UNIMAGINABLE INJUSTICE IN SPAIN

norman sands said:
Wednesday, December 15, 2010 @ 2:52 PM

appaling - can it be appealed to the higher court?

Anne said:
Wednesday, December 15, 2010 @ 3:49 PM

Name and shame the Bank, tell of your plight on Youtube, might it be worth contacting AVAAZ as there are all too many instances of abuse taking place within Spain right now and no-one in high office seems to be facing up to the realities of the level of monies that are owed innocent people and the abuses that are occurring before our eyes? The evidence needs to be gathered together in one place and presented to all the powers that be. So far there are two worthy petitions www.bankguaranteesinspain.com and www.spanishpropertyscandalpetition.co.uk
The profile of all these abuses in Spain has to be lifted to a worldwide audience if we are ever to make those responsible accountable for their actions. AVAAZ is a wonderful dynamic organisation that can rapidly capture worldwide attention through their campaigns.
It's a total disgrace what is happening right now and to date the EU and British Government appear to be suggesting that it is for Spain to put their house in order. Well we are fast running out of time for that, and we need to see fast tracking of justice if we are ever to believe the rhetoric from those in power.

Christopher Gamble said:
Wednesday, December 15, 2010 @ 6:21 PM

Don't ever give up your fight. 'Lady Judge'...ignored evidence etc etc.....I guess many Expats have now fallen victim or know soembody who has fallen victim of bullying and corruption, lies and theft, not just by banks but other major corporations and brands. If its any consolation, which I guess it isn't, I understand the Spanish actually get it worse than foriegners!! but they do nothing about it. Its like a barrier or fear of reprisal exist. Friends in countries in the West and Western Europe simply can not comprehend the type of things that go on in Spain. Innconet people denounced, losing their homes, their families, their bank accounts emptied....is Franco still ruling Spain? You must not give up. Take everything you have to a higher level, to the EU Courts if necessary. Whatever the circumstances of the repossession the law is there for jusges to abide by it and not to ignore evidence.
Compalin to the highest levels possible.
Name the bank involved and the executives.
Personally I have had enough from Barclays Spain to ensure I never use that brand again for anything.
Its such a shame as things could radically improve but there just appears to be an unwillingness to accept the needs of customers and for customer driven service and support in a consumer driven world. Sadly Spain will be left behind unless there is a corporation wide pradigm shift.

goodstich44 said:
Thursday, December 16, 2010 @ 1:21 PM

this is truly awful, but sadly not suprising!. How much longer will people in Spain sit back and accept their justice system? Everyone is in danger of falling fould of a similar situation unless they do something together to stop it. The ''i'm alright Jack'' attitude of most in Spain is so short sighted, what on earth will it take to stir people in to angry protest???????. This and so many other current cases of abuse really must stop.

If enough lawyers got together with their eveidence and expertise on law along with the petitions already held and presented all available info' to the powers that be in Spain, or the EU if Spain continues to betray victims, then that would be hard to ignore....you would hope???

norman sands said:
Thursday, December 16, 2010 @ 1:26 PM

We actually need a Minister for Citizens
there should be an automatic assumption that the citizens rights are paramount in any dispute. The ombudsman service in the UK is one small step and not easily accessable or wonderfully effective it seems. Our current political parties are sadly lacking

Wayne Matthews said:
Thursday, December 16, 2010 @ 5:34 PM

The law in Spain is a pile of shit and the Spanish judiciary will always go on persecuting the innocent because most people in power are corrupt i.e the Policia Local, who always err on the side of the Spaniard when it comes to bar disputes or car accidents. I'm not being racist, I am merely stating a fact.

simon roberts said:
Thursday, December 16, 2010 @ 11:24 PM

everyone who reads this article needs to contact their euro mep to protest that numerous british citizens are being treated with the upmost contempt by the the spanish (in)justice system. i have read of people losing their uk home as they are unable to make the mortgage payments on their spanish property even though they have given the keys back to the spanish banks.

