Irishman’s welfare scam biggest ever, court hears

Paul Murray (63), who had not lived in Ireland for 37 years, was recently convicted of what has been termed the single largest social welfare fraud committed in the country in the past three decades.

The Irish Times reports that he claimed some 248,000 euro using nine different aliases, offering the simple excuse that the money was “easy to access.” He was jailed for 12 years for the crimes, which have been described as “audacious and breathtaking.”

Judge Anthony Kennedy imposed a six month sentence for each of the 25 sample theft charges Murray faced, with an additional concurrent sentence of three years imposed for possession of a fake passport.

Based in Thailand but returning to Ireland every three months to file for jobseeker’s allowance, Murray also claimed disability and supplementary welfare allowances to which he was not entitled.

His seven bank accounts now hold only 11,000 euro of the money, which he used to travel the world. A further 37,000 euro inheritance was also reportedly spent while Murray was lodging false claims between 2002 and 2010.

The scam unraveled when Murray’s brother Patrick innocently applied for a passport in Australia. It then came to light that his brother Paul had already made a passport application in that name, and officials brought this to the attention of the Department of Social Protection.

Murray then returned to Cavan on October 19 of last year and was immediately arrested by Detective Garda Peter Kelly. The Times reported that Murray told Kelly: “You’ve caught me red-handed”, then showed him 50 or so supporting documents which he kept hidden in his van, many of which were falsified.

Murray had previously been jailed in the UK for similar fraud totaling £30,000.

 

Michael Cherney is wanted in Spain on charges of organised crime and money laundering and there is an outstanding Interpol arrest warrant against him.

A man accused of being one of Russia's biggest gangsters is preparing to give evidence in a £2.3 billion High Court battle against a billionaire friend of Peter Mandelson.

Michael Cherney is using the English courts to sue oligarch Oleg Deripaska, claiming he did not pay him after agreeing to buy out his "alleged" share in Russian Aluminium.

Uzbekistan-born Cherney, 59, can now pursue his claim after a judge ruled he can give evidence via video link rather than be required to appear in person because he faces being arrested if he comes to Britain.

Cherney is wanted in Spain on charges of organised crime and money laundering and there is an outstanding Interpol arrest warrant against him.

He will be allowed to give evidence from his home in Israel after Mr Justice Flaux consented to the request and set a trial for next April.

The warring parties are two of the most colourful characters to come before the normally dusty world of the commercial courts.

Deripaska, 43, famously hosted a gathering on his yacht of Nathaniel Rothschild, George Osborne, then shadow chancellor, and the then European Commission trade commissioner Peter Mandelson in Corfu in the summer of 2008.

It caused a political uproar about alleged clashes of interests and business influence.
Deripaska lives in Moscow but has a home in Belgrave Square.

In 2008 his wealth was rated by Forbes magazine at £17.4 billion - making him Russia's richest man - but this has now declined to £10.2 billion.

At a High Court hearing in 2008, Mr Justice Christopher Clarke said "a considerable amount of evidence has been put forward in relation to Cherney's alleged criminality".

He went on: "He is reputed to be a gangster in some of the public press in Russia and there is heavy evidence that this view is taken by some security personnel."

The international arrest warrant on the Spanish charges was issued in May 2009 and Mr Cherney claims he has not left Israel since that time.
The High Court accepted jurisdiction of the case because Cherney claimed he could not get a fair trial in Russia.

Mr Cherney says that at a meeting in London in March 2001 Mr Deripaska agreed to buy out his (Cherney's) alleged stake in Mr Deripaska's company, Russian Aluminium, but the money was not paid.

Mr Deripaska, who strongly rejects this claim, says he was being forced to pay protection money to Mr Cherney.

Holidaymakers and ex-pats in Spain have been asked to look out for two fugitives who escaped from a prison van in Manchester.

Kirk Bradley and Tony Downes, both 25, were travelling from HMP Manchester to Liverpool Crown Court when the van was attacked by armed men on 18 July.

They were on their way to a trial where they were facing firearms charges.

The Serious Organised Crime Agency (SOCA) believes the Liverpool men may be attempting to travel to Spain.

