover seven other firms associated with the directors in the past, five of which had declared bankruptcy and one of which still had a pending claim against it.

Suffice to say, the alarm bells were deafening and we definitively decided against using them for the build. Like our client said: “When it's too good to be true...”

May 24th - June 7th 2017

Property of the Week

global television rights in the past few years, selling to every country in the world bar four.

This growth in the international market has even seen fixtures moved, with one of the ‘big two’ playing at 4:15pm local time every Saturday in order to maximise the number of viewers from Asian countries.

Alfredo Lorenzo, La Liga’s security director, told a Qatar conference: “There’s been a huge transformation in professional football in Spain, we are investing in many ways.

“We expect to double the figures by 2019.”

We’re nearly there

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SPAIN will only just fail to meet its deficit target set by the EU. European commissioners have admitted that although the country’s public deficit will decline to 3.2%, it will still fail to meet the target of 3.1%.

But the commission has upgraded Spain’s GDP outlook from 2.3% to 2.8% and said it feels that Spain will be able to meet the criteria next year.

The report said: “Now in its fourth year of expansion, Spain continues to grow faster than the euro area average, and the volume of GDP is expected to surpass its pre-crisis peak this year.”

According to the report, the Spanish economy is set to grow faster than most other member states in 2017 at 2.8%.

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health

www.theolivepress.es

Come on down A NEW happening yoga studio is having an opening day on June 3.

Radiant Yoga Marbella is inviting yogis of all levels to attend and see the new refurb.

All the classes will be free and will come complete with a programme of interesting alternative activities.

Radiant Yoga Marbella is based in the Los Naranjos urbanisation.

Doctoring figures?

OFFICIALS have been accused of lying over operation figures.

Nursing union Satse has questioned data from Malaga Provincial Council, which states that the public Hospital de Alta Resolucion in Benalmadena is now carrying out 2,000 more operations than three years ago.

The union’s chief, José Antonio Sánchez, said the figure doesn’t tally with the high numbers of ‘empty beds’ and ‘unfilled job posts’ in the hospital.’

THE Junta was forced to issue a health warning across Andalucia after a 14,000 kilo batch of tuna led to a histamine poisoning outbreak.

Consumers have been affected in Malaga, Cordoba, Granada, Jaen and Sevilla.

Those falling ill complained of a sore throat, headaches,

Tuna gate hot flushes, sweating, nausea and vomitting. The contamination was due to poor hygiene and storage conditions during production. The Junta is advising consumers to avoid eating

tuna bought between April 25 and May 5. Some of the infected batch may still be on sale.

Barcodes ending in 170501, 170502, 170503, 170504, 170505, and 170506 have

May 24th - June 7th 2017 May 24th - June 7th 2017

been removed from shelves.

The Food Safety Commission (Aecosan) has recommended that fresh tuna produced by the company Garciden between April 25 and May 6 not be consumed. The Almeria based company distributed the contaminated goods as far as Germany, Italy and Portugal.

Top ranking

SPAIN’S healthcare has been ranked among the top ten in the world.

The Healthcare Access and Quality Index (HAQ), studied the quality of healthcare in 195 countries by measuring mortality rates from causes that should not be fatal in the

Spain healthcare among top ten best in the world, far above the UK’s presence of effective medical care.

In the study, the number of

deaths from some 32 diseases and conditions were analyzed between 1990 to 2015.

In-gene-ious A MALAGA scientist has revealed the importance of genome sequencing in the future.

Manuel Corpas, of Fuengirola, said finding out the DNA sequences of patients’ chromosomes would allow doctors to prescribe personalised treatment, increasing the chances of finding cures.

He also said it would allow them to better pinpoint potential health risks

as well as lessening the chances of people passing on bad genes to their offspring.

Corpas, the scientific director of a start-up called Repositive which is based in Cambridge, spoke on the subject at a guest lecture to University of Malaga students.

He said the procedure could help better treat illnesses such as cancer, 70% of which have a genetic origin.

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Spain scored 90 out of 100, placing it 8th, and putting it above the likes of Italy (89), France (88), Greece (87), Germany (86), the UK (85) and Portugal (85).

Andorra came first with 95, followed by Iceland on 94 and Switzerland on 92 points.

The UK and US came 30th and 35th respectively.

The study concluded that nearly all countries saw an improvement in their ratings, with the average score increasing by 40.7 points.

Spain scored the maximum points in its treatment of diptheria, tetanus and measles.

It scored the worst for treatment of Hodgkins Limphoma (64 points), Leukemia (66), gallbladder disease (74) and skin cancer (74), but these were still above the average.

