SPANISH and UK authorities failed to act on warnings about two deadly terror attacks in Madrid and London, a British ‘spy’ has claimed in new documents released as he fights extradition.
The allegations have surfaced ahead of an appeal by former accountant Paul Blanchard, 81, who is wanted in Spain over claims he helped launder money for criminal gangs in Tenerife between 1999 and 2001.
Audio tapes and transcripts obtained by The Olive Press capture conversations between Blanchard and men he claims were his handlers from Spanish intelligence and MI5 around 2004.
The exchanges appear to reference the 2004 Atocha station attack, in which 193 people were killed, as well as Mohammed Khan – the alleged mastermind behind the London 7/7 bombings that killed 52 people and injured more than 770.
Blanchard claims he infiltrated an Al Qaeda cell around 2003 on orders from Spanish police, but says his subsequent warnings about the planned attacks were ignored.
The retiree, who now lives in Fulford near York, says he has filed the material with the UK Court of Appeal as part of his May 12 hearing in a bid to prevent being shipped to Spain to stand trial.
Blanchard maintains his innocence, insisting he was working undercover for Spanish police at the time of the alleged offences.
“Spanish authorities turned on me after they failed to act on my warnings about the terror attacks,” he told The Olive Press.
“If they admit I was working for them, then they also have to admit they did nothing to prevent the tragedy,” he added.
In one tape reviewed by The Olive Press, Blanchard appears to suggest he warned Spanish authorities ‘two or three months before the Madrid bombings.’ His alleged handler is heard replying: “I know.”
A transcript included in Blanchard’s dossier quotes another alleged handler telling him: “Don’t speak with others about our issues – about Mohammed [Khan] and terrorism.”
Other recordings capture Blanchard and his alleged Spanish handlers arranging meetings in Madrid.
The accountant’s skeleton argument also details conversations he claims to have had with MI5 officers around the same period.
In the document, Blanchard says he told a Special Branch agent that ‘Khan had intimated to me that he was linked to Al Qaeda,’ that he was ‘linked to other Asians in Birmingham, Leeds and Bradford,’ and that he had transferred money to Spain through bank accounts held by others.
The accountant says he provided this information ‘six months before the Madrid bombings.’
As part of Blanchard’s defence, his counsel also alleges that the UK Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) advised Spain not to share key evidence that could have supported his claim of being an informant during a previous appeal in 2024.
According to the skeleton argument, the CPS allegedly wrote in a letter to Spain that ‘you do not need to provide the above documents [referring to police reports and audio transcripts]’ and that ‘it would assist us.’
“It was Spain’s duty of candour to share those documents, which I needed for my defence,” Blanchard said. “Without them, I lost my 2024 appeal against extradition.”
His lawyers added that the CPS’s alleged request amounted to prosecutorial misconduct and breached Blanchard’s right to a fair trial.
Blanchard has been fighting extradition since 2018, when Spanish prosecutors accused him of involvement in a Tenerife timeshare scam linked to well-known mafia figures, including British criminal John ‘Goldfinger’ Palmer and Lebanese entrepreneur Mohamed Derbah.
The accountant says he began working as a financial adviser to Derbah around 1999, but soon realised the venture was fraudulent and informed Spanish police.
Blanchard insists this was when he was recruited as an undercover informant by Spanish intelligence.
When Spain moved to prosecute Derbah in 2001, Blanchard says he was initially used as a witness before later being ordered to infiltrate Al Qaeda.
But in 2018, prosecutors accused him of participating in Derbah’s scheme – the same operation he claims to have helped expose.
Spanish lawyer and criminal law expert Jaime Campaner said the prosecution’s conduct amounted to a ‘violation of fundamental rights.’
“The proceedings were conducted [behind] his back,” Campaner said.
“He was not able to participate in the criminal proceedings and, [by the time] he realised [what was happening], it was too late – the violation of his fundamental rights was already done.
“What Mr Blanchard submitted to the court matches the investigation. In fact, the case was built thanks to Mr Blanchard,” he added.
Blanchard is no stranger to criminal proceedings. In 2008, he was jailed in the UK for six years and six months after pleading guilty to charges of passport fraud, laundering £375,000, and attempting to steal £4.3 million from a London bank and transfer it to Spain.
After Spanish prosecutors issued a European arrest warrant for Blanchard in 2018, Westminster Magistrates’ Court approved his extradition in 2020.
In 2021, however, Blanchard won his first appeal after a Court of Appeal judge dismissed the Spanish warrant as ‘incoherent and defective.’
The legal battle did not end there. The Magistrates’ Court later revived the extradition proceedings, and Blanchard dismissed his previous legal team after losing his case in October 2024.
Now, with another hearing before the Court of Appeal approaching, the accountant says he is preparing for the fight of his life.
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