Nigel Cranswick, 47, served as a police officer for South Yorkshire Police between 1997 and 2005 when he set up Idea 2 Go Ltd at The Dinnington Business Centre.

He used the business as the front for his VAT scam by claiming that the business had sold more than six million mobile phones and had a turnover of more than £2.4 billion in just eight months.

He and five other used details from hijacked or fictitious companies to produce thousands of invoices for sales of mobile phones and computer software, producing billion of pounds in fabricated turnover, which generated around £330million in fraudulent VAT repayments.

Cranswick - the ringleader - and his gang invented more than 6,000 fake business transactions in an attempt to make the repayments appear legitimate.

But the scam was identified by HM Revenue & Customs officials who noticed alleged sales for more than 50,000 mobile phones which had not been manufactured at that point.

Cranswick, of Danby Road, Kiveton, quit his job as a serving policeman and began splashing out on extravagant purchases, made lavish improvements to his home, rented a luxury apartment in the Spanish town of Marbella and paid for private schooling and tennis lessons for his children.

He claimed that in the first six weeks of trading Ideas 2 Go, turned over more than £527 million. The company had traded over £47 million before they even got round to opening a bank account for the business.

Cranswick admitted conspiracy to cheat the public revenue and was sentenced to ten years and three months imprisonment.

HMRC assistant director for Criminal Investigation Paul Rooney said: “As a police officer Cranswick knew full well that he was breaking the law, yet; motivated by greed, he chose to overlook it for the opportunity of making what he wrongly assumed would be easy money. He now has to pay a very high price for his poor judgement and lack of integrity.”

“This was a sophisticated fraud designed to steal hundreds of millions of pounds of tax, but it started to unravel when our investigations identified sales for more than 50,000 mobile phones, which the manufacturers hadn’t even begun producing in their factories.”

Sentencing the gang at Newcastle Crown Court Judge Brian Forster said: “This was an unprecedented attack on the public revenue.”

“The figures in this case were astonishing and revealed the blatant nature of the fraud.”

“The companies persisted in dishonest trading despite numerous warnings from HMRC. The purpose of today’s sentences were to punish and to deter others from acting in the same way.”

Exchequer Secretary, David Gauke said: “This Government will not tolerate dishonest people stealing public money.”

“This sentence shows that those who try to commit fraud need to think again – HMRC will find you and the courts will punish you.”

“The additional £917 million we have invested in HMRC will see more cases like this successfully prosecuted, sending a clear and powerful message.”

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The World Bank today approved $297 million in loans to Morocco to help finance the Ouarzazate Concentrated Solar Power Plant Project

The World Bank today approved $297 million in loans to Morocco to help finance the Ouarzazate Concentrated Solar Power Plant Project, taking a historic step toward realizing one of the first large-scale plants of this kind in North Africa to exploit the region's vast solar energy resources. With this approval from the Bank's Board of Executive Directors, Morocco takes the lead with the first project in the low-carbon development plan under the ambitious Middle East and North Africa Concentrated Solar Power (CSP) Scale-up Program. A $200 million loan will be provided by the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development, the part of the Bank that lends to developing country governments, and another $97 million loan will come from the Clean Technology Fund. "The World Bank is proud to provide the financing needed to make this large-scale renewable energy investment possible," said World Bank Group President Robert B. Zoellick. "Ouarzazate demonstrates Morocco's commitment to low-carbon growth and could demonstrate the enormous potential of solar power in the Middle East and North Africa. During a time of transformation in North Africa, this solar project could advance the potential of the technology, create many new jobs across the region, assist the European Union to meet its low-carbon energy targets, and deepen economic and energy integration in the Mediterranean. That's a multiple winner." The 500 megawatt (MW) Ouarzazate solar complex, as the first power site, will be among the largest CSP plants in the world and is an important step in Morocco's national plan to deploy 2000 MW of solar power generation capacity by 2020. The World Bank has supported Morocco's national Solar Power Plan since it was launched in 2009 and is now making this significant loan to co-finance the development and construction of the Ouarzazate Project Phase 1 parabolic trough plant through a Public Private Partnership between the Moroccan Agency for Solar Energy (MASEN) and a private partner. Ouarzazate Phase 1 will involve the first 160 MW and will help Morocco avoid 240,000 tons of CO2 equivalent a year. The Ouarzazate project will also contribute to Morocco's objectives of energy security, job creation, and energy exports. As a regional frontrunner in clean energy, Morocco is rising to the challenge of its international commitments made in the last two United Nations' climate summits and under the "Union for the Mediterranean." "The Ouarzazate first phase is a key milestone for the success of the Moroccan solar program," said Mustapha Bakkoury, President of MASEN. "While answering both energy and environmental concerns, it provides a strong opportunity for green growth, green job creation, and increased regional market integration. It will pave the way for the positive implementation of the regional initiatives sharing the same vision (Mediterranean Solar Plan, Desertec Industry Initiative, Medgrid, World Bank Arab World Initiative). The support of international financial institutions, like the World Bank, through development financing but also climate change dedicated financing, is essential to help bring the overall scheme to economic viability," added Bakkoury. Relevant Links North Africa Aid and Assistance Morocco International Organisations Energy Environment The Ouarzazate loan is in line with the World Bank's commitment to scaling up funding that helps developing countries cope with climate change and embark on a low-emission development path. The World Bank Group's renewable energy portfolio increased from a total of $3.1 billion between fiscal years 2008-09 to $4.9 billion in 2010-11. Given the simultaneous expansion of the overall energy portfolio during the same period, the renewable energy proportion rose from 20 percent to 23 percent. About the project: The World Bank, the Clean Technology Fund, the African Development Bank, the European Investment Bank, the Agence Française de Développement, European Union Neighborhood Investment Facility, and the Kreditanstalt fur Wiederaufbau are working with MASEN and a competitively selected private partner to implement Ouarzazate I.

