16
2015
2015 saw Gibraltar opt for more of the same and Spain vote for change, while the Olive Press continued to break the biggest news stories on the Iberian peninsula
Here’s what we predict (hope and dream) 2016 will bring:
Lions roar Expats dance in Plaza Mayor as Marbella-favourite Harry Kane bags the winner for England in the Euro 2016 final against Spain in Paris.
Better together
Ungagged Human rights intervention puts an end to Spain’s draconian gag law, to the delight of Spaniards and expats alike.
Round-up
a game-ch
Look into the Olive Press crystal ball...
Gibraltarians and expats rejoice after a hard-fought anti-Brexit campaign results in a massive triumph. Voters resoundingly elect to keep Britain in the European Union.
16 16
January
February
THE year got off to an explosive start as we broke news of Russian President Vladimir Putin installing a multimillion euro vineyard at an alleged Zagaleta palace. Unsurprisingly, the Kremlin rushed to pour cold water on the potentially damaging claims. The infamous ‘wedding runner’ returned, this time on our screens. Sonicknamed for repeatedly leaving Costa del Sol couples high and dry on their big day, wedding planner Sue Danker resurfaced on a reality TV show. Journalists - and many others - across the world united in the aftermath of the terrorist attack on Charlie Hebdo in Paris. Thousands protested for free speech under the slogan ‘Je suis Charlie’.
WITH new party Podemos beginning to make itself heard, the Olive Press headed north to report on the March for Change in Madrid. Google launched an internal probe after we discovered towns including Algeciras were being renamed as ‘Taifas’ on Google Maps, their title during ancient Islamic rule. The search engine made headlines again when it removed our legitimate story about a corrupt lawyer from search results due to a controversial Human Rights Court ruling. The solution? We published it again (and weren’t damned). A British expat living in Sotogrande, Victor Kainth, killed an alleged German paedophile with one punch after spotting him filming his own children in a restaurant. Finally, there was widespread pandemonium among female expats when reporters Tom Powell and Rob Horgan offered themselves up as dates in a Valentine’s competition. (Alas, not one person actually entered!)
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PARADISE: The Donana World Heritage
Gone
Site is under threat from two oil
Mystery Blaze
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EXCLUSIVE By Giles Brown at Big Blue Box, which destroyed hundreds of thousands of euros of furniture, most belonging to private individuals. The fire broke out in the early hours of Friday morning at the Atena Commercial Centre, completely destroying the showroom, as exclusive Olive Press photos show. As firefighters struggled to control the massive blaze, the area was cordoned off as
smoke blew across the nearby main road. Nobody was injured in the blaze, but it comes after a series of woes for shop owners Bennie and Debbie Glynn. In recent months the company had been the subject of complaints by some customers who were unhappy with the service they had received, with several contacting the Olive Press. A friend of the couple con-
OLYMPIC gold medal winner James Cracknell has vowed to become a new hero for the Rock. Rower Cracknell - who is standing as a candidate for the MEP elections in May 2014 - told the Olive Press he would ‘fight the corner’ of Gibraltarians in their current dispute with Spain. He insisted he would campaign on their behalf in Brussels, and would ‘not take no’ for an answer. Cracknell - who was burgled last week while receiving treatment for a brain condition in a London hospital - added he was buoyed by Gibraltar’s sense of community and passion for politics.
2014 wall
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The good, the bad and the ugly of 2014 See our round-up of the year, starting on Page 15
MISSING: Amy and Agnese MISSING Amy Fitzpatrick’s family have joined the campaign to find a second missing Costa girl, Agnese Klavina. Amy’s aunt Christine Kenny offered her support to Agnese’s family to mark Amy’s disappearance on New Year’s Day 2007. Meanwhile Agnese, 30, has not been seen since leaving a Marbella nightclub last September.Kenny said: “Agnese went missing not too far from where Amy did. “We are trying to help each other. “There are said to be eight other women who have gone missing on the Costa del Sol since 2005 and too little is being done to help find them.” More than 80 expats, including Amy’s mother Audrey Fitzpatrick and partner Dave Mahon - who is currently on bail for murdering Amy’s brother Dean - also attended a service in Fuengirola. On Monday, the body of a young woman was rumoured to have been found by police in Istan lake. However, Guardia Civil told the Olive Press yesterday that no such find has been made. Turn to Page 2
Chateau Putin EXCLUSIVE By Tom Powell
HE is one of the richest, most controversial men in the world and – it seems – somewhat the wine buff. Russian president Vladimir Putin is planting his very own vineyard at the multimillion euro home he is developing in the hills above Marbella, it can be revealed. Olive Press sources insist that the Russian gourmet, 62, has dug 25 plants from Spain’s top bodega Pingus into a series of terraces around the mansion, in Benahavis. In a huge mega-deal he has also contracted the vineyard’s owner Danish oenologist Peter Sisseck to oversee production of the wine. The wine will be produced in two huge underground cel-
Three wine cellars and a crop of Spain’s most-exclusive Pingus vines for Russian president’s luxury Marbella hideaway
lars at the 10-bedroom palace in the exclusive enclave of Zagaleta - complete with private helipad and 22-car garage. A series of French oak barrels will store the wine. The climatised cellars cost an estimated €1 million to install and also include a separate champagne room with its very own fingerprint code entry system. “It is an amazing project and
no expense is being spared,” said the source. A spokesman for the small five hectare Pingus holding in Burgos - whose wines are Spain’s most expensive at €1,000 a bottle - was unable to confirm the purchase. “I am not able to give out any information about grapevines being sold, only about the bottles we sell and distribute,” she said.