Weighing in MEN in Spain are a third more likely to be overweight than women.

40.5% of men aged 18 to 65 are overweight against 31.4% of women of the same age, according to new statistics.

Differing genetic makeup between men and women has been suggested as a partial explanation, along with a difference in the average physical activity levels and dietary habits.

Habits

Educational level, the type of work and incomes were also suggested as factors by expert doctor Rosa Maria Ortega.

She suggested men with the highest education level who took part in at least 150 minutes of vigorous physical activity a week were least likely to be overweight.

education

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May 24th - June 7th 2017 May 24th - June 7th 2017

News hounds

Student revolt MORE than 1,000 students have held protests in Barcelona to demand a reduction in university tuition fees.

They marched through the streets to the Secretariat of Catalonian Universities in Barcelona and later staged a sit-in, blocking traffic.

Police were called to the scene to remove the students by force.

GENEROUS: Messi

Striking good LIONEL Messi’s foundation has helped more than 1,600 Syrian children go back to school.

Since the conflict began in 2011, the Barcelona forward’s foundation has created 20 classrooms for displaced children caught up in the conflict.

The 29-year-old’s charitable work is due to the hardship the Barcelona star suffered when he was a child.

The Argentinian had medical complications when he was young and suffered growth deficiency.

From the age of 11 for three years, he would have a needle injecting treatment to help strengthen his legs and counter the growth deficiency he had suffered every single night.

Spain has 10 of the 20 European universities most in demand

by Erasmus students SPAIN has been named the official Erasmus capital of Europe.

Ten of the 20 most solicited universities on the continent are based in the country, with Andalucia’s University of Granada in first place.

A total of 2,329 foreign students studied there in 2015, ahead of the University of Bologna in Italy.

The Universitat de Valencia is the third most sought after centre, with Universidad Com-

45 45

Top of the pops

plutense de Madrid the fourth.

The Universitat Politecnica de Valencia is seventh and the Universitat de Barcelona in eleventh.

Andalucia’s Universidad de Malaga and the Universidad de Sevilla are also in the list, along with the Universitat Politecnica de Catalunya, the Universitat

Autonoma de Barcelona and the Universidad de Salamanca, which is the third oldest continually running institution in the world.

Spain was also recently named as the place most Erasmus students have studied for the sixteenth year in a row.

“The success of the Erasmus programme in Spain is indisputable, not only within the university community but within all of society,” said Jorge Sáinz, secretary general of universities in Spain. “The exchange contributes to the personal development of students and their employability as well as helping European society to grow.” The Erasmus program allows students to study at another European institution for a minimum of three months.

Summer CampSumM N OM NA mer Camp U

MAKE NEW FRIENDS

D

A

I

SPANIARDS are among the best in the world at detecting fake news.

In a seven-nation study, it was found that 58% of Spain’s citizens check the veracity of the news reports they read online and in print.

Italians came first with 61% having a nose for fake news while the Germans were the least likely to sniff out a trumped-up story, at 35.3%.

Researchers from Oxford University and Michigan State University questioned 14,000 internet users from Italy, France, Germany, Poland, the United Kingdom, Spain and the United States on how they used traditional and online media.

Rest in peace A MUCH-LOVED expert on Spanish history has passed away. Brit historian Hugh Thomas, an associate of Margaret Thatcher, masterfully chronicled the great upheaval in the Hispanic world, from Spain’s imperial expansion to its civil war. He died from a stroke in New York in the US, aged 85. His vast explorations of Spain won him international notoriety, beginning with The Spanish Civil War in 1961.

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Tel: 951 273 575 Mob: 655 825 683

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Due to development of the company, we are opening a call centre in Benalmadena/Fuengirola and so exciting opportunities have arisen for 12 telesales agents and 2 Managers to join our Review Process Team THE PEOPLE – Ideally experienced in telesales, non experienced must be tenacious, highly driven and able to communicate in a professional manner.

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with DINING SECRETS of ANDALUCIA.com

olivepressnews

Flight+TheolivepressEs of the BE ‘APPY! Download our app now and YOUR in-flight food to begin the best Spanish Malaga could beenjoying loaded with as many 3,400 newsas on the go. calories.

A recent study has found many passengers over New Marbella consume on a flight due to stress or boredom, while market snaps airlines allegedly add as up award much as 20 per cent more salt and sugar to their within months dishes.

The Olive Press A GOURMET market has won a prestigious seal of Stress TOP for news inapproval.

Spain!

According to Professor M a r b e l l a ’ s Charles Spence, author of Abastos&Viandas on AveGastrophysics: The New Science of Eating, airlines are said to add this much because sounds from a plane engine suppresses our sensitivity to sweet and salty flavours.