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Suspect for Mazarrón shooting may have escaped from prison

 

The man who was arrested for a fatal shooting in Mazarrón on Sunday night, killing one man and seriously injuring a 16 year old boy, was serving time in prison for another crime when it happened. It’s not yet clear if he was out on a pass from the prison or had escaped and was on the run. The news came from the central government delegate for Murcia, Rafael González, on Tuesday, who said that the un-named suspect, a man from Tarragona, will be assessed by a psychiatrist for any mental health problems. It’s understood that the Civil Guard have found the murder weapon and believe the suspect may have had a second gun. A woman he stayed with at a local hotel just hours before the shooting is also under investigation, as is any connection he may have had with the man he killed. The teenager who was out walking his dog in a local park when he met the suspect by chance remains in a critical condition in hospital with a bullet wound to his head.

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private jets waved through customs and immigration checks

Home Secretary Theresa May (Pic:PA)

THERESA May was fighting for her job last night after damning new documents fuelled the scandal of lax security at our borders.

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Leaked emails showed that thousands of private jet passengers were allowed into the UK without going through immigration or customs.

They also revealed the Home Secretary relaxed checks at airports on at least 2,500 occasions this summer.

And the Mirror can reveal passport applications are being secretly subjected to a controversial new “postcode lottery” trial scheme.

The High Risk Applications scheme is based on fraud statistics. Staff were given a list of postcodes to check against every new passport application or renewal. Applicants in areas deemed to be higher risk face several weeks additional delay in getting their passports.

In London, the only areas which get virtually no checks are postcodes that begin with WC and EC – the most central and prosperous areas. Meanwhile applications from women aged 50 and over are often waved through.

A source said: “It’s a classic Tory policy, and it discriminates against those they deem to be living in ‘poor’ areas.

“The whole thing smacks of elitism and snobbery. A lot of people are very unhappy with the process.”

These revelations come on the day ousted Border Agency official Brodie Clark gives evidence to MPs on how he was pushed out by Mrs May.

Borders boss Brodie Clark

Labour yesterday released the leaked emails showing UK Border Agency staff were told NOT to check passengers arriving in the UK by private jets – at the instruction of the Home Office.

From March 2, 2011, anyone on a private charter did not have to show their passports and could avoid customs. Figures show there are between 80,000 to 90,000 private flights each year, carrying two to three passengers.

The emails show an unnamed official at Durham Tees Valley Airport warned the UK Border Agency that the policy was putting the UK’s security at risk.

He said that staff “continue to feel uneasy about an instruction that is at odds with national policy and is creating an unnecessary gap in border security which, if exploited by the unscrupulous, could bring the Agency into disrepute”.

He also warned there was no way of checking if the number of people arriving in the country was the same as they had been advised.

His manager at the UK Border Agency’s Border Force said the “no checks policy” was part of a “new national strategy”.

In a further blow to Mrs May, other leaked documents showed how Britain’s borders were abandoned on hundreds of occasions over summer.

The Home Secretary ordered a pilot scheme, which ran from July to October this year, under which Border Agency staff could relax checks on passengers. It meant people arriving from the European Economic Area did not have the biometric chip in their passport checked, while children under 18 could be waved through.

These “level 2 checks” were used on at least 2,600 occasions. The relaxed regime was used to speed up queues at immigration control.

According to an email from a Border Agency Border Force official, the checks were relaxed 100 times in the first week of the trial and more than 260 times in the sixth week.

We revealed last week that officials warned Mrs May the easing of border checks could lead to a rise in child trafficking.

Mrs May admits to bringing in the pilot scheme without informing MPs. But she claims that Mr Clark went further by extending it to include passengers from outside Europe.

Mr Clark, who resigned last week, denies he acted without ministerial authority. His testimony to the Commons select committee could prove very damaging to Mrs May.

Shadow Home Secretary Yvette Cooper said last night: “This is startling new information about the scale of the borders fiasco.

“Ten days on there are even more questions than answers about what on earth was going on at our borders.