Mr Downes, known as Fat Tony, from Dovecot, and Mr Bradley, of no fixed address but formerly of Huyton, are accused of conspiracy to possess firearms with intent to endanger life and conspiracy to commit criminal damage with intent to endanger life.

'Dangerous men'
They were standing trial alongside four other men but the hearing has since collapsed.

Mr Downes is known to be an associate of Kevin Parle, another fugitive on the Crimestoppers most wanted list, who is thought to be in Spain and is wanted in connection with two murders in Liverpool.

A spokesman for SOCA said: "These are dangerous men and it is very important that nobody approaches them.

"We are asking people who think they may have seen them to call Crimestoppers, either in Spain or in the UK.

"You can do this free, and completely anonymously. Our priority is getting these two back into custody as soon as possible."

The van the men were travelling in was attacked in Trinity Way, Manchester, last Monday.

The gang fled with the prisoners in a Saab, which was found abandoned about a mile away in Barrow Street, Salford.

Dapper Don' had been living the high-life on the Costa del Sol in recent months, after getting bail while cops investigate his €500m drug and money laundering empire

Christy Kinahan is back behind bars this week after his multi-million trail of dirty money caught up with him.

The 'Dapper Don' had been living the high-life on the Costa del Sol in recent months, after getting bail while cops investigate his €500m drug and money laundering empire.

But there was a fresh shock in store for Kinahan recently when he was arrested on foot of a warrant to face laundering charges in Belgium.

The Sunday World has learned that the Dapper Don will have to serve a four-year stretch in Belgium.

He had been flashing the cash around the Costa del Sol since his release last year and was living it up with a young lover and his two young children, according to underworld sources.

Along with older sons Daniel and Christopher junior, Kinahan had been regularly spotted wining and dining around Marbella and Puerto Banus, boasting that the family would beat a massive Spanish probe into his crime empire.

Plush

But today he is in custody in a tough Madrid jail. His life in the fast lane came to a crashing halt for the second time in 15 months on July 6 when cops busted him at his plush home in Estepona in southern Spain.

He was brought before Spain's Central Criminal Court on July 8, where he agreed to be extradited on the charges.

However, he has been placed in custody while the magistrate supervising his extradition checks with the judge who is currently overseeing the massive investigation into his suspected €500m drug empire.

A spokesman for the Prosecutor General's Office in Antwerp this week confirmed that extradition proceedings were issued from Belgium to Spanish authorities for Kinahan, relating to a conviction he has there on 10 counts of money laundering.

Belgium's Federal Police had uncovered a massive money laundering racket he was running, involving high-end properties.

The conviction dates back to 2009 but other unfortunate events in the Dapper Don's life have meant that he hasn't found the time to do his stretch.

After the conviction, he had ordered his legal team to appeal the case. While he did so, he moved back to Spain where authorities there moved in on him last summer in a massive dawn raid lifting him, his right hand man John Cunninghan, his sons Daniel and
Christopher Jnr and a host of lawyers, businessmen and thugs who work for him.

He was jailed last December, but was released on bail along with his sons on strict condition that they sign on once a week at a court in Estepona.

In the past few weeks the Belgians have decided that it is time he serve the sentence he was given in their country, while the Spanish investigation continues to trawl through his complex financial web that stretches across the globe.

It is not known if the Spanish will agree to the request now - allowing Kinahan to be transferred to a Belgian jail - or if they will tell a Flemish magistrate that they will only hand him back when they are finished with him.

Their investigation is likely to take at least another year. Kinahan has been trying desperately to keep the wheels on his massive drug-dealing and money-laundering empire rolling.

He has schooled Daniel - his son from Oliver Bond flats, who likes to be known as 'Sir' by his staff at his plush €6m mansion in Spain - in the highly intricate task of running his business, should the worst come to the worst for him.

For years, police could not get a handle on the intricate wranglings of Kinahan's business, but then Irish cops got a break following a last-minute tip-off that his son Christopher Jnr was getting married in 2007 to his fiancée Georgina Corish from Rialto.