PETER2010 said:
Friday, December 17, 2010 @ 6:27 PM

THANK YOU FOR YOUR RESPONSES AND KIND WORDS OF SYMPATHY

ANYONE INTERESTED TO KNOW MORE ABOUT THIS DISGUSTING MISCARRIAGE OF JUSTICE SHOULD READ MY EARLIER BLOG FROM THE 27TH NOVEMBER "OUR HOME HAS BEEN STOLEN"

Because of the speed with which me and my family were ordered our of home - many items of funiture and personal effects were left in the property.

I was told that as the eviction sentence is only provisional, all contents would be locked up within the property until the findings of the appeal court when a "firm" sentence is issued. It now seems that not only has this bastard bank achieved an illegal sentence against me without me ever being charged of having the opportunity to defend myself, but on Tuesday 14th they authorised a house clearance company to empty the contents of the property into the driveway where yesterday, with no advice to me they had everything mechanically crushed and load into a truck for final disposal. Apparently, according to "Spanish" law this is all perfectly legal.

I understand just how the Spanish man who shot dead his bank manager earlier this week after he and his family had been thrown out of his property really must have felt.

Bent courts and bent banks go together - hopefully to hell !!

Peter 2010
Estepona

Linda Thompson said:
Saturday, December 25, 2010 @ 2:13 AM

I'm sorry for the loss of your home. I quite literally feel your pain. I'm a senior citizen living on about $890 mo social security.
I built a home in the early 1980's that is worth about $1.7 million today. Or it was.

On Dec 6, 2010 I was wrongfully and illegally dispossesed of my home, belongings and livelihood by a crooked Judge in the kingdom of Breckenridge Colorado. (You may have heard of this woman hating judge of Kobe Bryant rape case fame). I fell afoul of this judge in 2008 after he had me arrested on a falsified bench warrant for a felony issued to 'persuade' me that I should drop my appeal of one of his more egregious orders. I was told that if I didn't agree, or if I tried to appeal the wrongful incarceration, that I would get nothing from a million dollar property settlement. Well, I appealed; I won;and the appeal probably led to his being 'asked' to retire early. But true to his word, I haven't been able to get any of my property settlement and now he has taken my home and even my homestead exemption, leaving me with nothing.

My attorney says that the eviction, then the sale, and now on Xmas Eve taking even my federally protected homestead exemption...are all wrong via 'operation of law' and can be appealed.

All well and good, but it is me and my pets who are homeless this Xmas Eve.

It seems greedy and corrupt judges are found all over, not only in Spain. And there is very little that can be done to stop them.

I hope at least that you are surrounded by friends and family this Holiday season, and that someone, somewhere, will publicize the plight of so many of us who have been denied due process and subjected to this senseless injustice.

I can't really help much, but you can contact me at goDThompson@aol.com

Peter2010 said:
Friday, December 31, 2010 @ 3:11 AM

Hi Ads,
Thanks for your response dated 22nd December and kind words of sympathy. We have just learnt that the judge who has wrecked our lives has now left Estepona court and her replacement is due to arrive in the New Year. This judge will have 10 days to install herself before hearing any cases, then at the end of January will be leaving for another circuit. The judge is allowed 10 days prior to leaving to put outstanding matters in order – consequently the judge´s power in Estepona will only last 10 days – just how ridiculous is this !!! – A new judge will arrive in February and after his or her first 10 days will might be able to put demands in for the answers to our original oppositions entered on the 2nd September and the 25th October to which we still have not even received official recognition of existence.
Referring to my case – so many people find it hard to believe and are convinced there is some facts not being revealed – this is certainly not the case – what is a fact is the gross injustice perpetrated by the Estepona Court House .

In its simplest form to understand this disgraceful legal incompetence - this is what needs to be considered.
My wife was taken to court by the Nominees of my company to have her removed from my property on the grounds that her tenancy arrangements established between her and I had come to an end. In 2007 the lady judge in Estepona saw in favour of my company, acting under the direction of my nominees as plaintiff, and order her eviction. This was appealed before Malaga Appeal Court where the eviction of my wife was upheld, however the Appeal Court Judges reviewing all the evidence and with a good understanding of the complications of fiduciary law, identified correctly that I was in fact (using their words) the “authentic” owner of the company and therefore the owner of the property in litigation (the property I built under the name of my company and have lived in with my wife and family since 1986). The Appeal Court issued a supplementary sentence stating that in this particular case against my wife, I could not and should not be removed.