“Last week the Home Secretary told us no one had been waived through without checks. But these documents show passengers on private flights weren’t even seen.

"Last week the Home Office wouldn’t admit to having figures about how often checks were downgraded. Now we know those figures exist and that checks were downgraded 260 times in one week alone.

“The Home Secretary needs to show she is capable of sorting this fiasco out rather than making it worse.”

Last night, the Home Office refused to comment on the trial.

The UKBA said: “It is not true that we don’t carry out ­passport and warnings checks on private flight passengers and will deploy officers to airfields where we have concerns.”

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One dead and another critical after shooting in Mazarrón

 

Bolivian man who has not been named died on Sunday night after being shot in the chest in Mazarrón, Murcia, and a second man was seriously injured by a shot to the head. Protección Civil say that local police from Manzarrón managed to arrest the alleged shooter, and the investigation has been passed on to the Guardia Civil under reporting restrictions. It happened in Avenida Constitutción at 11pm when several residents heard the shots and called the emergency services. When the medical units arrived at the scene they could only confirm the death of a man who was lying on the ground after being shot, and then some minutes later and 400m away they found another man, also suffering from gunshot wounds to the head. The second man, who is reported to be a tramp and who met with the shooter by chance, was rushed to the Virgen de la Arrixaca Hospital where he is reported to be in a critical condition in intensive care. The Government Delegate, Rafael González Tovar, has said that several lines of investigation are open in an attempt to establish the motive for the shooting. In a separate incident in the Zabalbide station in the Bilbao Metro a man has died after being stabbed. The aggressor also attacked another six people before being arrested by the Municipal Police. It happened at 0945 Monday morning at the entrance to the metro.

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THE mother of missing Madeleine McCann said yesterday she still wished she could “stop time”.

03:44 | THE mother of missing Madeleine McCann said yesterday she still wished she could “stop time”.

 

Poignant: Kate McCann

 

Kate McCann, who marked the fourth anniversary of Maddy’s disappearance in May, said she and husband Gerry would not give up on finding their little girl.

In a poignant message on the Maddy search website, she wrote: “My grandparents always said the years pass more quickly the older you get. It certainly feels that way. I still dream of being able to stop time.

“Our only alternative however is to continue doing as much as we can to the best of our ability to enhance the search for Madeleine. So that is what we’ll do.”

She added: “It is a big relief that our Government finally agreed to a review. It will be lengthy and difficult but definitely a major step.”

Maddy was nearly four when she vanished from her family’s holiday flat in Praia da Luz, Portugal, in 2007.

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Sarah Harding has completed her 2-month stint in rehab

Sarah Harding's ex Calum Best is glad she got the help she needed

 

 

The Girls Aloud star, 29, was treated for alcohol abuse and depression after calling off her engagement to DJ Tom Crane, 31.

Sarah and Tom were due to marry next summer after getting engaged this New Year.

'They've been in regular contact throughout her time away but only on the phone. They've spoken most days and it seems like they could have a chance of giving it another shot,' a source tells the Sunday Mirror.

Sarah's ex Calum Best, 30, is glad that Sarah got professional help.

'Everyone has their dark times, but Sarah's strong and will come out of this period even stronger, he told us last month

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ARRESTED 60-year-old, who is originally from Blackpool, but has been living in the Marbella area of Spain

Armed Naval and Gardai personnel with cocaine which was seized from a yacht off the west coast of Ireland

 

A BLACKPOOL man has been arrested for allegedly being part of a £250m international cocaine smuggling racket.

 

Police, acting under orders from the Serious Organised Crime Agency (SOCA) – dubbed Britain’s FBI –swooped in the town to capture John Alan Brooks.

The 60-year-old, who is originally from Blackpool, but has been living in the Marbella area of Spain, was found at an address in Marton.

His arrest comes as part of a major investigation which was launched in 2008 when a 1.5 tonnes shipment of cocaine was seized off the coast of Ireland.

The luxury yacht Dances With Waves was carrying drugs with an estimated value of 300m euros or £250m.

Naval officers boarded her after she got into trouble 170 miles off the south west coast of Ireland.

Brooks is known to have had addresses previously in both the Commonedge Road area of Blackpool and in Lytham and St Annes.

It is believed he was visiting family members in Blackpool when police moved in.

A spokesman for SOCA confirmed: “A man allegedly linked to a plot to smuggle 1.5 tonnes of cocaine into the UK on board the boat Dances with Waves was arrested as part of a Serious Organised Crime Agency investigation.

“John Alan Brooks has been charged with conspiracy to import cocaine.

“He is originally from Blackpool, but has been living in the Benahavis area of Spain,

“He appeared at Birmingham Magistrates Court on Monday. He has been remanded in custody and is due to appear at Birmingham Crown Court this coming Monday.”

The drugs seizure was reportedly the largest in Irish history when it was made in November 2008.

Dances With Waves – a 60ft ocean-going yacht – had set sail from Trinidad and was heading for the UK when it got into difficulties in stormy weather.

