Anthony Piovesan
Police are expected to interview a leading expat businessman for harbouring and helping British criminals on the run in Spain.
It comes amid a UK accountant’s explosive claims released in a new podcast that details ‘new evidence’ against Mohamed ‘Mo’ Derbah, one of the most legendary timeshare figures in Spanish history.
In particular, Paul Blanchard claims Derbah ‘harboured’ former ‘public enemy number one’ Kenneth Noye after he stabbed Stephen Cameron to death off the M25 motorway in Kent, in the UK, in 1996.
In the sensational podcast, Kenny Noye: The Lost Tapes, Blanchard reveals how Derbah, based in Tenerife, moved him around by private plane and boat immediately after he fled the UK.
Incredibly, Noye managed to evade police until he was finally located living on the isolated Costa de la Luz, in Cadiz, two years later, from where he was extradited.
Blanchard’s audio tapes – which he secretly recorded – ‘prove Derbah hid Noye in Spain’ after the horrific crime.
He told the Olive Press Derbah had been introduced to Noye, through his connections to fellow criminal John ‘Goldfinger’ Palmer, who lived in Tenerife for many years.
In the taped conversations with Derbah, Blanchard used a man named David Taylor, ‘an employee of mine at the time brought in to ghost Derbah’s then planned autobiography’.
Taylor asks: “This is while Noye is on the run?”, to which Derbah replies: “Exactly. I was involved because John Palmer told me to be involved. If I knew what he (Noye) did before, I’m too happy to help.”
Palmer was a close friend of Derbah’s and was said to have been his enforcer along the costas and, in particular, in Tenerife.
The crook, who was shot dead in the UK in 2015, laundered millions of pounds he and Noye stole from the famous Brinks-Mat heist in 1983.
In another snippet from Blanchard’s tapes, Taylor questions Derbah: “You hid him, is that correct?”
To which Derbah responds: “Well I take him away. Only God knows where he is”.
Blanchard told the Olive Press this week: “He moved Noye around by private plane and then finally took him by yacht to Atlanterra in Cadiz where he hid out.
“I’m sure the British police will want to talk to Derbah about this.”
Blanchard first met the Lebanese businessman after the now 77-year-old set himself up as an off-shore financial advisor in Spain, in 1999.
But it put him on a collision course with alleged gangsters, fraudsters, IRA financiers, Al Qaeda and intelligence services.
He reveals in his book, Wanted: Secrets of a Mafia Whistleblower, how he found himself labelled a suspect in the multi-million pound Tenerife timeshare scams, after he was approached by Derbah, who wanted tax advice on the profits of his businesses.
A UK court initially ordered Blanchard be extradited to Spain for his alleged involvement with Derbah, and the timeshare scandal, but this was eventually overturned last year.
He was accused of working as a financial adviser to criminal gangs.
But Blanchard told the Olive Press that once he had caught on to Derbah’s dealings, he reported it immediately to authorities, who then asked Blanchard to continue working for him and gather evidence ‘undercover’.
These involved secret telephone recordings, but in a bizarre twist these materials provided to Blanchard’s lawyers went missing.
“I was defenceless, disbelieved and went to prison in the UK as a result,” he said.
Blanchard ended up serving three years and three months in jail.
Since his release in 2010, the tapes have been found, which he has now published in his latest book and in the podcast.
He believes they will help ‘bring Derbah to justice’.
“I am going to the police with these tapes, they prove he was harbouring Noye and Derbah can expect to be arrested,” Blanchard said.
“He should be brought to justice for this because it’s a criminal offence and after 22 years the Cameron family can look to justice which they’ve never had.”
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