This from the SUR in English newspaper, MAY 13th to MAY 19th 2005 edition, Costa del Sol, Spain:-

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Two and three bedroom homes were on offer in Cártama but there was no planning permit



Police at Malaga airport have arrested a British man, I.Y.S. (aged 55) for alleged real estate fraud carried out through an internet website. I.Y.S. was wanted by the National Police Fraud Squad for selling houses which did not in fact exist. The detainee does not have a police record in Spain, but in the UK he committed 14 instances of fraud and four robberies between 1974 and 1994.

This appears to be another case of non-existent plots of land. The man arrested in Malaga was offering homes at kilometre 3 on the A-355, which is the road beween Cártama and Coín. They were advertised on his website, www.designer-log-homes.co.uk as if the land had been urbanized, the roads laid and electricity supplies installed. The log homes offered on this land had two or three bedrooms and cost 76,000 euros and 86,000 euros respectively, for which a deposit of 15% was required to reserve the house.

The police estimate I.Y.S. probably took 300,000 euros from buyers, under false pretences.

When the purchasers tried to contact the seller after the sales campaign, he could not be found. One British couple reported that they had handed over 11,700 euros for a three bedroomed dwelling which they expected to take possession of at the end of last year.

Suspecting that they had been the victims of fraud, investigators got in touch with Cártama Town Hall and with the Malaga office of the Junta de Andalucía’s Public Works Department. It was found that the houses in question belonged to the “Parque Paraíso” development, the property of “Málaga en equilibrio S.L., Saymard” which did not have the sales rights.

The project did not have planning permission and in all probability, an application for this permission would have been turned down by the Junta. Nor did I.Y.S. have any legal connection with the project. So when the time came to pay the Town Hall, he had neither title deeds nor building permission.


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