Over the past few years, Inside Timeshare has been highlighting a string of fake law firms operating out of Tenerife, we dubbed them the Litigious Abogados Family. Every few months they resurface with new names, although the websites are all exactly the same with only the names of the fake lawyers, the photographs and the company addresses changed.
One of these names is Legalidades Tenerife which we highlighted back in July 2018, (see link below), well they seem to have resurfaced with their latest scam.
One of our regular readers who unfortunately did pay them for a supposed claim has now received their latest email. Our reader who we shall call Mr X, contacted them as he had not received the cheque from the court as they had promised. According to the email signed by Javier Montoya Mulata from the Departmento de Reclamaciónes, there is some very bad news.
Apparently, Legalidades Tenerife has been informed by the Comisaria General de Policia Judicial (Judicial Police), that our of 64 “compensation” cheques issued by the Courts in Santa Cruz their cheque was intercepted and cashed. A time and precise date were given.
The cheque was paid into an account for an import-export company registered to four Ukrainian citizens. The police suspect that it was an “inside job” and 16 Post office employees are being interviewed.
According to Javier Montoya Mulata, banks have been on the receiving end of many fines for inadequate record keeping on the opening of accounts with the clearing banks having many discrepancies to be formally addressed.
The Legalidades lawyers are “most disappointed and upset of the stress this must be causing you through no fault of ours or yours”. They also go on to say that they will extend their full support to provide the documentation for a replacement cheque.
They also go on to say that although the correct documentation can be provided within days, the “protocols and implications are severe and protracted”, so it will take 180 days or more to try to resolve the matter.
According to Mulata, the National Police are now involved in the investigation in tracking the cheques path, with the Santa Cruz Courts even going to the length of appointing an “independent trustee” who specialises in this field to “expedite and resolve” the matter without further delay.
Mulata also goes on to state that Legalidades lawyers have filed an official complaint against Sociedad Estatal Correos y Telégrafos SA (post office). The lawyers have also learnt that a small standard compensation payment will “without question” be paid within the next few weeks for their “contractual negligence and shortcomings”.
Well, this is all very nice, the court issues 64 cheques and apparently, the post office workers are in cahoots with a Ukrainian gang and steal only one cheque to the value of over 21,000 euros belonging to our reader. I suspect that another batch of letters just like this one has been sent to the other “clients” telling them the same thing.
No doubt the next phase of the scam will be another letter saying that they are so sorry, but to get the money paid out a fee will now have to be paid, will this be for tax or what?
This is a very eloborate and long running scam, in fact there are so many names we just can’t keep up, below is the link to article with a list of names so far. You can also read the full letter in the PDF below.
If you have had anything similar to this, whether it is from Legalidades Tenerife or another fake name, contact Inside Timeshare through our contact page. Your information just may help to save someone else from being taken in.
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