He said: "Why do we CANNABIS culture consume so much? One was on the agenda at a thing might be the stress quirky expo in Sevilla that many of us feel while this month. in the air. When we’re Hemp, a legal variety of stressed we tend to eat the plant which is conmore.”

Market quality

nida Ricardo Soriano has been granted the province’s ‘Sabor de Malaga’ quality hallmark after only two months in business.

Open Tuesdays to Sundays from midday to midnight, the indoor market has 13 stalls selling high-quality food and drink.

Everything from D.O. cured meats and wines to fish, cheeses, fruit and jams are on sale, as well as takeaway dishes such as fresh pasta and sentations and worksushi. shops shone a light Sabor de Malaga on the diversity of the was set up by the plant to open people's’ provincial governmind to its positive ment in 2011 to uses. promote the local gastronomy.

Rolling up for the weed show sidered to have several health benefits, was the focus of the third Expocanamo, held over two days in May. Exhibition stands, pre-

May 24th - June 7th 2017

Foal or foul?

HORSEMEAT could become part of the Spanish national diet.

A recent study conducted by Lackiter Research Group (Spain), Mountain Livestock Institute (Spain) and Guelph Food Research Centre (Canada) identified the possibility of the meat containing higher levels of omega-3 fatty acids, thanks to breeding conditions of the animals.

It analysed the nutritional and environmental benefits of the meat, claiming that it is an alternative protein source which produces low greenhouse gas emissions compared with beef.

DR Noelia Aldai, one of the authors of the report, said: “I don’t think we are far away from Spanish people accepting its consumption.”

“It is true that in many countries horse is considered as a pet and its consumption causes some kind of negative feelings.

But in essence, what is the difference between eating a foal or calf?”

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Food, drink & travel

50

May 24th - June 7th 2017

R

ESTAURANTS across the country have been taking advantage of this special time of year.

As it is birthing season, the month of May is the best time to eat goat, in particular male baby goat, or chivito.

The meat is a great a favourite of the West Indian community, who most often enjoy it stewed and at any age.

Favourite

In Portugal, Italy, Greece and Spain, they prefer the meat to be very young with cabrito - roasted kid - being a firm favourite.

If you have qualms with eating a baby goat, it is worth knowing that as they cannot produce milk they are usually killed very soon after birth.

If you want to make your own goat-inspired dishes, here are a few recipes to try.

Goat on board As goat season is upon us, check out our cabrito-inspired recipes

Goat curry Ingredients: Marinade: 1/2 cup soy sauce 1/4 cup curry powder 1/4 cup chopped garlic 2 tablespoons chopped fresh basil 1 tablespoon crushed red pepper 1 teaspoon dried oregano 1 teaspoon ground black pepper

2 pounds goat meat, cut into 2-inch chunks

The curry: Contemporary fine dining

1/2 cup oil 4 cups coconut milk 2 cups chopped onions 1 cup chopped bell peppers 1/2 cup chopped carrots 1/4 cup chopped green onion 4 bay leaves You can’t go wrong with a curry, and this one is easy to make.

For the marinade, mix the soy sauce, curry powder, garlic, basil, crushed pepper, oregano and black pepper in a large bowl. Add the goat to the bowl and marinade overnight.

For the curry, remove the goat from the marinade.

Heat the oil in a large pan and add the goat. Turn the heat to medium and sear the goat until brown, about 15 minutes. Add the coconut milk and 4 cups water.

Cover and cook, about 2 hours.

Add the onions, bell peppers, carrots, green onions and bay leaves and simmer, about 1 hour.

Serve with rice or rice and peas.

fl Seafood

Joffrey Charles is a French chef born and raised in Normandy. He has worked, for the past decade, in fine dining restaurants in Mont Saint Michel, Val D’Isere, Corsica, Dublin and London.

OPEN: Tuesday to Saturday Wednesday 2 course Taster Menu – 25.00€

tel: 658 748 919 reservations@joffreyslasmimosas.com Urbanización las Mimosas, 3A, La Cala De Mijas, 29649 Mijas, Málaga LIVE ENTERTAINMENT Every Thursday, Friday & Saturday 9pm-12pm