Wedding

Undercover gardai put the wedding party under surveillance and the intelligence they gathered gave them an insight into his associates and his mobile phone network.

In May 2008, following a secret investigation by the Belgian Federal Police he was arrested. There he had set up a real estate company in Antwerp, Europe's diamond capital, with his Dutch business partner, Cornelius Fuchs.

The gangster had bought a former casino and gaming hall at Kaasrui 11 in the heart of Antwerp's old city. At the time Kinahan gave his address as Pernera in Cyprus.

The company planned to convert the casino into plush apartments and also bought two other properties in an exclusive area called Brasschaat, near Antwerp, which is known as 'billionaires row'.

When the properties were seized, an extraordinary web of corruption was also laid bare showing how Kinahan had paid-off police and used a sports club to launder cash.

He was handed a four-year sentence after he was found guilty on 10 counts of money laundering.

During his trial the judge accused the gangster of refusing to clarify where the money had come from, who owned it and what was his relationship with a string of offshore companies.

He said Kinahan had been in prison for a 'large portion of his life' and described how he is connected to several 'of the biggest players' in international organised crime.

No judge at Fuengirola Court

NEW court opened in Fuengirola at the end of June to deal with civil matters, but it still has no judge or secretary, and therefore, cannot operate and the cases which are received are simply filed on shelves.

 

Spanish murderer 'Lucky' Wilson linked to seven Irish murders

THE Irishman sentenced to 23 years earlier this week for the murder of an Englishman in a bar in Fuengirola, Spain, is now being linked to the disappearance and murder of seven Irish men over the past six years.

According to a report on RTE Radio's News at One, Garda detectives have already travelled to Spain to interview Eric 'Lucky' Wilson (27), who is from Ballyfermot, Dublin.

He is believed to be the hit man hired by the crime boss Marlo Hyland to kill a Drogheda drug dealer, Paul Reay, in 2006 and Roy Coddington, whose body was found on Mornington beach in Co Louth in 2007.

Gardai are also investigating whether he killed two other men, David Lindsay and Alan Napper, who went missing in July 2009.

Wilson is also suspected of being involved in the murders in Ballyfermot of Martin Kenny in 2005 and Anthony Cannon in 2009.

He is also being connected to the murder in Spain of a Dublin criminal who disappeared after the murders of two men in Summerhill, Dublin, in 2009.

 

AN Irish hitman linked to a string of killings here has been given 23 years for killing a British expatriate outside a bar in Spain.

Eric Wilson (27) was found guilty of the murder of Daniel Smith (24) last week by a jury in Malaga.

He was also convicted of the illegal possession of firearms. The written sentence is expected to be published at the Provincial Criminal Court today.

Wilson, from Ballyfermot in Dublin, was jailed for 23 years and ordered to pay €100,000 compensation to his victim's family.

Wilson is the prime suspect for a series of other killings. The Dubliner is believed to have been the hitman in at least three other murders and is on the shortlist of suspects for two more.

There are also suspicions that he was responsible for the murder in Spain of a Dublin criminal, who fled Ireland after a fatal double shooting in the capital.

Mr Smith, a roofer, died after being shot in the face and body with a 9mm pistol at the Lounge Bar in Riviera del Sol near the resort of Fuengirola on June 5, 2010.

He had rowed with Wilson after customer Georgina Hollywood accused the Irishman of touching her up.

Wilson raced home on his motorbike, grabbed the murder weapon from his rented home in Coin more than 30km away, and returned to kill his victim later that evening.

Brit bar worker how she was almost killed in a horror boating accident in Ibiza.

