Joshua Parfitt
THE Olive Press is helping victims take legal action against a Mallorca holiday rental company that scammed holidaymakers thousands for rental villas across Spain.
It comes as this paper was contacted by new victims of Dream Villas Spain, following a previous report on the plight of the Bolton family, who lost €2,000 on a Costa Blanca rental.
Petra Deleslie, 42, has now contacted us after losing €6,000 booking a villa in Moraira later this year for her extended family of 18.
We agreed to help after she told us she was ‘desperate’ for a break after losing her mother to lung cancer a few years ago.
“My nephews and nieces were really looking forward to it as they have never been abroad,” Deleslie told the Olive Press.
“I spent two years saving up for this trip, and we just can’t afford to pay for new villa. The kids are devastated.”
We helped the family make a police denuncia, after Deleslie said she will lose ‘more than €12,000’ as flights were already booked and her bank were unable to claim their money back.
She showed the Olive Press emails asking Dream Villas Spain for a refund, after which ‘general manager’ Rosella Alba Gutierrez has shut off contact.
Spain’s Companies House reveals that Dream Villas Spain, which is registered as Digital Dream SL, was incorporated in 2014 for ‘data processing and web hosting’.
Based in Carrer de la Fe, in Palma, Mallorca, it filed tax returns from 2014 to 2017.
There is no available phone number (the one on the website has been disconnected) and the name Rosella Alba Gutierrez appears nowhere in the list of employees.
Another victim told the Olive Press this week she had booked a villa in Marbella as a surprise getaway for four friends and five 18-year-old daughters as a post-A Levels present.
Sarah Adam, based in London, told us she is convinced she has also been scammed.
The company has not responded to email requests for comment.
Meanwhile, Darren Coombes from Alicante-based Dream Villa Spain told the Olive Press the fraudsters are cashing in on his credibility and drawing users from his legitimate property business website.