It was reported 70 bales of cocaine were on the verge of capsizing when Naval officers moved in.

Authorities were forced to board the ship in “horrendous weather conditions” to prevent evidence being lost in the seven-metre swells.

Experts said although the yacht could travel at high speeds, it was not designed for rough weather.

Under armed guard, the crippled yacht was sailed to Castletownbere, west Cork, where plastic-wrapped bales which filled the hull were unloaded and stacked on the quayside.

n Philip Doo, 52, from Brixham, David Mufford, 44, of Torquay, and Christopher Wiggins, 42, with an address in Spain’s Costa del Sol were arrested on the yacht.

They later pleaded guilty to possession of cocaine with intent to supply.

All received 10-year sentences at Cork Circuit Criminal Court in May 2009

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The King of Spain’s son-in-law was at the centre of a corruption storm today as he came under investigation for siphoning off public money.

Inaki Urdangarin - the husband of King Juan Carlos and Queen Sofia's youngest daughter Infanta Cristina - is suspected of misappropriating cash paid into an NGO.

The former handball player now faces a possible interrogation by investigating judge Jose Castro  and risks causing huge embarrassment for the royals.

It is claimed that his non-profit company, Instituto Noos, was given an enormous 2.3million euros (just under £2million) by the Balearic Islands’ regional government to organise two conferences on tourism and sport in 2005 and 2006. 

The judicial investigation is looking into whether the bills for the events were inflated and if the money ended up in private companies run by Urdangarin, who is Duke of Palma, the capital of Majorca.

Urdangarin, 43, left Instituto Noos in 2006, months after the exorbitant sums paid by the Balearic government were revealed by the Socialist Party.

 

 

He said today: 'I cannot comment about on-going judicial proceedings.'

The prosecution claims Urdangarin and his associate Diego Torres created a network of societies with which they diverted public and private funds received by Instituto Noos.

Under suspicion: The former handball star is charged with creating a network of societies into which he diverted private and public funds

Regal scandal: Princess Cristina and Urdangarin (far right) pose with Spain's royal family King Juan Carlos, Queen Sofia, Crown Prince Felipe and wife Princess Letizia and Princess Elena

They are under investigation for document falsification, corruption, fraud and embezzlement, and Torres’s home has been searched.

The Royal Household expressed its 'absolute respect' for the legal decisions and added that it has 'nothing to say at this moment' as this is 'an investigation which must follow its course'.

The Duke and Duchess, who married in 1997, now live in Washington, DC. The couple have four children. 

Urdangarin played in Spain’s national handball team at three Olympic Games, captaining the side for Sydney 2000.

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A Romanian man wanted for murder and robbery in Portugal has been arrested in Torre del Mar.

27 year old from Romania escaped to Spain after he was sentenced for the death of a woman who was killed in Portugal in 2005

EFE archive

 


Named by El Mundo newspaper as 27 year old Ioan R., he fled to Spain after a Portuguese court sentenced him to 15 and a half years in prison for the death of a woman in 2005. The victim was smothered to death in her bed during the course of a robbery.

The wanted man was traced to the Axarquía district of Málaga province and was arrested near a bar in Torre del Mar on November 4. He has now been transferred into the custody of the National Court for extradition to Portugal.

Read more: http://www.typicallyspanish.com/news/publish/article_32623.shtml#ixzz1dJgywORG

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Nigerian scam case deflates in Málaga

 

Nilo Case has reached court in Málaga, judging the largest ever swindle carried out mostly by Nigerians who sent out letters to try and capture their victims. Under the scam thousands of letters were sent from Málaga around the world, informing their recipients that they had won a prize in the Spanish lottery, and calling for them to pay a management fee so they could receive their winnings. There are 247 known victims of the fraud from Belgium to Australia and in the United States and even the UAE. The network collected 2.98 million € in ‘management fees’, via phone booth businesses on the Costa del Sol. 168 people from 14 countries were accused in the case, but the procedure was deflated somewhat on the first day on Wednesday when 55 of the accused could not be located by the court to serve them with the summons to appear. Of the 113 remaining, plea bargains were established with 87 to give them 23 months and 15 days in jail and a 1,800 fine each. That means that if they have no previous record, they will not have to go to prison, just having to pay the fine. Another group of just 16 refused to accept the plea deal, which implies them admitting their guilt, and they will be called back for the oral hearing of the case which will start on December 15. During the instruction of the case 84 people found to be in Spain illegally were deported back to Nigeria.

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The Civil Guard have asked for help from the public in identifying a body

The unidentified man - EFE

The Civil Guard have asked for help from the public in identifying a body which was found floating in the waters of Tarragona Port at the end of October.

The deceased is a man aged between 55 and 65, 1.60 metres tall, with short greying hair and a beard. He was wearing blue Lois jeans when he was found, with a white vest, a blue T-shirt with the words ‘Out One Jeans’, a brown ‘North Face’ fleece, and brown Paredes sports shoes.

His body was found on October 31 and is thought to have been in the water between 10 and 16 hours.

