Walter Finch
EXPAT victims of a property fraud are appealing to the influencer daughter of the alleged scam artists to help them recover their stolen funds.
Danish national Kim Gabrielsen and his wife, Rita, were lured into investing into the renovation of a luxury villa in Marbella.
However, once the work was complete, property owner David Topping, from Manchester, promptly sold it and vanished without a trace, making off with the profits.
Kim and Rita, both 57, lost up to €500,000 in the fraud, a modus operandi that Topping is alleged to have repeated on the Costa del Sol various times.
Topping and his Brazilian wife, Miria Boisard, were later convicted of the crime in absentia by a Malaga court, according to documents seen by this newspaper.
The couple are suspected of taking their ill-gotten gains and fleeing the country before a Spanish arrest warrant was issued for them.
It was later revealed that Topping had form for such conduct even before he reached the notoriously scam-happy Costa del Sol.
He had previously been disqualified from acting as a director for eight years in 2013 after his furniture company went bust.
A hearing at Preston County Court on 7 February 2013 deemed that Topping had ‘failed to keep adequate accounting records’ for Cresta Furniture.
The company went into administration on 18 February 2010 owing £1,145,277 to creditors and leaving a large number of customers without the furniture they had ordered.
Now, Kim and Rita, who own a CBD shop in San Pedro, are pinning their hopes on 20-year-old Larissa Kimberlly, a Madrid-based influencer with over 20 million followers on TikTok alone.
“Kimberlly is aware of her parents’ wrongdoing and knows where they are,” claimed Rita.
“When I saw her in Marbella recently she told me that she knew everything about what they had done to us, but there was nothing she could do.
“When I asked her to tell us where they are, she refused and ran out of the shop. It’s the last time we’ve seen her, but we know from her social media that she comes to Marbella regularly.”
Kimberlly, noted for her exaggerated, childlike appearance, rose to social media stardom over the past three years, posting videos of herself lip syncing, dancing and playing with her hair.
The youth, who has just turned 21, has even released a book called ‘Human, not perfect’, which describes itself as ‘a manual for being yourself, daring to be different, unique and original.’
However, while she was building her career as a social media influencer, her step-father was stalking expat investor victims on the Costa del Sol.
Kim told the Olive Press he met Topping at an English barbecue near Marbella.
“I just started talking to him after a while and we had a good chemistry. He has a great sense of humour and a lot of knowledge.”
Topping then told Kim how his ex-wife had taken his house from him and turned it into a brothel, although he planned to get it back.
After a period of four or five months, they met again and Topping said he had got his house back, but it was not sellable and needed a lot of renovation.
Thus the trap was set, with working being completed in six months later but Topping curiously not responding to communications.
Both Kim, the builder, the gardener and Topping’s lawyer were left holding the baby, each scammed out of five or six-figure sums respectively.
The Olive Press has been unable to reach Kimberlly for comment.
Have you been victims of Topping’s alleged fraud? Email [email protected]
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