Suzanne Cassidy was sucked into the propeller blades of a speedboat after being pulled through the water on an inflatable "doughnut" ring.
The 26-year-old nursery worker survived by grabbing the side of the boat as the blades hacked into her leg. She said: "I really thought I was going to die."
Her tibia was left sticking out of her right leg and the broken bone was pinned together in a four-and-a-half hour operation.
Suzanne, from Cambuslang, near Glasgow, arrived in Ibiza 11 weeks ago to start a summer job at The Highlander bar in San Antonio.
She said: "I'm just glad to be alive. I knew immediately the danger I was in when I felt my leg being sucked towards the propellers by the engine.
"Somehow I twisted myself around and away from danger. My friends pulled me back on board the boat and that's when I saw the blood.
"I could feel throbbing in my leg where it was broken but I was running on adrenaline and didn't want to look. I only found out the bone had been sticking out of my leg after the operation."
The accident happened around 4pm on Sunday near San Antonio during a friend's booze-free 30th birthday party.
Her mum Sheelagh said Suzanne was coaxed on to the "doughnut" by pals but slipped when she went to climb back on the main boat.
She said: "The captain had already started the propellers before she was back on the boat. We're all really angry about what has happened.
"We've spoken to her boss and she's told us it was horrific and should never have happened."
Sheelagh, 54, told the Record she had a premonition about something happening to her daughter.
She said: "I had a dream two days before Suzanne went away in which I saw her lying on the ground screaming for me to help. I knew she needed her mum.
"I didn't tell Suzanne but I told my oldest daughter Claire, who said I was just being paranoid."
Suzanne, who hopes to one day walk without a limp, aims to leave hospital by the end of the week and plans to stay in Ibiza until September.
Her dad John, 56, is preparing to fly out to her daughter's bedside this afternoon.
Police in Ibiza are investigating the incident.
The boat's owners were not available for comment.

BRITISH teenager was yesterday stabbed to death in the Spanish resort of Lloret de Mar.

The as yet unnamed 15-year-old was reportedly knifed to death at around 4am.

The youngster is believed to live in the Costa Brava town near Barcelona.

He died after being taken to hospital in the nearby town of Blanes.

A police spokesman said: “An investigation is under way. I am not at liberty to say if there have been any arrests because of the secrecy order that is in place.”

A judge has been put in charge of a probe into the murder.

The death came just two days after another British teenager was stabbed in the groin in the resort of Puerto Banus near Marbella.

Roddy Azar, 17, was rushed to hospital with the knife wound to his groin after standing up to a gang who allegedly insulted his girlfriend and a female friend.

Police were yesterday looking at CCTV footage in an attempt to identify the attackers.

A source said: “Friends saw he was bleeding from a wound to the groin after he fell to the ground feeling faint and dizzy as the attackers left.”

His life is not thought to be in danger. Spanish police are hunting five Arabic-looking youths.

Maxi-operation underway against 'ndrangheta and international drug trafficking in Italy, the United States, Spain and Holland.

Maxi-operation underway against 'ndrangheta and international drug trafficking in Italy, the United States, Spain and Holland. Tens of people have been arrested by the Italian Military Police thanks to investigations conducted by the Investigative Committee of the Prosecutor's Office of Reggio Calabria in collaboration with the DCSA and the Italian Customs Agency. Kilos of cocaine destined to Calabrian mafia clans to be sold in Italy and abroad have been seized. . .

Costa killer suspected of at least 10 gang murders

Gardai are looking for the gangland's most prolific hitman, suspected of at least ten murders -- including eight in Ireland.

Gardai want to quiz psycho killer Eric 'Lucky' Wilson over a spate of unsolved murders here, which they believe he carried out as a 'freelance' assassin.

Wilson was convicted of blasting 24-year-old British criminal Daniel Smith to death in a packed Spanish bar and now faces a potential 25-year jail term, the Herald can reveal.

The victim was shot a number of times in a row over a woman.

Wilson (27), who has been on the run from gardai since 2006, could then be be extradited back to Ireland.

They also want to charge him over a major firearms seizure in Co Carlow that year and also a serious assault in Co Laois in 2004.

A senior source explained: "Eric Wilson is the most prolific gun-for-hire in the history of Irish organised crime. He is completely ruthless, psychotic and had a solid reputation of always getting his man."

Detectives from the NBCI travelled to Spain earlier this year to question him about these killings, but Wilson refused to meet them when they arrived at the jail he was in.

The hitman, from Cremona Road, Ballyfermot, is suspected of working for a number of Ireland's most dangerous drugs gangs and regularly travelling back and forward from Spain's Costa-Del-Sol to Ireland with a false passport before his arrest in Fuengirola last June.