Any member of the public with information on the man’s identity should contact their nearest Civil Guard barracks or call the central Civil Guard emergency number, 062.

Read 

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Hundreds of foreign residents could lose their homes after mortgage scam in Spain

 

A group of some twenty foreign residents of the Costa del Sol have denounced a fraud under which they could lose their homes. They have formed a platform to denounce a mortgage fraud which had the objective of getting large amounts of money which was then invested in financial havens such as Luxembourg or the Channel Islands. There were foreign victims, mostly all retired, along the entire Spanish coastline and on the islands, from the Costa del Sol to the Costa Blanca, Baleares and Canaries. The scam was headed by foreign banks and foreign financial advisors, nearly all from Denmark, who had been working for some years in Spain, many without the correct authorisation of the National Commission for Market Values. They told the foreigners purchasing property that they had to get a mortgage as otherwise they would be hit with high Spanish taxes. The sales patter for these inverted mortgages claimed that residents’ homes were in danger from the Spanish taxman, claiming Spain would claim between 70 or 80% in succession tax. In effect the scheme invited the foreigners to defraud the Spanish Hacienda tax authorities. The lawyer representing those affected in Málaga, Antonio Flores, from Lawbird in Marbella, said the victims signed up for ‘predatory mortgages’ which offered the possibility of mortgaging their homes for nearly five years at a value above the level of the official appraisal and investing the money outside Spain, mostly in Luxembourg, in order to obtain a profit which covered their costs and gave them an extra payment. Some 800 contracts for the scheme were taken out between 2004 and 2009, and now the foreigners’ platform on the Costa del Sol is appealing to the National Court that those contracts be declared null and void. The total fraud is estimated at 250 million €. The mortgages were signed in Spain, with Spanish notaries and the investment contracts were signed in offices which the financial agents had in Spain, or in some cases in the client’s home. Nearly all those offices are now closed and the financial agents implicated have abandoned Spain. The clients’ money went on the purchase of currency or bank bonds in operations which soon lost money, leaving many of them now facing the possibility of losing their homes.

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Man decapitates his daughter in Girona saying the devil ordered him to kill her

 

Latin American man was arrested at his home in Girona on Thursday morning after telephoning emergency services to say he had killed his two year old daughter. His other daughter, aged six, was found with him at the family home on Calle Oviedo unhurt. She is understood to have been watching television when it happened. Her sister’s decapitated body was found lying on the bed when a medical team arrived at the property with police. The father is reported to have claimed that the devil had ordered him to kill her.

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Civil Guard have arrested 18 members of a drugs network which had its main base in Bilbao

Some of the drugs recovered. Photo - Civil Guard

The Civil Guard have arrested 18 members of a drugs network which had its main base in Bilbao and smuggled cocaine into the country from Colombia for sale on the Canary Islands.

They used drug mules to bring the cocaine into Spain on regular flights to Madrid, who were often made to practice before the trip by swallowing capsules containing a similar volume of flour. Once in Spain, the cocaine was cut at their base in Bilbao and sent on to the island of La Palma for distribution.

The suspects are 14 Colombian citizens, three Spaniards and another from Venezuela. They include six couriers, including two who were arrested in Colombia as they were about to board a flight to Spain and another at Lanzarote Airport. This last was found to be carrying more than one kilo of cocaine inside his body.

Eight addresses were searched as part of the operation, when 11 kilos of cocaine, 6 kilos of cannabis and 1.5 kilos of an adulterating substance were seized.

Read more: http://www.typicallyspanish.com/news/publish/article_32647.shtml#ixzz1dJZ9i2Hx

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Dogs crap can cost a fortune in Marbella municipality

 

The fine for not picking up dogs crap is raised in Marbella municipality up to 30.000 Euros. Around the street with lovely Marbella apartments, Marbella villas and property Marbella is it full with dog crap. Marbella municipal leaders want to strengthen measures to remove animal waste from the city streets. Therefore it has been assumed increased fines. . A first-time offense will be punishable by between 75 and 500 Euros in fines. Relapses can lead to penalties of up to 2.000 Euros, while cases that are considered particularly serious will be punished with up to 30.000 Euros in fines. The interesting thing about this is how the Marbella municipality is going get any money from the dog owners who miss behaving mostly are poor low class people with no money.

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Three brothers from hell

 

These are the three brothers from hell -- two killers and one a suspected hitman. Two of the men, Eric and Keith Wilson from Ballyfermot in Dublin, are now suspected of being involved in over ten gun murders between them. Keith Wilson (23) was today beginning a life term in jail for the gangland execution of hitman-for-hire Daniel Gaynor in August, 2010. His brother Eric 'Lucky' Wilson (27) is serving 23 years in a Spanish prison for the murder of British criminal Daniel Smith in a packed bar on the Costa del Sol. Their older brother John (34) was released from garda custody in September after being arrested by officers probing a shooting at the Players Lounge pub in July, 2010, which left three innocent men with serious injuries. John -- who has survived three assassination attempts -- showed up every day at Keith's dramatic murder trial. Yesterday's conviction is being hailed as a major breakthrough in the fight against organised criminal activity in Dublin.

