But hundreds of Britons lost money after they were sold homes built illegally on protected land, which were worth about 30 per cent less than they paid.<\/p>\n
More than 20 years later, these buyers have finally seen justice done after three builders, a council architect, and a former village mayor were convicted of fraud and related crimes.<\/p>\n
New FeatureIn ShortQuick Stories. Same trusted journalism.<\/p>\n
Adrian Hobbs, 67, a retired businessman from Southampton who has lived in Spain<\/a> for five years, bought a \u20ac500,000 (\u00a3435,000) home in the village of Ll\u00edber, near Alicante<\/a>, in 2001. The property\u2019s value has dropped by \u20ac150,000 (\u00a3130,000).<\/p>\n Mr Hobbs, who is living with cancer, said his health has been affected by the ordeal. \u201cThe best medicine I received was getting a copy of the sentence,\u201d he told The i Paper after the ruling last week.<\/p>\n He has been awarded \u20ac100,000 (\u00a387,000) in compensation, but he and many of the other victims are doubtful they will ever get the money from the fraudsters.<\/p>\n Mr Hobbs, who led the campaign for justice, says he will fight on until it is paid.<\/p>\n \u201cWe will not stop until we get compensation. That\u2019s my promise to my colleagues who helped me during this campaign, who have sadly passed. About 40 people have died.\u201d<\/p>\n June Mason, 73, from Solihull, bought a house with her late husband John in 2002 for \u20ac250,000 (\u00a3217,000). She sold the home for \u20ac375,000 (\u00a3325,000) \u2013 below the market value of \u20ac425,000 (\u00a3370,000).<\/p>\n \u201cIt has been a nightmare right from the start when we realised the place was illegal. They were like a mafia,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n \u201cBut I bet they did not think we would come and fight them like this.\u201d<\/p>\n The scam took place between 1999 and 2003 in Ll\u00edber, a village of about 900 people, at the height of Spain\u2019s building boom in the early 2000s, when many Britons fell victim to unscrupulous builders who were in league with village mayors.<\/p>\n In what is believed to be the largest case of its kind, about 500 Britons learned that their properties, which were worth between \u20ac200,000 (\u00a3174,000) and \u20ac1m (\u00a3869,000), were illegal.<\/p>\n Three builders, a council architect, and a former mayor of Ll\u00edber, knew the 292 properties were built on land classed as \u201crustic\u201d where housing was prohibited.<\/p>\n Last week, a court in Alicante convicted the builders, one of whom is British, and the architect of fraud and the former mayor of prevarication (a Spanish crime referring to a civil servant who issues an arbitrary decision with the knowledge that it is unfair). All denied wrongdoing.<\/p>\n The court handed out fines, suspended sentences and made compensation orders with a total of \u20ac3.5m (\u00a33m).<\/p>\n Despite the long fight for justice, the victims have not seen their homes made legal, as the local council has not granted licences.<\/p>\n Amador Signes Arab\u00ed, a municipal architect, and builders Miguel Muntaner Alomar, Peter Antonius Schmidt and Trevor John Henry Bourne, who is British, were convicted of fraud. Jos\u00e9 Mas, a former mayor, was convicted of prevarication.<\/p>\n Arab\u00ed, Signes, Muntaner and Bourne were jailed for two years, which in Spain amounts to a suspended sentence if a defendant has no previous convictions. Gerardo Vasquez, a property lawyer and campaigner against illegal homes who is a dual British Spanish national, said: \u201cIt is certainly the biggest case that I have heard about involving foreign buyers.<\/p>\n \u201cIt has taken a long time and I admire their tenacity, especially that of the leader of the affected, Adrian Hobbs.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Hundreds of Britons lost money after they were sold homes built on protected land MADRID \u2013 They saved…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":479258,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5312],"tags":[12824,2000,299,20291,349,8081,2516,2250,104],"class_list":{"0":"post-479257","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-spain","8":"tag-brits-abroad","9":"tag-eu","10":"tag-europe","11":"tag-expats","12":"tag-fraud","13":"tag-investments","14":"tag-property","15":"tag-retirement","16":"tag-spain"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115330107911248754","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/479257","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=479257"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/479257\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/479258"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=479257"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=479257"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=479257"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/SEI_269260868-e1759766889367.jpg\")
John and June Mason in happier times in India (Photo: June Mason)<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/SEI_269259265.jpg\")
A sign warning visitors to the village about the scam (Photo: Adrian Hobbs)<\/p>\n
Mas was banned from public office for three years and fined \u20ac1,800.<\/p>\n