Antonio Flores (Columnist)
CONVICTED pathological fraudster Nigel Goldman, who changed his name to Howard del Monte by deed poll, must be regretting the day he decided to pack his bags and return to England.
In record-breaking time – by Spanish standards – he has been arrested, tried and found guilty on two counts of fraud.
Goldman, who was arrested at his home in Berkshire on May 24, is due to be sentenced next month at Reading Crown Court.
Goldman also faces prosecution in Spain, but the pace of a case through the Spanish courts is a fair bit slower than that in the UK.
Two Spanish criminal cases were opened in January 2014, in which he is accused of running a Ponzi scheme worth hundreds of thousands of euros.
One was dismissed on the grounds that it appeared to be more of a ‘civil’ dispute, but that decision later reversed on appeal.
More embarrassingly, the second case has been travelling from court to court looking for a suitable jurisdiction. It passed from Marbella to Barcelona, from where it was dispatched to Fuengirola, as Goldman had an account there.
Goldman has not been summoned to attend a Police Station of Court, lawyers have not been asked to provide an address for him and the police in Marbella, where the alleged fraud was initially reported, are waiting for an order from whichever court finds the time and interest to deal with the case.
If the “Vinaros” (Castellon province) swindle case is anything to go by, Goldman could be sitting in the dock in 2041: two grey-haired pensioners have just been tried for an alleged real estate fraud that took place in 1989.
For its part, Anthony Muldoon was found guilty of a timeshare scam 10 years after the case started in a case involving hundreds of victims. On average though, five years seems realistic for an open and shut case such as Goldman’s.
Goldman could be imprisoned in the UK following which, he could end up serving time at Alhaurin prison. When that will happen is anyone’s guess but every effort is being made to speed up the ‘investigation’ phase and transfer the case to a criminal judge, or the Court of Appeal, where the possible sentence exceeds five years.
