Retired consultant extradited to Spain

COURT: A retired corporate consultant has lost his extradition battle against being sent to Spain for his alleged role as a financial adviser to criminal gangs.

Paul Blanchard, 74, of York, allegedly helped criminals in Tenerife launder and invest their ill-gotten cash between 1999 and 2001.

A RETIRED corporate consultant has lost his extradition battle against being sent to Spain for his alleged role as a financial adviser to criminal gangs.

Paul Blanchard, 74, of York, allegedly helped criminals in Tenerife launder and invest their illgotten cash between 1999 and 2001.

District judge Michael Snow, sitting at London’s Westminster Magistrates’ Court, said Blanchard has seven days to launch an appeal and he could be extradited within 17 days.

The judge told Blanchard, who appeared via videolink, that he must be taken abroad.

He said: “I must order you surrender to Spain for prosecution on these allegations.”

Blanchard was also ordered to pay £1,500 in costs.

A European Arrest Warrant was issued in April 2018.

Blanchard has claimed that statements he freely gave to the Spanish police without a lawyer or interpreter present in 2001 in an effort to help them prosecute the ring leaders are now being used to incriminate him almost 20 years later.

Blanchard supplied information on Lebanese-born businessman Mohamed Derbah, who allegedly laundered money through timeshare sales and fraudulent holiday packages.

He now claims the Spanish authorities are using these statements against him in order to build a stronger case against Derbah and to prosecute him as a codefendant.

Blanchard, formerly a corporate consultant specialising in offshore services, was jailed in the UK in 2008 for his part in a series of linked frauds.

He admitted his part in a passport fraud, laundering £375,000 and trying to steal £4.3m from a London bank and transfer it to Spain.

If convicted of the new charges, Blanchard could face up to 15 years in a Spanish jail.

Lawyers for Blanchard had previously argued that the case against him was a final attempt to break the 20-year stalemate with Derbah, who has still not been prosecuted and is understood to be on bail.

Blanchard was arrested in his York home in 2018 by North Yorkshire Police.

In that year, Blanchard, then of St Oswald’s Court, Fulford, York, appeared before Teesside Crown Court.

He was made subject to a Proceeds of Crime Act confiscation order in the sum of £1,026,887.45 which was due to be settled from the sale of properties in York and Essex, together with a highvalue personalised registration number.

At the time Ramona Senior, Head of the North East Regional Asset Recovery Team, said: “I am delighted that this long-running case has finally been brought to a conclusion, particularly as 80 per cent of the funds confiscated will be used to recompense Blanchard’s victims.

“My staff have doggedly pursued Blanchard over the years it has taken to get to this stage and demonstrates both that the interests of victims of crime are given the highest priority and that delays only serve to put off the inevitable.

“If Blanchard fails to realise the assets subject of this order, we will appoint enforcement receivers and sell them irrespective of cooperation on his part.”

Police also welcomed the news.

Detective Inspector Jon Hodgeon, head of North Yorkshire Police’s Economic Crime Unit, said: “This is a fantastic result and is testament to the support of victims in the case and the collaborative work of law enforcement.”

I order you surrender to Spain for prosecution on these allegations. District judge Michael Snow speaking to Paul Blanchard.