When these sentences arrived at Estepona for preparation of execution sentence, unauthorised changes were made to include myself to be evicted from the property. This “altered” sentence was issued on the 8th June but took seven weeks to travel the 4 kms to my home, arriving on the last day of July half an hour before the courts were closing for summer. Our first opportunity to enter opposition against these unauthorised changes was the 2nd September (29th Decemeber, we still have not received either acknowledgement or answers. When the eviction date arrived on the 19th October – it was not the court orders of Malaga Appeal Court that ordered my entire family from our property – it was the local police under the orders of the lady judge (not the same lady judge as the first hearing – this one has only served six months at Estepona and evidently knows nothing about upholding the laws or respecting sentences from higher courts) Possession was lost in that moment.

An immediate appeal was entered after the eviction for explanation as to why the orders of Malaga had not been respected- needless to say this too, has not been acknowledged or responded to. We cannot appeal back to the higher Appeal Court of Malaga until Estepona Court answers in the first instance – so we are caught in a “catch 22”. Once they finally answer, which undoubtedly will be in the negative – we will then have the opportunity to appeal to Malaga where hopefully they will re-insist on their sentences being upheld and very possibly order a reversal of the eviction against me and my reinstatement into my property. In the meantime my gardens are being bulldozed with trees planted during the last twenty five years being uprooted, garden beds destroyed. And added to this vandalism has now shown its ugly head by having two external doors smashed in and brand new windows and their frames cut out and stolen, pipes cut and the main water heater stolen – with all the digging and destruction of the gardens and now window and door openings boarded up – our beautiful home of twenty five years in resembling an abandoned property and just inviting vandals to do their business. It is so pitiful to think that just three months ago we, as a family of 8 through three generations were living in a our beautiful home with the most exquisite gardens, all in perfect condition. And now, because of a reckless illegal decision by a stupid, irresponsible judge with no experience of matters before her and ignoring orders from a higher court, has destroyed our dreams, our future, broken up our family and allowed our 2,000,000 euro home to be legally stolen by a ruthless, Gibraltar based bank that has never had an interest in it, never visited it, never provided a mortgage for it, has no registered charges against it – Maybe it’s my imagination but could a bank really stoop so low as to “influence” the judge in some way ???????

Anyone picking up on these comments and wondering what this is all about please read a fuller account of this terrible nightmare on two earlier blogs :-

“OUR HOME HAS BEEN STOLEN” dated 27th November

“UNIMAGINABLE INJUSTICE IN SPAIN” - “JUDGE ORDERED MY HOME TO BE STOLEN” dated 15th December

I would welcome any constructive comments, especially from any lawyers that can explain the ways in which justice is administered in Spain and where is one´s rights to defend themselves and protect their property; especially against a judiciary where even the judges fail to respect the laws they are supposed to be upholding.

Any relevant comments can be directed to me directly at peterestepona@hotmail.com

