Criminal proceedings affecting Almanzora Valley Country Club

Hello,

The Newspaper Diario de Almeria  reports that criminal proceedings have been brought against various persons associated with the Almanzora Country Club. (sorry I am unable to post the link). I have translated the main points.......

The Prosecutor has brought charges of Planning Crimes as stipulated in article 319.2 of the Penal Code against  Alfonso García Gabarrón, manager of Easur, S.L.; Antonio Subiela Hernández, ex manage de Huma Mediterráneo, S.L.; Carlos Parras Martínez, of Ferrovial Agromán; Juan José Parrilla Cánovas, ex President of the Confederación Hidrográfica del Segura y ex Councilor of the Comunidad Autónoma de Murcia; and against the architects Diego García Sánchez, Enrique Domingo Pérez, José Francisco Bernal Alarcón, Trinitario Garcerán.

On the other hand, the prosecutor also alleges that the following entities are responsible; Easur, S.L., registered landowner and promoter; Huma Mediterráneo, S.L., as promoter; y a Ferrovial Agromán, S.A., as constructor. In his report the Prosecutor outlines a crime involving the construction of 300 houses between the months of April and October 2005 on 'suelo no urbanizable', without a building license, with 1,794 planned for the first phase in the area know as Llanos de Jordana, Cuevas del Almanzora....... The prosecutor seeks one year in prison, fines and disqualification for those accused as well as the demolition of the properties at the expense of those persons and entities convicted......

The case is being heard in Penal Court Number 1 in Almeria (Procedimiento Abreviado 248/09 )

The article goes on to say that affected owners may be unaware of their right to take part in these proceedings.

Our organisation strongly recommend that those impacted by this case take legal advice and take part in these proceedings. The existence of criminal proceedings strengthens any civil proceedings in which you may already be involved. At the very least you will be better informed.

I wish you the best of luck.

Regards,

Maura Hillen

President, Abusos Urbanisticos Almanzora No (AUAN)

I just wonder if this is genuine??

Hope so, it would be good if some of those responsible got their come uppance!!! 

I still cannot post the link to the original article but if you google with the following text you can find the story and judge for yourselves.

'El Almeria mas mil propietarios viviendas una urbanizacion podrian perder su casa'

rose and i also bought on acc and decided not to transfer to otcc, thank god we did not! we are presently renting on huerta nueva and it has given us the opportunity to really study the pros and cons of buying in spain, my advice to anybody is RENT FIRST!! we certainly would not consider buying at the moment, in spite of the agents telling everybody "this is the best time to buy"!!!!

ask our helpfull advisor....mariadecastro solicitors......if they will accept 20% of any of the stolen Huma deposits they recover on a no win/ no fee basis..........as we cant keep spending good money fighting Huma and the courts...............if they say no........they cant belive we will ever win!!!!!!!!!!!!.

 Anyone heard any more about the criminal court case ?

''Home From Hell'' shown in the UK, has revealed that contacting interpol with your case of non return of monies from the Almanzora Country Club developer could result in them seeking to find and question the directors and company owners about the subject and the numbers of people involved still seeking refunds!!

Worth a shot to anyone - so write to Interpol.............

 Update....La Voz de Almeria notes that the trial was due to start today.

http://www.lavozdealmeria.es/vernoticia.asp?IdNoticia=25834&IdSeccion=2

One victim has managed to participate in the trial. We understand that the trial has now been postponed to allow the accused lawyers to mount a defence in response to this development.

There is STILL an apportunity for victims to get involved in this case.

and behind bars they should go...........................

Although, always innocent until proven guilty.

 http://news.google.es/news/story?hl=es&ds=n&pq=almanzora+country+club+britanicos&cp=22&gs_id=1z&xhr=t&q=almanzora+country+club&gl=es&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.r_qf.,cf.osb&bs=1&um=1&ie=UTF-8&ncl=duYgk7gY09YVu1MY_iusCMPuXNXNM&ei=BkORT9mIDarE0QWOrZz7AQ&sa=X&oi=news_result&ct=more-results&resnum=1&sqi=2&ved=0CCwQqgIwAA

More news reporting on the case.

This is a criminal trial and is making front page news in Almeria, particularly as one of the accused is the president of Almeria Football club and another is an ex government of Murcia minister.

In the event of a conviction, the judge will decide if the 300 properties constructed should be demolished at the expense of the accused. 

Currently, there is only one homeowner family in this courtroom striving to defend their interests. If you own or have contracted to buy one of these properties you might want to consider taking part to defend your rights.

The irony of the matter is that if the Junta de Andalucia , the instigators of this case, had actually enforced its planning regulations in a timely manner the accused would not have managed to construct 300 houses under their very noses and sell them on to third parties”.. 

I wish I had the time and the money to go and stand up for my bit of spanish soil.  I would love to confront the lying, thiefs.  Trouble is, I think I would end up behind bars ------ !!

 this is being reported in this months Almeria Focus magazine is this a current report or old news.....does anyone know current situation.....are people who brought into this wanted as witnesses....we did with no bank guarantee so any way to get some money back or put these people behind bars i have the time...

 Hi,

The criminal case is ongoing. The trial opened on the 19th of April 2012 in Almeria and was immediately halted because of a procedural error. (The defendants  lawyers were not informed that a lawyer representing an alleged victim  (a purchaser) was now also a party to the case). The judge was obliged to postpone the case to allow the defendants lawyers more time to prepare an additional defence.

If a criminal conviction is obtained it is easier to bring civil claims for damages.

Currently,  only ONE victim has tried to take part in the case. They had to go to the appeal courts to do so because they had almost left it too late. By winning the appeal, they have opened the door for others to take part.

If you join the case you will need legal representation and this will of course cost money.  The more people there are, the less the individual costs will be.

If you would like to know more about joining the case, please PM me and I will put you in touch with the lawyer representing the lone victim. I do not have their permission to post their contact details here.

Regards,

Maura Hillen

President , Abusos Urbanisticos Almanzora NO. (AUAN)

www.almanzora-au.org

Hi, I don't understand why this one persons case is different from the many others, of which I am one, who has already paid a barrister to take this case to court without any real success.  We may have won the case or so we are told but there is no monies returned to us.  I really do hope this will be the beginning of something different and maybe someone at long last is taking the whole situation seriously.  Is it the fact that this time the person is out for an individual rather than Huma as a Company?  We have spent so much money on trying to get our payments back that at some point you have to halt but I feel that it is just so wrong that they should get away with it.

I will certainly watch this case with interest and many thanks for drawing it to our attention.

Chris

 Hi Sparky,

The difference is that this is a criminal case taken by the state prosecutor against varies parties involved in Almanzora Valley Country Club.  Individuals normally resort to civil cases for fraud and return of monies lost. However, in this instance this person has chosen to ask to participate in the criminal proceedings as a victim. Others can also do this if they wish to do so.

As I understand it, within a criminal case, the courts have greater powers to seek out a convicted persons assets, in the event that the courts  find it necessary to make an order for compensation. However, it can still take many years for funds to be returned. Nothing happens quickly here in Spain. 

I do not see that anyone will get anywhere near a refund now (no win no fee companies included) while and until  all criminal proceedings (brought by the state) and judgements are all finalised!

Then it all has to start again with whatever the vervicts are:

So where do you go if a verdict of 'no guilt' or 'no wrong doing' is found by the courts ?

Correct or incorrect?

I believe that the criminal proceeding is to do with planning irregularities, not fraud.