Army of Skiers Break into Their Own Flats in Bulgaria Fraud Row

By Martin Delgado

Daily Mail

A group of Britons staged a remarkable mass break-in to seize possession of a block of holiday flats in Bulgaria that they had bought and paid for.

The owners spent a total of more than £6million on 70 apartments in the mountains above the ski resort of Bansko, but claim they were defrauded.

For two years they have been denied entry to their flats after an influential local businessman took over the entire complex and refused to hand over the keys.

Last week the holidaymakers met at a hotel in Bansko to declare themselves the rightful owners, then set off for the All-Seasons complex, protected by four shaven-headed Bulgarian security men. There were cheers as two locksmiths forced open the doors.

Police watched but did not intervene and the protesters were later invited to the town hall for a meeting with the Mayor. He told them the town depended on British tourists for its prosperity and no action would be taken against them.

The development gives hope to the 4,000 other UK citizens involved in property disputes in the former Communist state.

Tearfully hugging each other as the workmen stepped aside, the 60 families who had made the trip surged into the building for a first glimpse of the flats they had never seen.

Carol Boswell, 52, an NHS project manager from Northampton, who bought a two-bedroom home for £80,000 off-plan after seeing it advertised at a property show, said: ‘I can’t believe we’re here at last. I was afraid I was going to lose all my money.’

Myra Rhodes, 64, a widow from Anglesey, North Wales, who spent £60,000 of her life savings on a one-bedroom flat for her son, said: ‘We weren’t gold diggers. This was never about making a quick buck. We just thought we could have a nice holiday home.

I’m supposed to be retired but I was so worried when it went wrong that I got myself a cleaning job.’

British visitors to Bansko outnumber the local population during the winter sports season, according to officials.

Nearly 2,300 apartments there are British-owned and the town, 120 miles south of the capital Sofia, is littered with building sites as developers try to cash in on the tourist boom.

Protest organiser Paul Hassall, a financial adviser from Horsham, West Sussex, who invested nearly £200,000 in the development, told his fellow Britons: ‘We are exercising our right of unrestricted access to the properties we own.

'As law-abid-ing, taxpaying individuals, we appeal to the Bulgarian prime minister to ensure that nothing like this is ever allowed to occur again.’

Mr Hassall, who was accompanied by his wife Sharon, said: ‘It has been a hard struggle but finally we are in. I can’t wait to get my skis on.’

A security company has now been hired by the British owners to thwart any attempt to bar them again.

The holidaymakers had bought their flats through Rockarch Estates, a London agency which specialises in the Bulgarian property market.

They claim a former Rockarch employee secretly transferred ownership of 29 flats at All-Seasons to Zekom, a company run by businessman Roman Romanov – a transaction which left the development short of funds.

The ex-employee, who has not been prosecuted, also allegedly failed to transfer money to a Greek bank to repay a loan which the UK buyers had taken out to cover construction costs. When the bank threatened to seize the building, the owners raised more than £400,000 to repay the loan.

But when they tried to move into their flats, they were stopped by Zekom guards. A district prosecutor who ruled in the protesters’ favour was sacked last year but Mr Romanov is now said to be the subject of a new investigation.

Mr Romanov said neither he nor his company had done anything wrong.

‘Everyone should obey the law, including the British buyers. It is up to Rockarch Estates and the developers to provide them with keys, not Zekom.

‘Zekom owns flats in the building just like the British do, but it has no financial control over the project.’

A Foreign Office spokesman said: ‘The British ambassador has met with Bulgarian government ministers to raise the problems experienced by some British property buyers in Bulgaria.’

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