Peter - Estepona

Peter2010

Peter2010 said:
Sunday, January 16, 2011 @ 8:03 PM

UNFORTUNATE TIMING AND FURTHER CATASTROPHE
Anyone following our epic long nightmare and the unimaginable injustice in Spain we, as a family have been suffering, with our home being stolen on the orders of the local judge in Estepona awarding possession of my property to a ruthless evil bank in Gibraltar, who has never even been to the property let alone owning it and despite sentences from the Appeal Court of Malaga overriding the locally concocted sentence, ordering the recognition of me as the owner and that I cannot be removed from my property I built and have lived in with my family for 25 years, may be interested to know what has now happened.
Without going over everything again, anyone new to my story should acquaint themselves with my earlier blog comments on this site with the blogs home “ Our home has been stolen” (27th November 2010) and “Unimaginable injustice in Spain” (15th December 2010). Or alternatively email me directly on peterestepona@hotmail.com and I will send as appropriate any missing comments or facts of the case.,
After months of waiting for our legally submitted appeals and oppositions to be heard in court – nothing has been forthcoming – not even acknowledgement from the courts – principally this is because legal protocol requires all appeals and oppositions to be first heard in the first instance presiding court – in this case, Estepona - the very court that has created all the injustice and pronounce wrongly; obviously they are not too enthusiastic about addressing their own irregularities – apart from the fact that Estepona is recognised as the worst court in Andalucia (ask any lawyer !!).
During the time we have been away from our home, the bank, solely on the basis of a provisional execution of sentence, has contracted the services of a property maintenance company firstly, to remove the remaining items of furniture and private possessions from inside our home, creating a mountain in the driveway, whereupon they were systematically and mechanically crushed, loaded into a truck and sent away for disposal (photos available). The almost 5,000 m2 of landscaped gardens has been transformed by a bulldozer digging up garden beds, uprooting trees, all of which I planted personally during the 25 years we have lived in the property. In the bank´s own interests of security this maintenance company has enclosed the entire perimeter with a two metre high security fence with barbed wire to prevent entry. The absence of any occupants in the property has left it vulnerable to attack, and sure enough it has been broken into twice where two outside doors have been smashed, windows and their frames have been removed along with the two boilers that provided hot water for the property. (In twenty five years we never experienced and burglaries or any kind of illegal entry ! and without a security fence !).
It has become evident that this bank is hell-bent on selling my property before real justice can be served and my property returned to me as the rightful and legal owner. On Thursday 13th January, it became obvious the works of closing the last sections of perimeter fence were upon us and the possibility of me entering the plot freely would be terminated within a day or two. At 7.00 pm I organised a Notary Public to accompany me the following day Friday 14th to enter the property unopposed, freely without violence or intimidation, without breaking or damaging anything and to assert my claim that I was repossessing my property. This was duly done at 8.45 am. When the workers arrived I may clear my intentions of not leaving the property where immediately their boss was phoned – I knew in that moment the sh*t was about to hit the fan!! I was now in the property –unfortunately, not the actual house but the property (In Spain the property is everything within the limits of its boundaries). Messages were being rapidly relayed to the boss of the maintenance company, on to the Bank´s sub-contractors, on to the bank and then back down to the bank´s lawyer who then phoned one of the workers asking to speak with me directly. This break in protocol was accepted by me and so I took the call from the other side´s lawyer. “why have you illegally entered the property- you have broken the law” to which I replied I had entered freely and without resistance etc.etc. “but you have still broken the law and this is still illegal entry” when I pointed out that I was accompanied by a Notary Public and an “Acta” was being raised in this moment his tone changed. “in that case I am inviting you to leave the property peacefully ” to which I declined his invitation whereupon he announce his intention to advise the police and bring them with him to my property; “fantastic” was my reply “how soon can they come” to which he indicated he would also advise the court “this is even better news, in fact it´s the best news I´ve had for some time – try and get whoever here as quick as possible, I´m waiting and I want justice” somewhat surprised the lawyer terminated the call.
In order to make my stay comfortable I had subsequently asked my two heavily pregnant daughters to help bring over some of life´s necessities – an inflatable mattress, sleeping bag, towels, washing items, cool box, cups, glasses, knive and fork, plates and bowls, mugs and a selection of food necessary for my immediate needs. My wife, the sole person genuinely name within the eviction petition, for obvious reasons, declined to attend for fear of arrest.
