16 Apr, 2018 @ 14:42
1 min read

EXCLUSIVE: British bride and groom to be in Spain lose thousands of euros to ‘phony’ Costa del Sol property site

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Website used by British couple

AN engaged British couple have lost thousands of euros to a fake property website on the Costa del Sol.

The young Londoners paid more than €4,000 for a deposit on a villa in Marbella for their upcoming wedding celebration via luxuryholidaylifestyle.com.

But when they tried to arrange a viewing of the property, which was booked for five days in September 2019, the company stopped replying to their calls and emails.

Fearing the worst, the groom enquired about the very same villa for the same dates – posing as a new customer – and received an immediate response.

“That’s when we knew we had been duped,” he told the Olive Press.

When they tried to visit the offices in Fuengirola this week, the address listed on the website took them to a block of apartments.

 

The couple still hope to wed in Marbella

Laura Charles, who runs Reviva Weddings, which is now planning the couple’s big day, knew there was something wrong as soon as she saw the booking website.

“I know for a fact they don’t have access to the properties they advertise because a number of them belong exclusively to companies that I work with,” Charles, who has been planning weddings here for 10 years, told the Olive Press.

One of these villas in El Rosario, near Marbella, is only listed with one rental property company costing €3,500 per day to hire.

However, on luxuryholidaylifestyle.com – whose catchphrase is ‘whatever type of holiday you’re looking for, you can put your trust in us! – it is listed at just €1000 euros per night.

In the contract seen by the Olive Press, the British couple, who have asked to remain anonymous, were billed £3,500 (€4,015), out of a £10,400 total.

But instead of being paid into a company account, all the money went directly into the personal account of a ‘Mr Jozef Mlynarcik’, the supposed owner of the property.

The account is registered in Hull, in the UK.

Luxury Holiday Lifestyle failed to comment before press despite repeated attempts by the Olive Press.

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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