Restaurant

SEA FOOD DIFFERENTLY

• Early Bird 20€ - 6.00 - 8.00pm • Á La Carte Menu BOOKING RECOMMENDED

SERIOUSLY GOOD FOOD Open Tuesday - Saturday from 6pm

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www.thebluemarlin.eu

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May 24th - June 7th 2017

51

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s 00 ye rifthe fir mong ns over 10,0, is less caloher a e r e a t t w a o m f s u n t d h a a te y th Go a te d b satura s te r o l mesticeat has less er in chole n the w The m is much lo eats o conm r la opu tion ic andeats. mos t p popula rticured m one of thethe world’s lar diet, pa is u f t g o a re Go - 70% kf their n chic planet it as part o frica. on tha A sume Asia and levels of ir . larly intains higherwith protein , known It con is packed itamin B12kin. en and cked with V e healthy s It is pa you achiev to help

Galicia style Ingredients: 4 shoulders of suckling goat 600g each, two cloves of garlic, 10ml of olive oil, 1/2 litre of water, one sprig of thyme salt For this simple dish, a hot favourite in Galicia, Crush the garlic, thyme and salt and add a splash of oil.

Spread the shoulders with this mixture, and place in the oven to cook for about 90 minutes at 180ºC. Sprinkle with water and its own juice.

1987

1988 1989 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 May 24th - June 7th 2017

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2017

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Molino del Santo - the best-loved hotel and restaurant near Ronda - is celebrating 30 years in business with 30 special offers in the hotel and another 30 in the restaurant

HOTEL OFFERS

30 ROOM NIGHTS - we are offering JUST 30 room nights at very special rates between the 15th June and the 26th July 2017.

Hotpot

30% DISCOUNT - yes book a stay with us within the above dates and you will get a FULL 30% discount on our normal rates - BUT it only applies to a total of 30 room nights - once they’re gone, they’re gone. Maximum of two nights per booking at this special rate. Subject to availability.

Ingredients: 1.5kg goat leg meat on the bone, cut into chunks 2 tbsp olive oil 3 onions, chopped 6 garlic cloves, crushed 200g small button mushrooms 250g chorizo, cut into 1 cm discs 200ml red wine 500ml beef stock 400g can chopped tomatoes ½ bunch thyme, tied with string ½ orange, zested 400g can white beans, rinsed Preheat the oven to 180ºC. Season goat pieces with salt and pepper. In a large ovenproof casserole dish, sauté goat pieces in olive oil until brown and golden.

Remove from pan. To same pan, add onion, garlic, mushrooms and chorizo. Cook for 10 minutes, until tender. Deglaze pan with red wine, scraping up the little golden bits stuck to the pan.

Return goat to pan along with beef stock, tomato, thyme and orange zest. Season with salt and pepper and bring to the boil. Cover the mixture with a circle of baking paper and cover with a lid.

Place casserole dish in the centre of the oven and bake for 1 hour. Remove from oven, stir mixture and then add beans. Return to oven and bake for a further 30-45 minutes, or until goat meat is soft and tender. Check seasoning and serve in a large bowl.

RESTAURANT OFFERS

30 MEALS - we are offering JUST 30 meals at very special rates between the 15th June and the the 26th July 2017.

Spanishstyle stew Ingredients: 4 tablespoons of olive oil 1 kg diced goat meat 125 gr chorizo 1 medium onion sliced 2 gloves garlic sliced 100 mls dry white wine, optional 400 gr or 1 tin chopped tomatoes 400 gr tin of cannellini beans, washed and drained Small sprig thyme salt and pepper to taste Brown the goat meat in olive oil, cover with stock or water and simmer until soft, approximately 1 1/2 hours.

Gently fry the onion, garlic and chorizo until translucent, add the dry white wine, tomatoes, beans and thyme. Combine with the goat meat and stock, add salt and pepper and cook for a further 20 minutes.

Thicken the sauce if required.

Serve with potato wedges, rice or couscous.

30% DISCOUNT - yes book a meal with us within the above dates and you will get a FULL 30% discount on your final bill - BUT it only applies to a total of 30 meals - once they’re gone, they’re gone.

Maximum of two people per booking at this special rate. Subject to availability.

HOW

TO GRAB AN OFFER

We will only accept bookings for these special offers via e-mail. Mention this advertisement when you enquire. info@molinodesanto.com.

Don’t leave it too late - once 30 people have booked we’re closing the offer.

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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

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52

Food, drink & travel

A GIANT among Valencian paella makers has died.

Food lovers have paid their respects to Antonio Galbis, 84, who broke two world records for his humongous record-breaking rice dishes.

Galbis used cranes, ‘cherry pickers’ and enormous poles to create his impressive feats.

Well known around Spain, the most famous creations involved a paella in Madrid in 2001 which fed a record 110,000 people.

It beat the previous world record he set in 1992 in Valencia, when he cooked up a storm for 100,000.

Devoured

The owner of renowned paella party company Paella Galbis, his creations were devoured by celebrities, world dignitaries and footballers.

