Telmicro

Guardia Civil blow whistle on huge illegal operation.

 BRITISH TV rebroadcasters Telmicro Levante SL committed fraud worth an estimated 500 million euros, the Guardia Civil revealed this week.

The company, which had 60,000 clients from Alicante to Almería, had been broadcasting channels without paying for programme rights and failing to declare earnings to the tax man.

The Guardia Civil sent out a press release on Wednesday giving full details of Operation Cimitarra which came to a head on August 12 when officers swooped on Telmicro premises around the Costa Blanca.

The investigation started after a legal representative of Sogecable – which owns the Spanish subscription channel Digital + – presented a formal complaint against Telmicro for broadcasting Sky Sports without licence.

Sogecable sells Spanish football and other contents to Sky and in return Sky sells rights to the Premier League and UK sporting events to Sogecable.

During the investigation the Guardia Civil judicial police from Torrevieja found that Telmicro was involved in further illegal activities and the judge of Torrevieja’s court number 1 imposed a secrecy order on the investigation.

According to the press release, Telmicro Levante SL and its two sub companies Cina Electrónica SL and Ángel Seguridad y Telecomunicaciones SL defrauded 500 million euros.

A total of 14 people – eight Spaniards, three Brits, one Belarusian, a Romanian and a Russian – were arrested and later released after paying bail of between 6,000 to 100,000 euros.
They have been accused of crimes against copyright, continued fraud and a crime against the Treasury.

ILLEGAL ACTIVITIES

Telmicro had signed a contract with several private channels to rebroadcast their programmes to 17,000 clients, when in reality they had more than 60,000 viewers.

Of these, around 43,000 were paying in cash.

According to the Guardia Civil the private channels lost million of euros and the Treasury was losing around 750,000 euros each month.
Moreover Telmicro was re-broadcasting UK subscription channels illegally.

Telmicro de-coded Sky’s signal through Sky cards that had been purchased in the UK and then re-coded Sky’s signal through its own equipment.

A source close to the investigation said: “The cards were allowed to be used by people living in the UK for domestic purposes.

“However Telmicro is a TV company established in Spain which was using the decoders to rebroadcast a signal.

“This activity is illegal and Telmicro was the sole beneficiary.

“Neither Sogecable nor Telmicro nor the Treasury were getting a penny of it.”

UNCERTAIN FUTURE

Telmicro’s main office in Algorfa has been dismantled and all equipment, including the aerials, is being kept as evidence by the Guardia Civil.
According to an official source, Telmicro is unlikely to broadcast in the coming months, as this decision must be taken by a judge during the court proceedings.

The Guardia Civil has also stated that TV re-broadcasting companies are allowed in Spain.

However they are not allowed to re-broadcast subscription channels under any circumstances.

Also they must always provide the client with an official invoice.
A Guardia Civil officer stated: “The re-broadcast of British non-subscription channels is allowed.

“Even the re-broadcast of private channels such as Fox or Street 13 is allowed if they pay these channels for the real number of clients and they pay the compulsory taxes and re-broadcasting rights.

“I advise expats to always ask their local TV re-broadcasting company for an invoice which must include the company name, address and CIF number and the service they are paying for.

“Telmicro was giving a simple receipt which is useless.

“And never sign a contract with a company re-broadcasting Sky.”

All expats who feel they have been affected by Telmicro’s illegal activities can join the judicial proceedings by presenting a formal complaint in any Guardia Civil station by including the file number (número de dilengias previas) 2737/08.

The BBC, who stated that it is illegal to rebroadcast its public service channels in Spain without a licence, is currently studying the information provided by the Guardia Civil.

In a further twist this week Telmicro clients have complained of receiving cold calls from rival broadcaster Torresat offering change-over packages.

A Telmicro client told CBNews he was astonished that Torresat had been able to obtain his private mobile phone number and questioned how the company had got the information.
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