These gangs include the northside crews that were led by slain crime lords Martin 'Marlo' Hyland and Eamon 'The Don' Dunne as well as notorious hood Paul 'Burger' Walsh's drugs gang.

Wilson has also worked for the godfather of Irish crime Christy Kinahan, and 'Fat' Freddie Thompson's mob.

However he has always been closest to the current 'Mr Big' of Irish crime -- a shadowy major league criminal who is aged in his 50s and has made millions of euro by importing illegal cigarettes into Ireland.

Feud

Sources say that 'Mr Big' has been a "mentor and financial backer" of Wilson since the hitman was only a child but has "left him to hang out to dry" because of the reckless murder in Spain of Daniel Smith which 'Mr Big' considered "highly stupid", according to sources.

'Mr Big', who has major Provo credentials, cannot be named for legal reasons but he was in involved in a bitter feud with the Real IRA last summer which led to two murders and a number of shooting incidents.

This feud has now eased and 'Mr Big' spends most of his time in Spain where he was regularly spotted in 'Lucky' Wilson's company before he was locked up last June.

Sources have confirmed that Wilson is the chief suspect for two gang murders in Co Louth in 2006 and 2007 -- that of Paul Reay and Roy Coddington.

Drug dealer Reay was shot dead in November 2006 on the orders of Finglas gang boss Hyland -- himself shot dead later that year.

The 26-year-old father-of- three was hit three times in the chest after the car he was travelling in was waved down by a gunman posing as a road worker just outside Drogheda, Co Louth.

Gardai believe Reay was targeted because his killers thought he tipped off detectives about a major drugs haul seized near Athboy, Co Meath, in 2005.

Drug dealer Coddington (36) was shot twice in the face and once in the chest at Mornington beach, Co Meath in March 2007.

Sources also suspect that Wilson was involved in the abduction, torture and murder of criminals David 'Babyface' Lindsay and Alan 'Whacker' Napper, who disappeared without trace almost three years ago.

Gardai believe the unfortunate duo were murdered in a house in Co Down on the orders of the notorious drugs trafficker, nicknamed 'The Panda' by the media, after they threatened to kidnap his mother.

Sources say that once Lindsay and Napper were tortured and shot, their bodies were cut up and dumped in the Irish Sea.

Gardai have also been investigating Wilson's links to the murder of King Ratt gang enforcer Anthony Cannon (26) who was gunned down in Ballyfermot in July 2009 on the orders of the 'Fat' Freddie gang.

Gruesome

Another Ballyfermot murder linked to Wilson is that of Martin Kenny (22) who was shot dead as he slept beside his girlfriend in May 2005.

Sources have also confirmed that gardai have investigated if Wilson was responsible for shooting dead gangland figure Andrew 'Madser' Glennon (30) in Blanchardstown just a fortnight before Kenny's murder.

Another gruesome murder that Wilson is suspected of is that of north inner city hood Christopher Gilroy (36) who disappeared without trace in Spain in February 2009.

Wilson is also suspected of involvement in shooting a man dead in the Crumlin area over a decade ago when he was just a teenager. This victim is understood to have given a female cousin of Wilson's a beating.

And a very close associate of Wilson is a feared gangster from the south inner city who is the chief suspect for abducting and murdering 19-year-old Romanian girl Marioara Rostas in January 2008.

 

Fugutives' Mugshots To Be Screened At Airport As Holidaymakers Head To 'Costa Del Crime