At 3.45 pm the Bank´s lawyer arrived at the front gate, needless to say, without a police accompaniment – “where are the police” I immediately asked, “I have come here to invite you to leave the property peacefully and without resistance” to which I replied “I should like, again, to decline the invitation, I intend to stay until justice is served” - “of course you realise there will be consequences by you declining my offer” to which I responded “the only acceptable invitation to leave will be when it comes from a judge telling me I do not own my property and that I have no entitlement to remain - only then will I leave” this lawyer somewhat perplexed, I asked “why did you take a case against my innocent wife , who is now so ill over the whole affair and is presently under psychiatric treatment – did no one have the balls to take the case against me – the one everyone supposedly has the problem with” to which he made the most absurd statement “you told the court your wife lived here alone and that furthermore you were divorced ” - “WHAT, what the hell are you saying this is absolute lies” I immediately called my daughter over and asked him to repeat exactly what he had said in front of my daughter as a witness ; his lips remained shut after several further requests for him to repeat his statement, I said “you call yourself a lawyer, you make an untruthful statement and haven´t got the ¨cojones¨ (Spanish for balls) to repeat what you have just said in front of a witness”. I then drew his attention to the fact that the sentences from the Malaga Appeal Court had clearly identified me as the owner of my property and the instructions that, in this case of eviction, I cannot be removed and that additionally I had been absolved of all pretensions derived from the eviction case – “ ah but this is Estepona and we obey the courts of Estepona who ordered everybody out of the property, not Malaga” to which I answered “but are you telling me that the higher provincial court of Malaga´s sentences are overridden by the local first instance court of Estepona” to which he repeated “ I have already said, this is Estepona and we obey the courts of Estepona” how ridiculous and totally illegal - after a few more niceties he left visibly perspiring, presumably to get the police.
An hour or so later the National Police arrived at my property simply to take the names and details of persons present. When they enquired as to what this was all about and an explanation was given with the offer of showing them the relevant sentences etc, they were equally confused as anyone coming into contact with this whole case – they left us alone, my daughters and son-in-law outside the property and me locked inside behind the iron gates not knowing whether any charges are being brought or not.
As night fell my son-in-law and my two daughters bid me goodnight with a kiss through the railings to return home to their own respective young daughter being looked after by my other son-in-law.
Being unable to enter the house without breaking something – which could put me in trouble before proceedings are issued, I was forced to “set up home” in a corner of the covered terrace, quite cosy and somewhat protected from the elements. Once the inflatable mattress was up, topped with a colourful double sleeping bag, pillow, two fold up chairs, candles in bottles etc. my adventurous spirit was starting to kick in. I read the newspapers SUR in English and Euro Weekly did a Sudoku had a bite to eat and was ready for sleeping at the unearthly early hour for me 10.00 pm . It had been an eventful day and I really was so tired. My mobile phone awoke me with a call from my eldest daughter asking whether I had had a goodnight´s sleep and was warm enough through the night – I thanked her for all the help she had given the day before but was unaware of what news I was about to receive within the hour. At 9.15 my other daughter called to say that her sister had gone into labour, a week before the due date ; it appears that all the activity of the day before and attached emotions had triggered the onset of labour. At 6.15 pm our third grand daughter was born, and I was locked in my own property unable to see our daughter or glimpse a view of our newest arrival. It was just twenty four hours before I had kissed my daughter goodnight through the railings. Apparently she had started labour pains at 1.00 am and when she spoke to me at 8.15 didn´t want me worrying about her condition.
It is now 8.00 pm Saturday 15th January – a day I will never forget. Self-imposed imprisonment within my own property being unable to be with my daughter, see my new grand daughter and the rest of the family, all in the interests of seeking justice in Spain and the return of what is rightfully mine makes me very sad.
As I have no fixed telephone line where I am, least of all internet. My only means of communication being by mobile phone or visits from the other side of the gate, I have to write on my laptop and save to pen-drive for uploading by another member of the family so dates of submitting may vary.
15TH January 2011
Peter2010
peterestepona@hotmail.com

basset said:
Thursday, December 22, 2011 @ 9:28 PM

I feel sorry to hear that you lost your home, but don't be surprised of the corrupt justice system in spain and the worst one is Granada, there is not a decent judge, JUSTICIA DE LA JUNGLA, corrupt from a to z, i have been victim of miscarriage of justice, the estate agent stole my money, and the justice system backed her, and condemn me to pay the cost, ''legal mafia'', LA LEY DEL MAS MYE FUERTE'',
basset1962@yahoo.co.uk, any help welcome.