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Farmer dies after being attacked by jabalí

 

A farmer has died in Guadassuar, Tous, in Valencia after being attacked by a jabalí wild boar. Reports say the 60 year old man was working in his own orange grove when he was surprised by the beast. Miguel E. suffered injuries in the groin and was found with his blood over his hands and face according to witnesses who said it looked like he tried to defend himself from the attack. It happened last Saturday morning. Tous is a municipality where 90% of the population are hunters and nobody can ever remember anything similar ever happening before. The local police say the victim’s son reported that his father had phoned him on his mobile to say he had been injured, but when a neighbour arrived at the scene he was already dead. Reports indicate that he had earlier suffered a heart attack.

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National Police arrest Local Policeman in Marbella

 

National police arrested a member of the Marbella Local Police force who was found shoplifting in a local commercial centre on Saturday. The man had tried to take a camera from the store. Municipal sources say the agent has already handed in his plaque and pistol, and is being suspended from his post without pay. Marbella Town Hall said they lamented the incident which they described as ‘totally isolated’.

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Juan Antonio Roca, the ex Municipal Real Estate Assessor, at the centre of the allegations, has moved on to the most interesting phase

Juan Antonio Roca - EFE archive

The Malaya case investigating the widespread corruption in Marbella Town Hall, and with Juan Antonio Roca, the ex Municipal Real Estate Assessor, at the centre of the allegations, has moved on to the most interesting phase, as the Málaga court starts to investigate the bribes.

On Monday, some five years and seven months after his arrest, Roca has had to start to respond to the big questions at the centre of the case, the backhanders he allegedly received from real estate promoters in exchange for licences to build outside the PGOU urban plan. More than 50 people including ex Mayors and Roca himself are expected to declare in this section of the case.

The court considers that Roca was paid by 19 different companies between 2001 and 2006, a total of 33.3 million €. Among the big payers were Carlos Sánchez and Andres Liétor – 6.8 million, José Avila Rojas – five million, and the directors of Aifos – 4.8 million.

The Córdoba promoter Sandokán, who is now a councillor in the city, allegedly handed over 600,000 in exchange for town planning favours.

The prosecutor claims that despite not being elected, a politician or even a civil servant, Roca was the man who was running Marbella Town Hall following the motion of no confidence passed in August 2003 against the then Mayor, Julian Muñoz. Roca’s power, lubricated by bags of cash, saw all the councilors act as his subordinates.

Key to the prosecution’s case are a series of files found at the lawyers offices, Maras Asesores. The business was controlled by Roca and councilors and businessmen often met in their offices. Police found some files, in the power of Salvador Gardoqui, which are considered to be Roca’s secret accounts, showing the entry and exit of money, with the real estate section of the accounts showing a surplus of more than 17 million €.

In the court on Monday another one of the accused, Eusabio Sierra, admitted, following a plea bargain with the Anti-corruption Prosecutor, that he paid a 60,000 € backhander to Roca to speed up the Town Hall’s payment of a debt. His two year prison threat has now been reduced to six months as a result, which means he will escape jail by paying a fine.

The basis of Roca’s statement to the court today was that he was not in control of the Town Hall and that the now late Mayor, Jesús Gil decided absolutely everything, ‘above all in the areas of work, the economy and real estate’. Asked by the Prosecutor what his relationship was with the Marbella Town Hall, he replied that it was always via municipal companies.

However Roca did admit paying local councilors for their votes in the motion of no confidence against Julián Muñoz, and admitted to the judge that he was paid more than 3.5 million € in backhanders, which he described as ‘advice payments’ for projects developed in the town. He admitted that Construcciones Salamanca 740,000 € and said that Aifos, whose bosses are also on the accused bench, paid as much as 1.8 million €. He said that the accounting of Maras Asesores, was correct, and admitted that was the company he used to try and hide all his finances.

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Three Gibraltar police injured in collision with Guardia Civil boat off Gibraltar

 

Three Gibraltar police have been injured after their boat was in collision with a Guardia Civil vessel in the waters off the Rock on Monday night. Spanish media say the collision took place in Spanish waters close to La Línea during a joint chase of drug traffickers who were in an inflatable craft. The fact the Gibraltar and the Spanish authorities were both chasing the drug traffickers showed that in this case there is no talk of any interference having taken place between the two. Spain has repeatedly requested clear protocols to be established to avoid accidents in situations such as this. The three men were injured as a result of the impact between the two boats, and were seriously hurt. All three had fallen into the water and were rescued by the Guardia. One man with a suspected head fracture was taken to La Linea Hospital but is now at St Bernards on the rock. The other two were taken to the Punta de Europa hospital in Algeciras where they were x-rayed and cleared of fractures. An investigation is underway and it is unclear at this stage whether the drug traffickers got away. The Royal Gibraltar Police vessel is reported to be extensively damaged, including its engines. It’s the latest of a chain of incidents between the Gibraltar Police and the Spanish Guardia Civil.

