Husband and wife team feared on the run after £1m property investment fraud

Husband and wife team feared on the run after £1m property investment fraud




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A property developer is wanted by Spanish police, after being suspected of taking almost £1 million worth of investors’ money.  

It is thought around twenty people gave former hotelier Nigel Andrews the money to invest in building apartments in Turkey, after being encouraged to pay deposits for properties that he promised would quickly rise in value once completed, reports the Daily Express newspaper.

Nigel Andrews, 51, who hasn’t been seen since June 5, is a former nightclub owner whose club, The Vaults, shut in 2003 owing creditors £700,000. The Aberdeen club was set up with his brother Lionel, but shut after only five months, after which time the brothers fled to Spain.

The Bank of Scotland has called for the brothers to be made bankrupt.

Now Nigel Andrews is thought to be in Marbella, from where he has been running Royal Resorts Turkey, the property firm is reportedly building the luxury apartments in Turkey. The firm’s resorts include Paradise Bay in Akbuk, a development said to be planned on land that is banned from development.

Another resort allegedly planned for development was the Manzara Resort in Kusadasi, which was to have seven blocks and 190 apartments, so far neither development has been started.

Spanish police and Turkish lawyers are now pursuing Mr Andrews and his wife, Margaret, after scores of angry investors came forward complaining that they have yet to see any sign of their investment being put to its intended use.

Speaking to the Express newspaper, Tony May, 69 from Aberdeen, is a pensioner living in Malaga. He paid £58,000 as a deposit for one of the 190 flats said to be built in the Manzara complex. However, he’s seen no developments and has now made an official compliant to the Spanish authorities.

Speaking to the Express, he said: “It is just beginning to sink in that I have lost all this money.

“My wife, Andrea, is younger than me, and we have a young son, Ralph. This investment was supposed to help support them when I am gone.”

Mr May, a former pilot, alleges he was made to hand over 40 per cent, £58,000 of the overall asking price in order to ‘secure’ the deal. His contract stipulates that the remaining £68,000 would be paid once the apartment was completed.

Also in the contract is a ‘guarantee’ to rent the property for five years, and then a promise to buy the property back for 50 per cent above the amount originally paid by Mr May. Mr Andrews also said he would look after the pensioner’s timeshare in Spain for him. 

It is thought the husband and wife team have been selling apartments from multiple offices in Marbella, Spain and Bodrum in Turkey. At one point they drove a car with Bulgarian number plates and some investors’ worry that they have fled there and are in hiding.

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