Valencia leader Ximo Puig described him as ‘a leading light in the Spanish kitchen and a scholar of the pan’.

To put things in perspective Jamie Oliver once spent an entire day cooking a paella for a village of 1000 people near Ronda.

During his impressive feat - pictured exclusively by the Olive Press - he was helped by around a dozen chefs in the village of Benaojan.

May 24th - June 7th 2017

RIP maestro FEEDING 110,000: Paella created by Galbis (right)

Chefs pay respects to legendary paella maker

REMEMBERED: Antonio Galbis and another feat

www.theolivepress.es Food, drink & travel

53 May 24th - June 7th 2017

May 24th - June 7th 2017

53

The Big 3-0

By Laurence Dollimore

AN expat-run hotel is celebrating an amazing three decades in business.

Molino del Santo, on the edge of the stunning Grazalema Natural Park, has picked up many awards over the years, including Best Countryside Hotel in Spain and Most Romantic Hotel in Spain.

The rural boutique hotel, in the village of Benaojan, close to Ronda, was set up by British owners Andy Chappell and Pauline Elkin in 1987.

The pair, who both trained as teachers back in the UK, fell in love with the historic former

Leading rural hotel Molino del Santo reaches its third decade

STUNNING: Hotel sits in Grazalema countryside

Save your bacon A POTENTIALLY deadly ‘Brexit virus’ carried in EU sausages affects 60,000 Brits each year.

It’s a strain of hepatitis E (HEV), which has been linked to continental European pig farms after a tropical virus mutated and infected livestock.

The number of severe cases has trebled in the past seven years, causing flu-like symptoms and, potentially, death.

Eating infected undercooked pork can cause the virus to travel to the liver and cause serious illness.

People are being advised to cook bacon until it’s crispy and sausages for at least 20 minutes, due to the virus’ capability to survive high temperatures.

Dr Harry Dalton, a gastroenterologist at Exeter University, says pregnant women and transplant patients should not eat pork at all.

mill, which sits by a raging river.

Chappell insisted that part of the business’s success is down to trying new things.

“A hotel is never boring and the range of knowledge and experience encountered day in and day out is impressive,” he said.

“Apart from sampling delicious local food and wine, we have also tried numerous activities to be able to recommend them to guests.

“We have tried everything from hot air ballooning to guided walks and from horse-riding to cork-cutting, the list goes on.”

Since moving to Spain to follow their dream the pair have had two daughters Carme and Rossi and turned the restaurant into easily one of the region’s best.

There have been numerous celebrity guests, such as Jamie Oliver, while current Lib Dem leader Tim Farron even had his honeymoon there.

Open: Tuesday to Saturday 12.00 til 22.30 Kitchen closed 15.30 til 19.00 Sunday 12.00 til 16.00 Closed on Monday Reservations: elgarden2016@gmail.com

Come and enjoy historic Cape Trafalgar with us

Avda. Trafalgar 102, Los Caños de Meca, Costa de la Luz tel: 956 437 255 CalifaVejer.com

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restaurant | lunch and dinner

I

read a report last week that that many Spanish children do not leave home until they are nearly 30-years-old, a decade later than other European countries.

It raised a wry smile as I lived with my Dad, on and off, both in London and Marbella for more than a few years. If you imagine a cross between Steptoe and Son meets The Odd Couple and you get the general idea of chez Brown at the time.

Apart from a few idiosyncrasies we actually get on famously – he's an ex international racing driver and great company, although he does have an unexplained fondness for 'Eastenders' that I have yet to comprehend as he was born in Rhonda.

WWW.ELMUELLE-ARRIATE.COM ESTACIÓON DE ARRIATE | ARRIATE (MA 7400, KM 4) 0034 637 784 416 | 0034 952 166 370 CLOSED ON MONDAYS

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There is a whole new way to discover Andalucia @allaboutandalucia @aboutandalucia @allaboutandalucia All about Andalucia

May 24th - June 7th 2017 May 24th - June 7th 2017

The Odd Couple The pros and cons of living with the padres

Explaining to female guests could also be tricky - it might be seen as terminally uncool to be living with your father when you are over 30. I tried passing him off as a retired manservant whose family had been in our service for hundreds of years, but with little success.

Mind you, that trick worked both ways as on occasion he would try passing me off as his driver, once famously getting into the back seat of the car and regally asking me to pick him up "at the usual time".