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Waiter found guilty of killing Ukrainian call-girl in Mijas

 

THE man charged with killing and dismembering a Ukrainian call-girl in Mijas in April last year has been found guilty. The public prosecution was asking for 14 years for manslaughter and five months for desecration of the body. Alla Mefodova, 36, disappeared in Fuengirola, and police only recovered the remains of her hands. DNA tests confirmed they belonged to her. The man confessed that he had been out drinking on the night of April 5, 2010, and enlisted the services of a call-girl who identified herself as Bianca. It was the six calls he made to her phone which led police to him. He told the police they were together at his house for several hours during which they drunk a bottle of whisky and took cocaine. He claimed they began to argue, probably about money. He says that he fell asleep and doesn’t remember how the woman died, but admitted that when he saw she was dead, he went into shock, considering calling the police or committing suicide, but that instead, he took her personal belongings and clothes and burned them. Later, he bought a saw, cut her body into pieces and put them into bags which he dumped in rubbish containers in the area. He claimed to have fainted several times in the process. The waiter from Castilla-La Mancha had no criminal record and had never been accused of violent behaviour. Just a month earlier, Alla had managed to bring her 17-year-old son to Spain, after leaving him with her mother in the Ukraine when he was just seven years old. He and a close friend reported her missing.

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‘Notorious gangster’ shot dead

 

man, who police described as a “notorious gangster and shooter,” was shot dead on Tuesday night. David “Pickles” Thomas, 39, was shot once in the face by a gunman at Wharton Street, Laventille. His death pushed the murder toll to 303 for the year compared with 400 for the same period last year. Thomas was the 33th person to be murdered since the state of emergency was declared on August 21. A report said Thomas was liming near a dirt track  around 9 pm when a man accosted him and shot him in the face. Officers of the Homicide Bureau, Port-of-Spain, and Besson Street Police Station responded. He was rushed to the Port-of-Spain General Hospital where he was pronounced dead on arrival. Police said Thomas was killed at the same location where gang leader, Anthony “Thirteen” de Vignes, alias Tony Kingsdale, was fatally shot  on June 15, 2008. Detectives said there were many attempts made on Thomas’ life. Residents claimed even though he “was living a certain lifestyle” he was very polite. Homicide officers are continuing investigations.

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Robert Dawes was finally arrested in Dubai on an international warrant but is now living free on the Costa del Sol.

 

For five years a man named in a British court as "the general" has been pursued by detectives in a multimillion-pound operation.

Over the past decade Robert Dawes has moved from a two-up, two-down terraced house on an estate outside Nottingham to a base in Dubai and finally to a villa on the Costa del Sol.

Police believe he has left a trail of destruction as one of the heads of acrime syndicate that flooded the UK with millions of pounds of cocaine, heroin and cannabis. He has been identified in nine UK investigations involving large scale shipments.

Dawes is wanted in the Netherlands in connection with the murder of a teacher, Gerard Meesters; in Spain, where police have identified him as "the boss of an important English drug trafficking organisation"; and in the UK, where Nottinghamshire detectives are seeking him over the alleged commissioning of the murder of David Draycott in October 2002.

So when investigators from the Serious Organised Crime Agency, working with Spain's Guardia Civil, had Dawes secured in a Madrid prison this spring to face trial over the seizure of 200kg of cocaine, the belief was that the reign of a man described by Soca as a "highly significant international criminal" had ended.

But the Guardian has discovered that Spanish judges have been forced to drop the trial and free 39-year-old Dawes because the British authorities had failed to respond for months to a request for assistance.

Dawes is now back in his enormous villa near Benalmádena on the Costa del Sol with his wife and three children, enjoying his freedom.

After Dawes's release a few weeks ago, the Spanish courts issued a statement which made clear their hand had been forced by the failure of the British to respond to a request for documents sent in April through the highest diplomatic channels.

"The provincial court in Madrid has revoked the indictment of Robert Dawes ... and so he is at liberty," the statement said. "The magistrates ... understand that... it is necessary to wait for a response from the Commission of Dubai, with reference to the searches in the case, and, above all, the Commission of the United Kingdom.

"When the judicial authorities of those countries respond with evidence the case will be taken up again, but neither of the two commissions has yet commented and there is no indication of when they might do so."

Soca officials have been left embarrassed by the bureaucratic bungling. They say the request via a letter rogatory – the official method of requesting assistance between countries – was only received by the Home Office in August before being forwarded on to them in the same month.

The letter rogatory was sent to the Home Office via Eurojust, an organisation based in The Hague that is supposed to speed up co-operation on major criminal investigations between EU countries.

Asked by the Guardian this week about the case, Soca officials said they were planning to send an official to hand deliver the documents. A spokesman said: "We are supporting this Spanish-led investigation. Upon receipt of their request for evidence we took immediate action, in conjunction with the Crown Prosecution Service, to collate the material required.

