Deputy Prime Minister Alfredo Pérez Rubalcaba said that the temporary reduction had saved 450 million euro, but that there is a cost of 230,000 euro to replace the speed limit signs on the roads, which still results in a huge saving for the entire country.

Now, as the price of oil is falling, it seems appropriate to increase the sped limit back to 120kph, increasing by the 10kph that was introduced in March.

The move to return the speed limit has been met with some opposition, as the move not only saved money for every driver in the country, but there were a huge decrease in the number of speeding penalties issued and a considerable saving on carbon emissions which benefitted the environment, as well as a significant reduction in road traffic incident, injuries and deaths.

The Supreme Court recognized that there was contradictory jurisprudence on the subject at the provincial level, and decided to set a legal precedent by establishing that payments on a loan entered into by both spouses fall under the joint responsibilities of the community property regime, which makes both parties equally bound regardless of income.

via ELPAÍS.com in English.

Colin Thomas, founding director of Ocean View Properties, is being investigated for fraud and misappropriation of funds over a Costa Del Sol holiday home scheme.

His firm marketed properties using images of celebrities including ex-Aston Villa captain Gareth Barry and BBC’s Homes Under The Hammer star Martin Roberts to sell luxury off-plan apartments, though neither benefitted in any way or had any knowledge of irregularities.

It is understood that midfielder Barry, now playing for Manchester City, also invested in the company, although it is unclear how much he put in.

A source close to the England star said: “The investors are all just chasing their money at the moment.

“This has hurt Gareth just as much as anyone else. He is a victim and is in the same boat as all the other investors.

‘‘He won’t speak publicly about it because it’s all still ongoing with lawyers, but it hasn’t been good for him at all.”

The Sunday Mercury reported today that Spanish lawyers are planning to call Prince Albert of Monaco to give evidence as a witness at the trial. They believe he was persuaded to take part in an event linked to Ocean View Properties in Punta Perla, Dominican Republic.

The Dominican Republic President, Leonel Fernández Reyna, is also due to be called as a witness, though neither leader is accused of any wrongdoing.

As well as attracting investment from sportsmen and celebs, Ocean View was a sponsor of major Midland football clubs including Aston Villa, West Bromwich Albion, and Leicester City.

Former Leicester City skipper Matt Elliott is believed to have lost around £70,000 on an Ocean View holiday home.

He is among angry investors taking legal action to recover monies from the property company, which was dissolved in 2009 owing £43 million.

Ocean View was launched in 2001 by Yoxall businessman Colin Thomas.

His friend Sean Woodhall, a convicted conman, searched for development opportunities on the Costa del Sol, while the Staffordshire businessman found potential investors by offering high rental yields and capital returns.

Woodhall, who was linked to several overseas property scams, went missing after his light aircraft crashed while flying over Brazil in 2008.

He was later legally declared dead – despite his body never being recovered.

Mr Thomas was named in a criminal claim lodged in a Madrid court earlier this month.

Around 70 claimants from across Britain, including 15 from Birmingham, are involved in the lawsuit seeking more than £6.5 million in lost investments.

Under Spanish law, that claim forms part of criminal proceedings against the three Midland men.

Ocean View was involved in a number of successful enterprises, but ran into difficulties when it became involved as an agent for a Spanish developer, Ricardo Miranda Miret.

Two investors sank almost a million pounds each into schemes run by Mr Miret.

They included a 350 luxury apartment build at the Estepona Country Club, on the Costa del Sol, and a prestigious 6,000 property development in Punta Perla, in the Dominican Republic.

via Birmingham Post.

Tip-offs after past Operation Captura announcements have led to 38 out of 50 fugitives being returned to the UK to face trial or complete jail terms.

Anthony Fraser, grandson of ex-London gangster “Mad” Frankie Fraser, is wanted over cannabis smuggling claims.

The Serious Organised Crime Agency will also name nine others including alleged murderers, robbers and a paedophile.

The majority of the 38 caught and returned to the UK in the past to face trial or resume jail sentences – a 76% success rate – were tracked down to the Spanish costas, where the launch later is taking place.

Tip-off strategy

Operation Captura was first launched in 2006 and is widely considered to be the UK’s, if not the world’s, most successful campaign to target fugitives abroad.

Crimestoppers’ Operations director Dave Cording: “I think a lot of the ex-pats living out in Spain see these people, don’t like the way they behave, and want to help.”

“We’ve probably had 600 pieces of information. And of all the calls we’ve had, not once has anyone tried to claim a reward.”

At their call centre in the UK, Crimestoppers’ phones are staffed 24 hours a day, and interpreters are on hand to assist with any Spanish callers.

The tip-offs received are relayed via Serious Organised Crime Agency (Soca), to the Spanish police in Madrid.

Continue reading the main story

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Start Quote

Having the public’s attention focussed on these individuals goes a long way to making it harder for them to hide”

Ken Gallagher

Soca

They then notify local snatch teams known as “Greco” units and if a suspect is positively identified, they will be arrested.

Once in custody, the suspects appear in court in Spain before being returned to the UK.

Extraditions that used to take years of legal wrangling are now rubber-stamped in days, following the introduction of European Arrest Warrants in 2004.

The 10 names on each Captura list are selected by Soca from lists of wanted suspects sent to them by police forces across England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.

They are graded according to how dangerous they are to the public, how serious their suspected offences are, and how strong the intelligence is linking them to the Spanish costas.