It's little wonder that he didn't get me a chauffeur's

Marbella Madness As the season starts to heat up, Natalie talks buttlifts and backhands

I The Olive Press Insider’s Guide

Columnists

spend the first four months of every year wishing the days would fast forward. Then May arrives and I want time to stand still. Like this. Forever. Those cold, dark mornings are but a distant memory. The sun is shining, birds are singing and the temperature’s not too hot yet. Marbella is simply beautiful. Scarlet and crimson bougainvillea cloak every building, fuschia blooms abundantly on roadsides...and then there are the jacarandas, scattering purple petals, like confetti in the breeze.

Of course, as a freelance writer, this is no time for me to rest on my laurels (or any other kind of plant).

Marbella is gearing up for “the biggest summer yet” and crazy season is coming. Every day (and night) means visiting the latest “it place” in town to see what’s on offer (each one more “it” than the last, naturally). Glitz, glamour and gaudy times are here.

If there’s one industry, though, that thrives here even more than bars and beauty salons, it’s the cosmetic surgery industry. And this summer, ‘The Brazilian Buttlift’ is apparently the new kid on the block.

“Breasts are so ‘Noughties’”, one cosmetic surgeon tells me as I try hard to compose myself. “No one wants breasts anymore. 2010s are about the buttocks. Bums are big, and bigger is better.” He pulls out ‘before’ and ‘after´ photographs. “I remove excess fat from the rest of the body and inject it into the buttocks, but I would never use anyone else’s fat, in case the body has a reaction.” I leave the interview stunned, and conceding that Marbella is getting crazier by the minute.

The Marbella madness continues, with me, the willing guinea pig, sampling menus and getting preened, polished and plucked like turkey before Christmas. So much for glamour – this is exhausting! Come back bare face, bedraggled hair and ballet pumps – all is forgiven!

It is typical that on one of my ‘dress-down’ mornings I bump into none other than tennis world number two, Novak Djokovic. Having stumbled out of a gruelling gym session, I’m refuelling

Marbella diaries By

Natalie Rose Kern

with a double espresso in Organic Café on the Golden Mile when I spot the tennis legend across the counter from me.

I’m momentarily star-struck and lost for words, until I find myself mumbling something about his choice of cereal bars, “Those ones, are great!” I tell him, ”My son loves them” He smiles and we shake hands. Whether the coffee is finally kicking in or it’s Novak’s easy nature, the two of us are chatting vivaciously in no time.

We discuss the fact that his brother lives here and Novak’s love for the place. What is it about Marbella?

“The laidback vibe, the easygoing way of life, the people, the weather…” he says, revealing that he plays tennis every day, even when on holiday, and Marbella’s climate allows him to play outdoors almost all year round.

I tell him that I’d managed to catch a glimpse of him last summer at the Seal concert in the Puente Romano. “Wasn’t that great?!” he enthuses. “That was an AMAZING concert! So intimate for such a massive star…and his performance was fantastic!” His respect and admiration for the star is evident. “He is a true artist – one of the greats.”

I look up at the tennis player towering over me and am bowled over by his enthusiasm. “As are you” I tell him. “Thank you” he smiles, with a humble nod of the head I congratulate him on his baby, due in the summer, and ask if we’ll be seeing more of him in Marbella. “I’ll be back soon,” he grins before smiling for a selfie (my hands can’t stop shaking with excitement) and then he’s off.

And that’s Marbella. My month has included 18 parties, five makeovers, four food reviews and three lavish functions…and an impromptu interview with one of the greatest tennis players on the planet. Over cereal bars. With unbrushed hair. In my tracksuit.

I may not be ready to get botoxed or buttlifted, but I suppose it wouldn’t hurt to carry a lipstick around with me… just in case. After all, if you can’t beat them, join them.

cap to wear.

Having said that, living with my father meant that we got to know the neighbours.

On one Friday evening, following a particularly tough magazine deadline, I returned home late at night to find the house deserted.

I was somewhat puzzled by this until I heard the sound of a party in full swing next door. I knocked on the neighbour's front door to be greeted with a cry of "Oh, you must be the son!!!", and found my Dad holding court with his motor racing stories in the garden.

Retreated

I retreated to the kitchen – always my signature move at house parties – and found myself chatting to an huge, but thankfully friendly Nigerian, who I thought I recognised. He told me his name was Steve, that he lived in Bath and that he played a bit of rugby. Fortified by a few swift San Miguels, I launched into a comprehensive rundown of my own `glittering´rugby career (a couple of really bad seasons for a Saturday morning Richmond pub team).

I was halfway through my spiel when I realised where I knew him from.

"Steve. Nigerian. Lives in Bath and plays a bit of rugby" I said.

"Yes" he grinned It was Steve Ojomoh. The then England flanker What was even worse was that his mate, Adedayo Adeyemi, the then England winger was with him.

"Ade, meet Giles" said my new best mate Steve "He plays a bit of rugby!"

