Britons are falling for a new form of holiday fraud which is already rivalling the timeshare scams of the 1980s: the holiday club.
Around 70 complaints a week have been made about this latest confidence trick to the Timeshare Consumers AssociationNow the Government, in advance of proposed European talks to outlaw the holiday club rip-offs, is warning tourists to be vigilant.Consumer Minister Melanie Johnson said: “People are being tricked into shelling out thousands of pounds on what turn out to be empty promises. Unscrupulous holiday club operators promise a lifetime of cheap holidays in exotic locations but deliver nothing. Victims not only lose their holiday but also their hard-earned savings.”Many holiday club memberships – offering deluxe breaks at package holiday prices – are sold by classic bait-and-trap tactics. People are offered free holidays or gifts, or are told they have won prizes in return for attending a presentation.Then come the pressure-selling methods: the drinks flow and the signatures are collected. It is only on their return home that people find they have no right to cancel, the deal was not what they thought they were getting and they have lost their money.While consumers are protected by law from timeshare scams, because holiday clubs are not linked to any particular property they are not covered by the legislation.According to the DTI, holiday club hot spots include popular resorts like the Costa del Sol, Tenerife, Lanzarote and Gran Canaria.It was in Tenerife that Sue and Steve Cliff from High Wycombe were duped into signing up for a holiday club last year.

They now fear they have lost more than £10,000.The Cliffs were approached in the street during their holiday and offered a winning scratch card. But to claim their prize they were taken to the company’s office, given drinks and a presentation. They were told the product was not a timeshare but a unique investment opportunity.They signed up, through a company called Dinastia, to the “Gold Pack” with Club Class Holidays, believing they were entitled to four weeks holidays a year in four-star accommodation, at destinations of their choice.Despite promises of special offers galore, it took 13 months and the intervention of their solicitor to receive just the welcome pack. And when they tried to take the holidays they wanted, the Cliffs found they were no longer available because the terms of the offer had changed.Mrs Cliff said she felt “gullible” to have fallen for the scam but warned others who might be tempted.”This is the timeshare scam for the new millennium,” she said.Only the European Union as a whole can legislate against unscrupulous operators. Meanwhile, the Government has produced a leaflet to warn travellers of the dangers and inform them of their rights for timeshares and holiday club schemes..

At least 200,000 children in the UK are being raised by parents addicted to heroin, cocaine and other hard drugs, according to new research. At least 200,000 children in the UK are being raised by parents addicted to heroin, cocaine and other hard drugs, according to new research.
A report by the Centre for Drug Misuse Research, a Europe-wide institution based at Glasgow University, highlights growing fears that a large part of a whole generation of children will be seriously damaged – emotionally and physically – because of the drug habits of adults.The report, “Paying the Price for Their Parents’ Addiction”, concludes that the current, preferred policy of trying to support children within addict families “carries considerable risks that the children’s own lives will be ruined and in some cases lost as a result of their parents’ drug use”.It urges the creation of safe havens to give children, who, the report concedes, cannot all be put into social services care, at least some respite “from the chaos of their parents’ drug use”.The report added: “Parental drug use was associated with material deprivation on the part of these children, many of whom were living in homes that had been made desolate… Left alone these children are becoming casualties of their parents’ drug use and we need to begin to recognise the price they are paying and give much more attention to meeting their needs.”Professor Neil McKeganey, who carried out the research, estimated at least 200,000 children are living with parents addicted to hard drugs He suggested the figure was a conservative one. He said: “We have never tried to examine the circumstances of these children before.”These children are at a very high risk of becoming the addicts of tomorrow. They are exposed to very serious neglect, even leading to death.”It is a huge problem and if you asked what services do we have in place to meet the needs of these children, the answer is very, very few and nowhere near enough to meet the needs of these children living with drug-dependent parents.”. A 400-year-old ship from the Spanish Armada discovered off the coast of North-west Scotland may have been loaded with expensive bribes for English collaborators. A 400-year-old ship from the Spanish Armada discovered off the coast of North-west Scotland may have been loaded with expensive bribes for English collaborators.
As well as four of the vessel’s cannons, divers have found valuable pieces of Majolica tableware, each of which would have cost, at the time, up to £20 – the equivalent to £2,800 in today’s money.It is the first time that such high class civilian ceramics have been found on an Armada wreck site – strongly suggesting that the pottery, the finest in 16th century Europe, was taken along in the invasion fleet to either bribe or impress potential English allies.Whether intended as decoration for a victory banquet or as gifts to oil political wheels once England had been conquered, the beautifully painted ceramic masterpieces may well have belonged to one of Spain’s most powerful and controversial grandees, Don Diego Flores de Valdes.

The wrecked ship probably formed part of his 16-strong Armada squadron. After the failure of the Armada, Flores de Valdes was flung into prison by the Spanish king, who held him personally responsible for the debacle.The wreck could be that of either the 872-ton La Trinidad which had 79 sailors, 162 soldiers and 24 cannon, or the 652-ton San Juan de Fernando Home, which carried 57 sailors, 183 soldiers and 24 cannon. Both were built in Cantabria in Northern Spain in 1586 as Atlantic merchantmen, and based in Seville. They were pressed into Armada service in October 1587.The archaeologists, from the University of St Andrews, have so far located material from the bow quarter. They have found parts of the ship’s brick hearth, fragments of a cooking pot, a kitchen jug and olive oil storage jars, four anchors, four large iron cannon, two cannonballs, a depth sounding lead and the ceramics – fragments of 26 beautifully painted top-of- the-range Italian Majolica jugs and plates.Manufactured in Urbino and Montelupo in Italy, Majolica was the smartest display tableware available anywhere in Europe and was made for use on land, not on board ships. It was apparently being transported for use in England after the hoped-for conquest.Some of the pieces are decorated with grotesque yet, in 16th century terms, highly fashionable images of mythological creatures – half-naked women with wings and hairy goat’s legs, sea monsters, cupids on horseback, strange bird-like animals and snails, based on frescoes discovered in the 16th century in Nero’s Golden Palace in Rome.The whole set would have been worth £30,000-£50,000 in today’s money.All the objects have been found on ledges and reefs at depths of up to 100 feet.

The ship must have been blown towards land in a gale which drove it onto a shallow reef 100 yards off the high cliffs near Kinlochbervie.The Armada consisted of 130 ships, of which up to 40 were wrecked. Twenty-eight wreck sites have so far been discovered, mainly off Ireland.. The Headhunter is a terrifying sight. The skulls are the first thing you notice about this huge black machine: half a dozen of them stare out blindly, blood oozing from where eyes used to be

The Headhunter is a terrifying sight. The skulls are the first thing you notice about this huge black machine: half a dozen of them stare out blindly, blood oozing from where eyes used to be.
The trike, a motorcycle welded to the back end of a car, is like an apocalyptic image painted in therapy and given life in metal.This hellish vehicle has been brought to a field at the side of the M20 in Kent for the Pissed Indian, one of the dozens of motorcycle rallies run in Britain during the summer. Here are the wild ones, the bearded bikers who will gather on seafronts next weekend to rev their engines and scare the bathers, though their old bank holiday rivals, the Mods, have long since dispersed.The Hells Angels held their Bulldog Bash, the biggest gathering of them all, near Stratford-upon-Avon last week. But most bikers are not Angels, as they will quickly tell anyone who plucks up the courage to ask.