MUGSHOTS of Scotland's two most wanted fugitives are being displayed on video screens at Glasgow Airport so they will be seen by thousands of holidaymakers jetting to Spain.
The faces of William Paterson, 31, and Derek "Deco" Ferguson, 47, are shown on screens at the busy airport.
Both men are wanted for murder and are thought to be hiding out in the Costa del Sol.
Ferguson has been hunted by cops probing two different killings.
They want to quiz him about the death of barman Tam Cameron, 49, who was shot in the chest outside the Auchinairn Tavern in Bishopbriggs, near Glasgow, in June 2007.
He has also been linked to the death of Billy Bates, who was also a suspect in Tam's murder.
Bates's body was discovered in an oil drum weeks after the shooting.
It has been claimed that Ferguson was smuggled out of the country by a gangland tycoon from the Calton area of the city.
Paterson is wanted over the execution of gangland enforcer Kevin "Gerbil" Carroll, who was gunned down outside a supermarket in the city's Robroyston area last year.
Crimestoppers Scotland hope the new campaign will help jog holidaymakers' memories and lead them to the men's hideouts.
Kate Jackson from the charity fought for the campaign to be launched.
She said: "The public is one of the greatest weapons in the fight against crime, and we are asking them to help track down two of Glasgow's most wanted individuals.
"We've had an overwhelming response to our 'most wanted' campaigns, resulting in many pieces of useful information on the fugitives sought."
In February, the Glaswegian told how Paterson and Ferguson were on a list of 10 suspected criminals hiding from police on the "Costa del Crime".
Investigators spoke out asking the public for help tracing the two fugitives.
The appeals were first launched in 2006.
The 50 appeals have led to the arrest of 38 suspects.

 

SUSPECTED professional hitman who blasted a British drinker to death following a row at Spanish bar has been convicted of murder.

Eric Wilson shot roofer Dan Smith, 24, eight times in the face and body.

Dubliner Wilson, 27, whose nickname is Lucky, faces up to 25 years behind bars.



Mr Smith, himself on the run from UK police over a 2007 attempted murder, had tried to stop Wilson “touching up” a woman in a Costa del Sol bar, a court heard.

Wilson raced by motorbike to his rented home, grabbed a 9mm pistol and returned to shoot Mr Smith, known as Tall Dan, on the bar terrace.

Police raided the killer’s home two days later in June 2010 and found the bike, hand grenades, explosives and ammunition.

A jury in Malaga was shown documents which suggested Wilson had killed 11 people in Ireland.

He is due to be sentenced in the next two weeks.

SPANISH newspapers say five locals have been charged with killing a Bournemouth man who fell 25ft from a balcony in a brawl on the Costa del Sol.

According to reports in the Spanish media, prosecutors claim Stephen Mallon, 49, of Southbourne, was struck with a bottle and then pushed off the balcony, as he defended his teenage sons from a mob in 2009.

Now a Spanish judge has decided five locals should answer to manslaughter charges over Mr Mallon’s death and 12 others have been charged with wounding and affray. The accused, who are Spanish and reported to be aged between 18 and 25, will be tried in Malaga, but no date has yet been set for the start of proceedings.

At the time it was reported in England that Mr Mallon had taken his sons Peter and Carl and three of their friends to his holiday home in the mountain village of Competa to celebrate the twins’ birthdays. But while they were at the La Estrella, pub locals turned on them because they were English, it was claimed.

The family were reported to have angrily denied contradictory reports in Spain, which claimed the fight started when one of Mr Mallon’s sons flirted with a local girl, whose Spanish ex-boyfriend became jealous.

Mr Mallon was left fighting for his life in a coma at the Carlos Haya Hospital in Malaga after suffering serious head injuries in the fall.

Twelve days later his wife Teresa, sons and daughter Jenny were at his side when doctors switched off his life support machine.

Eric ‘Lucky’ Wilson, 27, allegedly shot Smith, 24, a dozen times at point blank range outside the Lounge Bar, in Riviera del Sol

Eric ‘Lucky’ Wilson, 27, allegedly shot Smith, 24, a dozen times at point blank range outside the Lounge Bar, in Riviera in June 2010.
The prosecutor at Malaga Provincial Court is calling for an 18-year prison sentence for Wilson and wants the Irishmen to pay 45,793 euros in compensation.
As first reported in the Olive Press, Smith had angered the Irishman after he stepped in to defend a female friend who had been allegedly groped by Wilson.