"Really" replied Adedayo "Rugby player? Well you better come drinking with us!"

The next thing I knew, I was being bundled into a taxi with two current England international and a Leicester second row who obviously didn't think much of me, and was being taken on a supercharged bar crawl of Banus.

As the shot drinking started I soon realised that I was well out of my league, and left the field of play and hour later, staggering as if the entire French pack had just run over me. In the morning my head felt the same.

I decided it was time to fly the nest soon after!

www.theolivepress.es

sport May 24th - June 7th 2017

Friday 17th - St. Patricks Day

Spain: Champions St. PATRICKS DAY menu of the Americas?

FACE PAINTING 2.00pm 3.00pm 3.00pm 4.00 pm 7.00pm 9.00pm 10.00pm

Cheltenham Races All Ireland GAA Club Finals 4€ Biddy Mulligan´s Golf Society Party Live Music with John Maddocks Ireland U20´s vs England U20´s Ireland Women vs England Women Live Music with Alan Shiels

A GIRL’S football team has made history after triumphing in a Spanish boys league. t r a d i t i o n a l It comes after the girls of AEM Lleida felt they served all day Guinness, Kilkenny, Magners €4 had no real competition so signed up for compeSt Patricks Day Shots €2 tition against their male counterparts.

Two seasons later they saturday 18th - 6 Nations THEY’VE conquered the Final Day 1.30pm Scotland vs Italy got their hands on the Euros and World Cup al3.45pmthe France vs Wales winners' trophy, with top Ireland vs England soon ready, 6.00pm but Spain could 9.30pm

Live Music with Layla

Girl power

scorer Andrea Gomez netting 38 times. The team lost just once in 22 games.

Sergio Gonzalez, the club's president, said: "A few parents called us cra-

be adding the Copa America 19th - Premier League to theirSunday trophy cabinet.

1.00pm Middlesbrough vs Man Utd 3.15pm bid Spurs vs Southampton In a bizarre to make the 5.30pm Man City vs Liverpool South American tournament 9.30pm Live Music with Sean Murray more commercially successCheck out our Facebook page for our Virtual Tour, ful, organisersSpecial are desperate Offers, Whats Coming Up to ignoreBiddy geography and get Mulligans BiddysLaCala Tel: 952 494 877 Spain competing.

Portugal, Japan, China, Mexico and the US are also reportedly being sounded out over their availability to play in the tournament.

Japan and China’s attendance would boost commercial opportunities around the world, while the added stardust of Cristiano Ron- Malaga star retires after trophyaldo and David Silva would filled career rake in global viewers.

The 2019 Copa America will be the final one in the ‘odd’ MALAGA defender Mar- ing the curtains on his 17 years, with the tournament tin Demichelis has an- years’ playing. having a five-year hiatus be- nounced his retirement The Argentina internafore returning in 2024. from football following an tional only rejoined Malepic career. aga in this year's January In a tear-filled press con- transfer window, having ference, the 36-year-old previously played for the revealed he was pull- club from 2011 to 2013.

He made 86 appearances in total.

Demichelis won the Bundesliga five times with MALAGA FC’s president has Bayern Munich, the Prebeen fined €3,500 for callmier League once with ing Barcelona ‘Catalan scum’ Man City, and was a runduring a social media rant. ner up in the 2014 World Abdullah Al-Thani’s tweet, Cup with Argentina. written in Arabic, was in He said: "I'm grateful to response to a fan who joked this profession but more Malaga should allow Real so to Malaga for extending Madrid to beat them on the my career as a player and final day of the season to giving me the determinastop Barcelona winning the tion that a player needs league. to continue to be a profesAngry, Barcelona reported sional and compete.

Al-Thani to La Liga's De"I always thought that it partment of Integrity and would be a dream to end Spain's anti-violence commy career at Malaga and mission. today I'm doing it.”

The Spanish government's Demichelis thanked head commission against viocoach Michel and added lence, racism, xenophobia he would now be a Malaga and intolerance in sport supporter. then agreed on the fine.

End of an era

What a twit!

Warming up for Wimbledon CANADIAN tennis star Eugenie Bouchard will play in this year’s Mallorca Open.

The number five seed will compete in the second edition of the tournament, which takes place from June 18-25.

Wimbledon finalist Bouchard recently beat Angelique Kerber and drugs cheat Maria Sharapova in the Madrid Open.

Bouchard is a grass-surface specialist and will warm up for this year’s Wimbledon tournament at the Mallorca event.

READY. Bouchard

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May 24th - June 7th 2017 story, If you have a sports

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5555

zy when we registered the team. If this had gone very wrong, we would have been held responsible for humiliating the girls.”

