Welcome to The Mid Week Report, today we highlight a some of the breaking news in the world of timeshare, first we have some news from the High Court of Justice in London, regarding ITRA or International Timeshare Refund Action.
On 30th January 2019, the High Court wound up the company ITRA, this followed many cases brought against them in various courts around the UK from many clients who paid for services to extricate them from timeshare contracts and claim compensation.
This case brought before the High Court was made by a couple that had previously taken ITRA to court. Their grounds in the original case were unlawful conduct which involved misrepresentations and failure to provide the promised services. The services were relinquishment of the timeshare contract and a claim for compensation. It turns out even though the couple had won their case, ITRA failed to refund the money paid for the services as ordered by the courts.
ITRA were by no means unknown by the UK authorities, they had been investigated on many occasions for being involved in various deceptions. The UK authorities named them as being the main instigators of a classic “bait & switch” tactic, where consumers were invited to meetings for legal assistance. They were then sold “concierge services” or holiday club, which has also been described as “leisure credits”.
As far as the relinquishments are concerned, it is well known that many of the timeshare resorts did not recognise these, a case in point is our own Mrs B, who paid ITRA many thousands of pounds to relinquish her Dona Lola timeshare. As we know, ITRA transferred the timeshare to a named person for the nominal sum of 1 euro. MacDonald Resorts have never recognised this transfer, and Mrs B is still being threatened with court action for maintenance arrears, she is 90 years old!
This news was broken by Timeshare Business Check, which is part of KwikChex, funded by the Resorts Development Organisation (RDO). Which we know that it is their own members who did not recognise any of the transfers, if indeed ITRA did actually do them. In a way it is the industry that has brought about this sorry state of affairs where timeshare consumers can be taken in by companies such as ITRA.
As for KwikChex, Inside Timeshare published an article about them and Chris Emmins the director, in March 2016. This was when they were awarded the contract to take over from the discredited Alberto Garcia, who directed the “Enforcement Programme” along with mindtimeshare on behalf of the RDO, forming Timeshare Business Check and the “Timeshare Taskforce” (bit of a hollywood name). You will see from the article that Chris Emmins does not have a very good track record as a director.
http://insidetimeshare.com/kwikchex-chris-emmins/
We now move on to the trial of the late John “Goldfinger” Palmer associates at the Audiencia Nacional, National Court in Madrid, highlighted in previous articles, (links below).
It appears that the Anti Corruption Prosecutor’s Office has reduced the highest penalty of imprisonment to 24 months, a far cry from the 8 to 12 years originally called for. The reason is that the Prosecutor’s Office applied a mitigation of undue delays as the investigation which actually began 20 years ago.
However, the defendants will be liable for a subsidiary civil liability of 1,890,000 euros. A rather paltry amount considering the millions that was scammed from their victims.
The largest sentences of 24 months were given to Richard Cashman, Palmer’s lieutenant, for illicit association, fraud and money laundering.
Darren Morris was hand 10 months for unlawful association, 10 months for fraud and 4 months for money laundering. He was also handed a further 1 year for a firearm with the serial number erased, which was found in his home.
Paul Murry, Keith Peter Davies, Neil Campbell Lockie and Dean Wells, all involved in supporting Palmer’s business when he was jailed in the UK, face 10 months for illicit association and 10 months for fraud.
Christine Ketley who was jailed for 2 years on 2001 in the UK along with palmer and the lawyer Ramón Solano seem to have been spared sentence.
The prosecutor had also asked for a sentence of 8 months for Jacobba Visscher who ran the headquarters of Dinastia Resorts for 44 charges of fraud, this is reduced from the 8 years originally requested.
In the end although they have finally been brought to court, somehow the victims will not think that justice has actually been served.
Link to news report in Canarias7.
Links to previous articles.
http://insidetimeshare.com/start-the-week-associates-of-john-goldfinger-palmer-now-in-court/
http://insidetimeshare.com/update-the-john-goldfinger-palmer-saga/
Canarian Legal Alliance has announced the following, which will be good news for their clients.
In Gran Canaria the Judges in Maspalomas have been consistently declaring there is no need for cases against Anfi to go to a full trial. These Judges have decided to pass their resolutions at the preliminary hearing, yesterday 5 January, 5 preliminary hearings took place with all 5 having results announced without the full trial. For the clients this will mean no travelling for the trial and a much speedier resolution to their case.
In Tenerife a cash embargo has been placed to the value of 44,494.20€ against Silverpoint. Great news for this particular client, as the original claim was 32,791.75€, 11,702.45€ more. They will also get legal fees and legal interest.
Back to the courts in Gran Canaria, Another embargo has been placed against Anfi to the value of 12,882.79€ on behalf of a German client. The enforcement team consisting of the lawyers Judith Diaz Pascual and Cristina Batista are obviously doing a fantastic job on behalf of their clients.
In January the state of play was:
- 76 trials in all Spanish courts
- 18 appeals
- 28 appeals from the opposition
- 1 supreme court hearing
- 21 provisional executions
- 9 provoked interventions
- 1 cash embargo against Anfi
- 47 sentences all in favor of our CLA clients
- 1.600.000 € in claim amounts
Once again this does go to show that contrary to some posters on various forums and websites that have an axe to grind that CLA does not do what it says and along with the timeshare resorts and RDO who deny they are losing, or that the courts have got the law wrong, that is certainly not the case. These are all a matter of public record and can be verified.
If you have any comments or questions about this or any article published then use our contact page, we welcome the feedback.
Also if you have had dealings with any company or are about to with regards to a possible claim against your timeshare resort, but are not quite sure if it is genuine, then again use our contact page and we will give you the best advice possible.
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