The
OLIVE PRESS
FINALLY!
“QUICK, simple and painless. The pain comes later,” King Felipe told incoming Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez at a swearing in ceremony yesterday. The PSOE leader will certainly hope not, having had to endure an agonizing two year wait and three general elections to get this far. It was his second recent attempt at an investiture since the Socialists won the most seats in December’s general election, but failed to win an overall majority. And Sanchez, 47, pulled out all the stops as he cracked heads at a mammoth two day weekend session in Madrid, after which he finally won the vote by two seats. After years of instability, it is ‘great news for Spain’ insisted one of the country’s best known expats. Irish author Ian Gibson told the Olive Press: “While there are going to be lots of compromises, there will also be solutions.” The Madrid-based writer, who has lived in Spain for half a century, added: “I’m delighted. He’s an amazing man and it’s remarkable to think he stuck it out after being kicked out of his own party and then fighting back. “He has the qualities of a true statesman and speaks very well. He will be a great asset for Europe,” added the Hispanist, who has penned numerous books on Spain.
Frankenstein
Sanchez was sworn in at Zarzuela Palace after winning a second vote of confidence. MPs voted by a knife-edge 167 votes to 165 to support Sanchez’s leftwing coalition government, propped up by Pablo Iglesias’s Podemos party and a host of other parties. It helped that 18 MPs, the majority from Catalunya, abstained. The coalition government, which includes Podemos, PNV, Más País, Compromís, Galego Nationalist Block, Teruel Existe and Nueva Canarias, is the first since 1977 after the death of dictator Franco. The parties opposing included the PP, Vox, Ciudadanos, Junts per Catalunya and Navarra Suma. Key to Sanchez’s victory was the abstention of the pro-independence Catalan party, the ERC, after Sanchez vowed to find a solution to the conflict that has dogged Spain since Catalunya’s separatist regional government tried to secede in 2017. The government’s opponents argue Sanchez’ ‘Frankenstein government’ will be too beholden to Catalan separatists and pose a threat to Spain’s national unity. Opinion page 6
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Vol. 1 Issue 5 www.theolivepress.es
Your expat
voice in Spain
January 9th - January 22nd 2020
Mission Impossible A CONVICTED British conman has been accused of striking again in a car transport scam running up and down the Costa Blanca. Simon Davies, 58, who now runs Mission Impossible Transport from Almeria, was jailed in 2008 for his part in a €450,000 mortgage fraud. But the trickster - who goes by various aliases - has now been denounced to the Guardia Civil, in Alicante, for ‘stealing’ a top-of-the-range car from a British expat. According to Kenny Greenhow, who lives near Ciudad Quesada, Davies has nicked his BMW convertible, worth €8,000, en route to the UK. The paint inspector, from Tyneside, told the Olive Press he had paid £820 (€970) to get his beloved 120i back to the UK, last year. He has not seen it since. “It’s important that police catch up with the guy, and stop other people being conned the way that I have,” said Greenhow, 61, who has also reported the theft to the UK police. “As long as justice is done and he is behind bars.” Greenhow had first come across Mission Impossible, via an online broker uShip, last summer. The company’s profile, which is still on the website, claims to have five vehicles and drivers and ‘has £50,000 goods in transit insurance and £2 million public liability insurance.’ “I got plenty of quotes, and Davies was the cheapest,” he explained. “With the query going through a broker, I thought he’d be legitimate. “But when the car didn’t arrive after its delivery date in the UK, I started digging around and to my horror dis-
Conman accused of stealing expat’s BMW claims his transport company left it in ‘northern Spain’ due to ‘paperwork problems’ EXCLUSIVE By Simon Wade
covered his reputation and past.” This included damning reviews on sites calling Davies ‘a complete scammer’ and ‘a liar’. Other reviews about a previous company, SD Sameday Couriers, on yell. com gave him one star and claimed he had ‘disappeared’ goods and failed to respond to customer queries. Our research reveals that Davies, 58, is no stranger to fraud. SD Sameday recently shared an address with Cleanrite Ltd and Sparklebrite Ltd in Essex, companies run by his wife, Anita.
Disqualified
Their marriage certificate, available online, shows Simon Clive Davies to have previously been known as ‘Clive Emmanuel Smith’, who was jailed for fraud in 2008. The Lancashire Telegraph reported that Davies (then 46), aka Clive Emmanuel Smith, had been handed three years and six months for his part in a £380,000 mortgage fraud. Shockingly, Davies has other convictions, including when he persuaded an investor to hand over £30,000 to start a new mobile phone business
called Callfree.net Ltd, in 2005. What he hadn’t revealed was his banning as a director from 2004 to 2010 after a previous company had gone into liquidation with debts of nearly £200,000. A few years later a bankruptcy order was made against him in the name of ‘Clive Smith, which again disqualified him from acting as a company director. Despite this, he went on to act as director of property company Safe as Houses Ltd under a different identity. “We are determined to crack down on cheats like these who profit by deception,” said Pat McFadden, of the UK’s Department for Business. When contacted this week, Davies claimed the BMW had simply been left with police in ‘northern Spain’ due to ‘problems with paperwork’. Davies said he was ‘sick of being stopped by Spanish police’, saying the car had become a ‘hot potato’ over unspecified problems with bureaucracy. He failed however to name the police station nor region where he left the car. Davies added he had been in touch with the UK police over the issue. Mission Impossible Transport’s broker, uShip, confirmed to the Olive
FRAUDSTER: Davies, while (top) the missing BMW Press that Davies’ account is currently suspended. Mission Impossible Transport Limited was set up out of an office in Old Street, London, in 2018, and despite a threat of being struck off last year, is still apparently trading. If you know Davies in any of his guises contact the Olive Press at +34 951 273 575 or email newsdesk@theolivepress.es Opinion page 6