Ed.244 - 30
th Sep 2008
Telmicro case details...
Further details were published last week of the case against Telmicro from the Guardia Civil who carried out the raids of the company’s premises. They are available in Spanish on their website at
www.guardiacivil.com/prensa/notas/win_noticia.jsp?idnoticia=2477. The press release explains that the arrests of 14 people including three Britons relate to fraud and the illegal transmission of television signals. The raids were part of an operation codenamed ‘Cimitarra’. The article on the Guardia Civil website claims that the operations of three companies which covered broadcasts to 60,000 customers in Alicante, Murcia and Almeria amounted to fraud to the tune of 500 million euros.
Equipment was seized and removed from the companies premises and €500 thousand in cash found.
The companies are accused of broadcasting television signals to more customers than they had the rights to do so and only declaring the income from 17,000 customers instead of the 60,000 they actually had. An initial denuncia was made against the companies concerned by Sogecable when they discovered that signals were being broadcast in the Alicante province for which they have the rights to transmit.
Although Telmicro began transmitting again on a limited basis after the initial raids this was stopped recently by the Guardia Civil and transmitting equipment physically taken down and removed from Telmicro’s site near Algorfa.
Customers who feel they have a claim on the company having paid them money and not now receiving a service can make a denuncia at any Guardia Civil office.
The future for Telmicro looks bleak. There is no estimate of how long the case will take to complete or exactly what the outcome will be for those charged with these serious offences but most customers’ confidence has evaporated and local forums have been full of helpful hints as regards alternative legal methods of obtaining at least a certain amount of UK television programming either through the internet or via larger satellite dishes direct from satellite signal overspill.
Paul Mutter