One boy said: "It’s hard to lose against girls, but these ones really are very good."

AEM is now trying to raise €10,000 due to a lack of resources, which it says is acting as a ‘barrier’ to talent development.

TRIUMPHANT: The team

Clay king on a roll

EMOTIONAL: Demichelis

RAFAEL Nadal has stormed to his fifth Madrid Open win after overcoming upcoming star Dominic Thiem.

The Mallorca maestro’s record on his favoured clay is now 15 wins and no defeats after bagging titles in Monte Carlo and Barcelona in recent weeks.

Nadal saw off ninth-ranked Thiem 7-6 (10-8), 6-4 after beating Novak Djokovic in the previous round.

Nadal said: “To play here and win here means a lot to me.

“I am always very nervous and emotional to play a final in Madrid.”

The Spaniard won an hour-long first set in the tie-break with his fifth set point and broke Austrian Thiem in his opening service game before powering to the victory.

The win leaves the King of Clay in fine form going into this month’s French Open, which he has won nine times.

It also moves Nadal above Roger Federer to fourth in the world rankings.

56

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Iconic Performance

FINAL WORDS

World famous singer Salif Keita is to perform across Spain this year. The Best World Music Winner will appear in Madrid and Valencia in July.

advice

Cheap flights

Low cost airlines have seen their use increase in Malaga by 17%. The airport remains the second most popular in the country, after Barcelona.

Ancient crime

More than 400 artefacts have been stolen before they were to end up at the Ardales museum. The Guardia Civil is investigating the case of stolen items, among which is valuable Visigothic buckle and coins from several periods in history.

Vol. 11 Issue 266

www.theolivepress.es

May 24th - June 7th 2017

Ducking and diving!

A BAND of bandit dolphins have been fingered for plundering fish from nets.

The pod of Malayo dolphins are being hunted for continually stealing from fishermen off the Costa del Sol. Looking for an easy meal, the Robin Hoodstyle amphibians sneak up on fishing boats and rip open their nets after they have landed a big haul.

The problem has got so bad that fishermen at Caleta de Velez port, in the

Pod of bandit dolphins sought after fishermen’s nets get plundered on regular basis Axarquia, have pleaded for the authorities to step in to help.

They claim the dolphins are causing them hundreds of thousands of euros in damage .

Caleta port spokesman Mari Carmen Navas revealed that the plucky dolphins circle the boats

in a ‘determined manner’ before swooping.

She then said that they ‘wait until the nets are full before plundering’ the hauls of mostly sardines and mackerel.

One attempt to put off the dolphins has fallen on deaf ears, after attaching speakers to the boats to simulate the sounds of whales.

“But the dolphins quickly worked it out and were not put off,” said Carmen.

Come on you Spain May 24th - June 7th 2017

HE’S got every right to be showboating around the Med. Tottenham star Dele Alli has been spotted soaking up the sun in Ibiza.

Alli, 20, whose team came second in the Premier League this year, was seen playing in the sea with girlfriend Ruby Mae, 22, before devouring a plate of sushi on the beach.

The loved up pair (left) were joined on the party island by fellow Spurs stars Kieran Trippier, 26 and goalkeeper Michel Vorm, 33.

Both Vorm and Trippier were joined by their wives, with the latter also bringing along his daughter Charlotte.

The holiday came days before Spurs sealed second spot in a 2-1 victory against Manchester United in the last ever game at White Hart Lane.

Quite a stir!

By David Anderson

AN airline checked every single piece of passengers' hand luggage onto a flight to Spain - but the crew forgot to check the tea

Toll tale A SPANISH driver who didn’t fancy paying a motorway toll simply turned around and drove back the wrong way.

The 46-year-old, from Catalonia, was stopped by cops after driving 4km in the wrong direction on the AP-7 toll road near Manilva. When stopped, the sober man claimed he had no choice but turn back as he couldn’t afford to pay the €1.95 fee.

bags!

It caused a storm in a tea cup as bleary-eyed holidaymakers were looking forward to their early morning cuppa.

But on Ryanair's flight FR5159 from Newcastle to Malaga came the shattering announcement: ‘We have no tea!’

Pensioner Margaret Ramsay said "It's a disgrace. I had been up since 5am and was looking forward to my cuppa.

"When they found out they had no tea, why didn't an attendant pop across the tarmac and buy some packs of tea at the airport shops."

Margaret, from Tyne and Wear added: "I wouldn't care, earlier there was a long hold up because every item of hand luggage was checked for size, with folk getting hot and bothered trying to squeeze their bags into the machine."

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