GRAPE ESCAPE: Putin is to grow his own wine in this incredible Benahavis mansion
In October 2012, the Olive Press was able to link the ExKGB boss Putin to a consortium of six wealthy businessmen behind the €19 million Zagaleta project. The epitome of extravagance, his 18,000m² plot boasts its own spa and gym, a cinema, piano bar, and two swimming pools. Putin has long been a big Hispanophile having visited
Spain on many occasions, with a recent book claiming he came in ‘illegally’ 37 times on false documents in the 1990s alone. He has also been linked to a Spanish construction company. It is also clear that Putin appreciates his wine, as his South of France mansion was revealed to have expansive wine cellars too, back in 2001. Est 1984
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So long, Dickens Virtual reality gaming headsets become the must-have birthday present across Spain and Gibraltar; books are confined to museums.
Gold shock And finally, Britain’s Got Talent star and dancing supremo Jonathan Lutwyche wins Gibraltar’s first ever olympic gold medal after a last-minute call up to compete in the triple jump.
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THE search for missing expat Agnese Klavina made international headlines at the start of the month after a businessman’s yacht was seized and Brits Westley Capper and Craig Porter was brought in for questioning. The month’s close brought tragic news as a British family of four were found dead in a Gibraltar flat, on the same day that retired expat couple Jean and Peter Tarsey were tied up and killed at their Alicante home. In other news, the OP tracked down infamous British fraudster Paul Bloomfield in Puerto Banus, fellow tycoon Alan Sugar cashed in on his Marbella beach pad and the world’s deadliest walkway, the Caminito del Rey, reopened to the
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public, with the OP getting an exclusive preview. March also saw the first of four elec45 years tions in 2015, with Susana Diaz voted as an agent back in as Junta President after negotiating a pact with Ciudadanos. It was also a landmark month for the OP, with the unveiling of our first ever Let us help you Property magazine. The launch coinreach your destination. cided with our K.O. the Kickbacks campaign to rid Marbella’s property sector of backhanders between lawyers and estate agents. The secret Spanish homes of a dozen leading celebrities
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May THE runup to the summer holidays was marred by a phishing scam which left hundreds of holidaymakers out of pocket and with nowhere to stay, as exclusively investigated by the Olive Press. Meanwhile a British mother contacted us when the UK courts ordered her to return to Spain to live in the same village as her abusive ex-partner in order to share custody of their child. In other news, Britain’s Got Talent star Jonathan Lutwyche taught OP reporters how to dance, Pablo Picasso’s Women of Algiers sold for a world record €160 million and football fans were left pulling their hair out as La Liga was temporarily suspended over a TV rights tussle. May also saw the return of the ballot box, with local elections taking place across the country.
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ENVIRONMENTALISTS were rejoicing as the Los Merinos golf project in Ronda was finally scrapped and the Junta announced plans to demolish the Algarrobico Hotel in Almeria. Keeping it green, the Olive Press paid a visit to the Bay of Cadiz to lend its support to a preservation effort at bird-watching sanctuary La Covacha. Celebs were also busy cherishing the planet with Helena Bonham Carter stripping off to pose nude with a tuna to highlight illegal fishing. Meanwhile, we lifted the lid on how Europe’s biggest-ever gangster, Ricardo Fanchini, operated from his Benahavis hideout before being banged up in the States. We also caught up with brain tumour survivor Ashya King and family on the youngster’s embattled road to recovery and spoke exclusively to the brave British nurse who helped pull four deaf Turkish students out of the sea in Marbella, only for all but one to tragically die.
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June AS usual, a flood of celebs arrived on the Costa del Sol for the start of the summer. As the Olive Press caught up with Premiership footballers in Gibraltar and partied with TOWIE stars in Puerto Banus, BBC presenter Nick Knowles moved to Sotogrande and celebrity restaurant owners Elliott Wright and Steven Saunders began writing columns for the OP. It wasn’t all good news for the rich and famous however, as the Olive Press exclusively revealed. Status Quo star Rick Parfitt and his wife Lyndsay were duped out of thousands of euros in a pots-andpans scam in Marbella. We also tracked down controversial Scottish boxer Scott Harrison’s trashed villa in the Guadalhorce Valley and exposed Estepona Town Hall for not clearing up an E-Coli-ridden river. Finally, in what must be the most bizarre tale of the year, we exclusively revealed how a British holidaymaker reported one of Gibraltar’s Barbary macaques for sexual assault, only to be asked if she could pick one out of a lineup!