A fight broke out and Wilson allegedly left the bar, returning 30 minutes later with a gun.
He was arrested at his farm in Coin, less than 48 hours after the attack, and a search of the house found explosives, grenades and fake passports.
The victim’s mother Karen Wetherell, who was present in Malaga Provincial Court this week, is also bringing a separate private prosecution.
She said: “Thanks for getting in touch, but at this stage I am not willing to answer any questions.”
Her lawyer Carlos Comitre added however: “The case is very clear and there is no doubt that (he) is the murderer.
“We want to get the maximum sentence and see justice for the family.”

LOCAL POLICE prevented an armed bank robbery in Avenida de la Estacion in Almeria.

LOCAL POLICE prevented an armed bank robbery in Avenida de la Estacion in Almeria. A middle-aged man entered the bank and claiming to feel ill, asked the staff to call an ambulance. He then went to a restricted area, and when one of the staff told him he couldn’t be there, the man allegedly took out a knife and demanded all the money they had.

The employee was able to get away from him and grab him from behind and hold him until the police arrived and arrested him. Some of the staff had to be treated for anxiety attacks, but no-one was injured.

TWO men were arrested in Agost on suspicion of burglary, vehicle theft and conspiracy

TWO men were arrested in Agost on suspicion of burglary, vehicle theft and conspiracy. One was a French national, the other Algerian; both aged 27 and residents of Dolores.

During the raid at the Agost warehouse, several vehicles, tools for cutting vehicles, license plates and documents pertaining to stolen vehicles were seized. Officers searched their homes in Dolores and found more tools and effects from burglaries as well as a pistol and ammunition.

It is believed that they carried out at least 17 burglaries at private properties in the southern Alicante Province. Investigations are continuing and further arrests are imminent

Gang held over Murcia cash machine muggings

THREE people were arrested in Murcia accused of robbing unsuspecting bank customers as they withdrew money from cash machines. So far they have been charged with nine violent robberies of this nature carried out in Murcia City in the past 12 months.

The victims of cash machine muggings of this type tend to target elderly people. Two of the three are Spanish while the third is of Venezuelan nationality. The alleged muggers would follow their victims once they identified they fit the profile and had withdrawn cash, to an isolated location where they would assault them and steal the cash.

Police seized clothes and some items believed to have been stolen from victims during raids at the homes of the three suspects. Investigators have not ruled out this gang being behind more robberies elsewhere in Spain. Among the suspects is a Spanish man known as ‘Sabonis’ a known criminal who served a prison sentence for killing a police officer in Madrid in 1996, according to Spanish daily El Mundo.

 

Illegally kept birds in Elche

THE Guardia Civil’s Nature Protection unit SEPRONA has denounced a farmer in Torrellano Alto in Elche for keeping wild birds in captivity without authorization or the necessary documentation.

They found several cages on his property containing a blackbird, a European Greenfinch, two Carduelis finches, and eight European Serins (the smallest of the finches). Illegal hunting gear was also found on the property.

 

GUARDIA CIVIL are investigating a bank robbery which took place in Moraira on Monday morning

GUARDIA CIVIL are investigating a bank robbery which took place in Moraira on Monday morning. When staff opened the doors to the bank, they found the three robbers, wearing masks, and armed with knives.

Three masked robbers tied up staff at the Caixa Teulada bank before escaping on foot with €10,000, Guardia Civil told Europa Press. Police believe the suspects gained entry to the bank by a hole in the wall. A female customer was withdrawing money from the bank’s cash machine at the time of the robbery, and she witnessed the suspects running away.

No staff were injured during the robbery.

35 arrested in town planning irregularities case in El Puerto de Santa María

The Guardia Civil has carried out an operation in El Puerto de Santa María, Cádiz, has ended with a total of 35 people being charged with town planning crimes. The group faces charges of perversion of the course of justice, falsification of documents, and crimes against town planning ordinances.

The irregularities date back to the time that the town was government by independents and among those arrested is the ex IP Mayor, Hernán Díaz, and Town Planning Councillor, Juan Carlos Rodríguez.

‘Operación Suministro’ is being controlled by the judge Miguel Ángel López Marchena in Instruction Court 3 in the town.
Promoters and at least one industrial technical engineer are implicated.

The Guardia Civil arrested five people last March, including the ex councillor, Juan Carlos Rodríguez, after which reporting restrictions were introduced.

