Palma court told 35 Britons were defrauded of 6.8 million

Palma court told 35 Britons were defrauded of 6.8 million
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By h.b. - Jun 12, 2010 - 10:33 AM
The court case in Palma de Mallorca into a fraud where at least 35 Britons were defrauded of 6.8 million € has got underway.

Archive Photo EFE

The Britons were convinced to invest in a project to build 18,000 luxury flats in Bulgaria, brought into the scam by webpages and a phone campaign in 2007 and 2008. The calls were made from an office in Palma were a company was created with a legal capital of 3,000 €, and the callers used false names.

On the opening of the case on Friday, Prosecutor Pedro Horrach, asked ‘where is the money?’, saying it had ‘vanished into smoke’ in a web of companies set up in Bulgaria and Morocco, and ‘including Gibraltar and other financial havens’.

Horrach is demanding a 14 year prison sentence for the two accused, the 45 year old Briton, Paul Charleston, and the Canadian, Brian Geifing, both of whom were in court ‘elegantly dressed and handcuffed’, according to El País. Both men live on the island, drive top of the range cars, and send their children to the most expensive school in Mallorca.

Paul Charleston, from Leigh, was taken into custody on Mallorca in November 2008, along with another Briton, 38 year old Donna Maria Messe, of Seisdon, Staffordshire.

One pensioner told the court ‘They told me by telephone that they knew where to invest hot money’, who paid dozens of thousands of pounds for shares. He told the court that the leaflets showed hotels, four golf courses, and ski runs. He said ‘they told us that it was all on the main road in Sofia, which would be the main route between Turkey and Europe.

The case continues.

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