crime wave sweeping the Costa Blanca and other parts of southern Spain popular with foreign tourists. Hundreds of holiday villas have been attacked recently by criminal gangs, many of them Romanians and Albanians.
The criminals are not only burgling houses. A hire-car belonging to Geoff and Diane Winnard, a retired couple from Bournemouth, was rammed from behind as they drove from Alicante airport to their holiday villa.
“One man reached into my car and grabbed my wife’s handbag and drove off,” said Geoff Winnard, 58. The men made off with their passports, credit cards and £2,750 of jewellery.