 

Burgler stabbed to death in A Coruña

17 year old youth who broke into a flat in Pondedueme, A Coruña, died in the early hours of Sunday after being surprised and stabbed by the owner of the property. The owners of the flat arrived home while the thief was inside.

The owner of the flat stabbed the youth with the knife, and then the youth jumped out of the window to make his escape. He died some streets away after collapsing.

The owner has been arrested by the Guardia Civil and remains in custody.

The Mayor of Pondedueme, Gabriel Torrente, lamented what had happened. He told Europa Press that ‘years ago these things did not happen’.

 

Sentencing announced for Cádiz social security scam

Sentencing has been announced in the Operation Karlos social security scam in Cádiz, with a nine and a half year prison term for Francisco Casto, the medical inspector accused of falsifying the reports which were needed to obtain fraudulent disability pensions from the state.

The man considered to be the leader of the network, the ex local police chief in Ubrique, Carlos Carretero, has been sentenced to four years in prison in an agreement which was previously reached with the prosecutor.

The ruling from the Cádiz provincial court made public this Monday considers that the wife of the bullfighter Jesulín de Ubrique, María José Campanario, , and her mother, Remedios Torres, were both accessories in falsifying official documents. They were also found guilty of attempted fraud, but escape serving time in prison as neither has a previous criminal record and both were given sentences just one month below the two-year threshold.

Campanario was also fined 1,800 €, and her mother 720 €.

 

Stephen Alexander Mallon was hit over the head with a bottle in a fight outside a bar in June 2009

17 youths face charges for the death of a British man, 49 year old Stephen Alexander Mallon, after a street fight in Cómpeta in June 2009.

First instance and instruction court number 1 in Torrox has opened the process against the 17 youths who are all aged between 18 and 25. They come from Cómpeta and other local villages such as Canillas de Albaida and Árchez.

Judge Silvia Coll Carreño, is processing five of the accused on the charge of homicide as in article 138 in the Penal Code, and the others will face charges of causing injury and causing a brawl.
Bail has been set at 100,000 € for those facing the homicide charge, and at 10,000 € for the rest.

The victim and his family were on holiday in the village, and had gone out for a drink. Unwittingly they got involved in the brawl in the La Estrella pub in the early hours of June 5 2009. The case documents say that the first conflict happened between the British group and the ex boyfriend of one of the local girls they were talking to inside the pub, and the conflicts extended to the local man’s friends outside the pub after the owner kicked everyone out. It notes that the pub owner did suggest that the British group stay inside, fearing a fight could occur, but the British declined his offer and a massive fight broke out outside with bottles and belts being used.

Stephen Alexander Mallon was hit, it’s thought by a bottle, on his head by the ex boyfriend of the girl and then pushed by another off the terrace of a pizzeria, falling over four metres when pushed over the veranda. He was admitted to the Carlos Haya Hospital in Málaga in a coma, but he lost his battle for life 12 days later.

The victims two children were also injured in the fight, with a broken nose and hand, and their other friends were also hurt, but less seriously.

The case will be heard in the Provincial Court in Málaga, although no date has been fixed as yet.

 

Spanish priest says 'Measure my anus' following gay allegation

Spanish priest, Andrés García Torres, who has a parish in the Madrid dormitory town of Fuenlabrada has said he will go to Rome to show that he is being expelled from his parish unfairly.

It comes after the Bishop of Getafe has demanded that he goes under psychiatric therapy to ‘cure’ his homosexuality, and has an HIV test, following claims made that he has had a relationship with a 28 year old Cuban seminarian, claims which are based on a photo of him hugging the man on a trip to Fátima. Both men are shirtless in the photo.

‘Let them measure my anus and see if it is dilated’, said the priest who insists that they are only friends. He complains that his mother has not stopped crying at what has happened.

Since the story has broken the priest has said he is very happy to see his church full of people and those who attend the modest parish say that they will demonstrate against the Bishop’s plans to have their local priest transferred.

The locals say that the priest is a very human person, dedicated to helping others. More than 1,000 local signatures have been gathered in his support.