25 Aug, 2016 @ 08:55
1 min read

Drones being used by authorities to spot illegal building works across Spain

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dronnnneTHE treasury has deployed drones to catch tax cheats carrying out unregistered building work.

The light aircraft are taking aerial photographs of properties across the country where building work has been carried out and not declared.

This includes additions that would increase the value of a property and therefore the amount of liable tax, such as extensions and swimming pools.

By not declaring such work, tax cheats have been able to dodge a higher tax bill payable by all property owners in Spain based on the perceived value of the property.

The treasury’s operation, which began in 2014, has so far resulted in the collection of an extra €1.25 billion.

The highest number of fraudsters were detected in Andalucia, where inspectors found 373,224 undeclared buildings.

A new stage of the operation is now underway to survey 6,331 municipal areas with drones.

Laurence Dollimore

Laurence Dollimore is a Spanish-speaking, NCTJ-trained journalist with almost a decade’s worth of experience.
The London native has a BA in International Relations from the University of Leeds and and an MA in the same subject from Queen Mary University London.
He earned his gold star diploma in multimedia journalism at the prestigious News Associates in London in 2016, before immediately joining the Olive Press at their offices on the Costa del Sol.
After a five-year stint, Laurence returned to the UK to work as a senior reporter at the Mail Online, where he remained for two years before coming back to the Olive Press as Digital Editor in 2023.
He continues to work for the biggest newspapers in the UK, who hire him to investigate and report on stories in Spain.
These include the Daily Mail, Telegraph, Mail Online, Mail on Sunday and The Sun and Sun Online.
He has broken world exclusives on everything from the Madeleine McCann case to the anti-tourism movement in Tenerife.

GOT A STORY? Contact newsdesk@theolivepress.es or call +34 951 273 575 Twitter: @olivepress

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