“Operation Captura is helping make the ex-pat Community in Spain an uncomfortable place for fugitives,” says Ken Gallagher, Soca’s Head of European Operations.

“Having the public’s attention focussed on these individuals goes a long way to making it harder for them to hide.”

Family link

But why are so many criminals still attempting to hide in Spain?

Dave Cording thinks many of the fugitives choose Spain because although foreign, it is familiar.

“I suspect having looked at some of the names it’s all to do with family,” he explains.

“A lot have settled there and these are now the offspring of the villains.”

Among those being sought this time is Anthony Fraser – grandson of the former South London gangster Frankie Fraser.

He is wanted for questioning in connection with a plot in 2009 to smuggle cannabis hidden inside a lorry consignment of frozen chickens into the UK.

The other nine names will be issue later at the official launch event.

They include a man wanted to complete a 25-year jail sentence, two suspected murderers, several drug dealers and man facing child sex charges.

via BBC News.

Spanish law sets the minimum age for marrying at 18 years. However, people as young as 16 years may marry if they have become independent from their parents.

And people as young as 14 years may marry provided they have special permission from a judge who needs to first question the couple and their family members.

About 340 people aged 14-15 years have married in Spain over the past decade.

The government is concerned that the current law can lead to child abuse or arranged marriages, the daily El Mundo reported.

‘Fourteen-year-olds must be allowed to be children. If they marry, something is wrong,’ the daily quoted health ministry sources as saying.

Experts working on new legislation to protect children were considering raising the marriage age, though no final decision had yet been taken on the subject, Pajin said.

Most European countries set the marriageable age at 18 years, though exceptions can usually be made with judicial or parental consent.

via Spain Review.

BBVA sued the borrower to reclaim 28,129 euro of debt outstanding on a 71,225-euro loan after selling the property for 42,895 euros. Under Spanish law, mortgage lenders have a claim on all a borrower’s assets and not just their home, El Pais said. BBVA plans to appeal, it added.

The judge ruled that the house’s fall in value was a direct result of the financial crisis that stems from financial mispractice and it was “morally repellent” that the bank should make additional claims on the borrower, the newspaper said.

The case raises the possibility of claims from hundreds of thousands of borrowers who have been left with debts after their homes were repossessed over the past three years, the newspaper said.

via Bloomberg.

This batch of cases is broken down into areas, in which 9 were issued in Asturias, 23 in Castilla-La Mancha, 52 across the Comunidad Valenciana, 15 in Extremadura, 14 in the Islas Baleares y 117 in Madrid as well as 3 in Ceuta and 1 in Melilla.

This now brings the total number of complaints filed for investigation to 376, of which 246 are bars, restaurants or hotels, 35 health centres or hospitals and 19 are other public facilities.

The consumer association had over a thousand complaints from members of the public in the first two days of the new law and has vowed to support the public in enforcing the law to its full power.

Despite the opposition of the law by a small number of businesses, the majority of the Spanish population believe it to be a good move by the current government in attempting to safeguard their health. Medical staff have also reported a huge increase in the number of people seeking support to stop smoking all together.

via The Leader – News, Sport, Advertising, Property, Classifieds – Costa Blanca, Costa del Sol, Costa Calida, Costa de Almeria, Spain.

A new law in Spain could spell the end of an era with changes affecting the father’s automatic right to hand his surname down to his children before their mother’s.

Under current law Spanish surnames come in pairs, one from the father and one from the mother. In case of a dispute, the father’s comes first.

A new law proposed by Zapatero’s socialist government is set to bring changes to the table with the surnames to be assigned in alphabetical order – unless instructed otherwise by the parents.

The new law also proposes that unless otherwise agreed, the surnames will go in alphabetical order. The new law will be examined by the Justice Commission of the parliament’s lower house until the 10th November for possible modifications and could come into force within two years.

via New Sexual Equality Law in Spain to Shake up Surnames | SpanishNews.es.

Patrons of Spain´ss infamously smoke-clogged cafes, bars and clubs are drawing their last few puffs.

Lawmakers have voted to scrap Spain´s extraordinarily lax anti-tobacco legislation from January next year and replace it with one of the toughest smoking bans in Western Europe.

In a land where people light up pretty much at will in restaurants, bars, nightclubs and offices, it is a daunting prospect for both smokers and their regular haunts, many suffering in the economic crisis.

For now, the loopholes are so large in Spain´s smoking legislation that many people barely give them a thought.

The law, introduced in 2006, allows establishments smaller than 100 square meters (1,100 square feet) to choose whether they want to be smoking or non-smoking; most allow smoking.

The new law was approved by lawmakers in the Congress of Deputies, the lower parliamentary chamber, on Wednesday. It is almost certain to be approved by the Senate and come into force Jan 2 – giving people a last cigarette in bars and clubs on New Year´s Day.

via Spain gets tough smoking.

A property company linked to the former James Bond star and his wife has allegedly failed to pay £1.3 million of tax on the sale of development rights to land on the outskirts of Malaga, reports Spanish newspaper Sur.

In May, Connery was named in a money-laundering investigation stemming from the sale of a seaside villa just east of Marbella, a coastal town close to Malaga.

The actor was said to have sold the property for £6 million in 1999 and it was knocked down and replaced by a complex with 72 apartments – despite laws dictating only five homes could be constructed on it.

The Madrid and Marbella offices of the law firm which allegedly handled the sale were raided in May.

Connery and Micheline lived in Marbella from the 1970s to the 1990s but now reside in the Bahamas.

via Connery facing fresh tax probe? | Orange UK.