"This process must take into account various legal and operational issues but it is Soca's intention to provide the material to the Spanish at the very earliest opportunity."

But it is not the first time that Dawes has slipped through the net, and some of his former associates have refused to co-operate with the authorities in the past because they believed he was an "asset" who was being protected.

Dawes grew up on the Leamington estate in Sutton-in-Ashfield, Nottinghamshire, and is thought to have began his criminal career in the 1990s working as an enforcer. By 2000 his name was cropping up in investigations from Scotland to London, where he is known to have associated with some of the UK's most notorious crime syndicates including the London-based Adams family.

By this time Dawes and his brother John – later jailed for 24 years for drug dealing and money laundering – had allegedly moved into large scale shipments of heroin, cocaine, amphetamines and cannabis.

In the Netherlands he became known in thousands of phone taps carried out by Dutch police as the "Derbyman".

In 2001, fearing the police net was closing in, Dawes left the UK for the Mijas Costa area of Spain – but could not resist making fleeting trips back to his old estate where he still owned two terraced houses that had been knocked together.

Soca began Operation Halbert in 2006 to target Dawes and his lieutenants. In August 2007 they seized £13m worth of drugs including 65kg of heroin in a major raid in Ruddington, Nottinghamshire. A month later, after receiving intelligence from Soca, officers from the Guardia Civil drug unit seized almost 200kg of cocaine just outside Madrid that was allegedly linked to Dawes.

But by then Dawes had fled Spain to set up a base in Dubai. He was eventually extradited in April this year to face trial in Madrid until his release by the Spanish a few weeks ago.

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An alleged high-ranking member of the Comanchero outlaw motorcycle gang (OMCG) has been charged with a revocation of parole warrant

 

An alleged high-ranking member of the Comanchero outlaw motorcycle gang (OMCG) has been charged with a revocation of parole warrant by officers from the Gangs Squad’s Strike Force Raptor. Part of Strike Force Raptor’s charter is to monitor members of OMCGs who have been released from Corrective Services custody with parole conditions. Their inquiries led them to a man who had allegedly fled to Queensland. About 6.30pm on Wednesday 2 November 2011, a 41-year-old man was arrested in Tugun, Queensland, by officers from the Queensland Police Service’s Task Force Hydra. He faced Southport Magistrate’s Court yesterday where he was remanded into the custody of Strike Force Raptor officers. He was subsequently taken to Tweed Heads Police Station, in northern NSW, and charged with the revocation of parole warrant. He has been transferred into Corrective Services custody. Strike Force Raptor was established by the State Crime Command’s Gangs Squad in 2009 and is a proactive, high-impact operation targeting outlaw motorcycle gangs and their alleged associated criminal enterprises.

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Hells Angels held a party in Tallinn last Saturday that climaxed with a fight that broke out between a night club security guard and two Finnish citizens

 

motorcycle gang Hells Angels held a party in Tallinn last Saturday that climaxed with a fight that broke out between a night club security guard and two Finnish citizens who were later brought to trial and “essentially thrown out of the country,” as one law enforcement officer put it. Having caused a raucus at the night club, three Hells Angels members had called their friends for help, but police - who had been keeping an eye on their festivities - were standing by and preempted a further conflict, reported ETV. Police say the otherwise peaceful party, attended by Hells Angels members from six countries, is just one sign that motorcycle gangs are expanding to Estonia. A local biker club has been courting the Hells Angels to get full membership. Another local club has already gained membership and established a new headquarters for a second international organization, Bandidos, which Finnish law enforcement has dubbed the biggest organized crime ring in their country. The two groups - Hells Angels and Bandidos - cannot be allowed to come together. “Violence is relatively probable,” said Elmar Vaher, who heads the North Prefecture of the police. He recalled the Great Nordic Biker War in the 1990s, in which 11 were killed, 96 injured, and weapons such as AK-47s were used. "There is a principle that commiting a common crime can tie people more closely to one another than anything else," said Vaher. Authorities now fear new cases of prostitution and drug trafficking. Although police have searched one of these local biker clubs on several occasions, and discovered illegal drugs in one instance, the Estonian biker organizations cannot yet be labeled as criminal, they say. Estonian police have been watching the activities of biker gangs since 2005, when Finnish colleagues identified a problem. "Along with the public club activities, there are more shady dealings as well," said Vaher. "Their handwriting is generally clever. They want to show that they mean well - international associates have built kindergartens [...] But there are also hidden crimes, mainly drugs, prostitution, and serious financial crimes." While Vaher submitted that not every person with a motorcycle and a leather jacket can be considered a criminal, he said some markings - such as the Hells Angels's “1%” insignia - are a clear statement of endorsing criminal activity. Upon inquiry, however, the Estonian biker club associated with Hell Angels defended itself, saying that it is just a group of hobbyists, that every societal demographic has crime, and that criminal activity - indeed - is not a prerequisite for membership.

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