To Albert Fletcher
Club Chairman
Dear Albert,
As long term owners at Los Claveles sadly we have witnessed continuous wrongdoing by WimPen, Onagrup and FNTC’s over the past 7 years, all in pursuit of their common aim to control the resort and its future, against the wishes of owners who are aware of the risk they pose to us. We hope by listing the wrongdoing that it will convince owners to protect the resort and their investment from this risk by voting at the 2019 AGM in support of resolution 7, and against resolutions 8, 9 and 10, to regain and retain owner control of the resort.
Wrongdoing by Wimpen, Onagrup and FNTC over Los Claveles, 2012 – 2019
1. Collusion by WimPen, old and new, with FNTC to prevent the 2012 AGM resolution to transfer trusteeship of the Club to Hutchinson from happening.
2. Threat made by FNTC’s Chief Executive when he lost his temper in private with Club members in 2015 that he could, and would dissolve the Club, and facilitate Onagrup taking ownership of the resort.
3. Threat made by FNTC’s Chief Executive to the Club Chairman that unless he agreed to Onagrup’s terms for Club administration in late 2015 he, Declan Kenny, would see to it that no funds were released to the Club Committee for their legal costs.
4. Refusal by FNTC’s Chief Executive to take instruction from the Club Chairman, as required by the Deed of Trust, from 2016 onward.
5. Threat by FNTC’s Chief Executive to call a Special General Meeting of Club members in January 2016, in breach of the Club Constitution.
6. Refusal by WimPen (old) to allow members scrutiny of 100+ proxy votes for the 2015 AGM that Ian Crane, son-in-law of Mr Pengelly, declared void.
7. Refusal of WimPen (new) to allow member scrutiny of accounting records, in breach of the Club Constitution.
8. WimPen (new) falsely accusing the Club President and Club Chairman of fraud from 2015 to 2017, and informing the Tenerife Police that they were criminals.
9. WimPen (new) hiring Jesus Gomez whose assault on the Club President in the resort reception in May 2017, following an earlier verbal sexual assault near the entrance to the resort, was witnessed by a Club member who also witnessed WimPen’s Ana Martin giving false evidence in court which resulted in the judge dismissing the case.
10. Wimpen (new) collecting payments illegally after 2 May 2017 when their Club administration contract expired, and illegally barring members who paid their maintenance fees to the Club from entering their property, and from receiving their RCI exchanges.
11. Wimpen (new) sending threatening letters after 2 May 2017 to members who legally paid their maintenance fees to the Club, extorting money from them.
12. Non-compliance by WimPen (new) with an independent arbitration award of August 2017 to hand back to the Club Committee all Club property used for the administration of the Club, including the membership register, accounting records and funds. An award that took full account of their main arguments that Spanish data protection laws did not permit them to hand over the membership record to a “third party”, and that they did not have the authority to return funds from the resort’s joint community bank account. (The Club Committee is the “first party” owner of the data held in the membership register, not a third party).
13. WimPen (new) lying to an Arona Court judge in Tenerife that they could not contact the Club Chairman in 2017 for the Club to be represented in a case brought by Escritura owner and WimPen employee Jane Oliphant to prevent WimPen from monies being paid out from the joint community bank account.
14. Non-compliance by WimPen (new) with the Scottish Court of Session (the highest court in Scotland) Appeal Court order of February 2018 to comply with the arbitration award.
15. An attempt by WimPen (new) to cast 1200 proxy votes and take control of the Club at the April 2018 Club AGM using cancelled weeks belonging to the Club that they had no permission from the Club Committee to sell and in breach of the Club Constitution.
16. Failure by WimPen (new) to account for the income from the sale of these cancelled weeks in 2016 and the maintenance fees collected for them in 2017.
17. Failure by WimPen (new) to pay maintenance for the weeks that they own in 2017 for which they were suspended from the Club and subsequently had their membership cancelled in 2018.
18. Failure of WimPen old and new to keep community funds in separate community bank accounts as required by law and at the request of Escritura and Club owners at successive AGMs.
19. Failure of Wimpen (old and new) to comply with the DOA Statutes to calculate and gain the approval of owners, for the Common Parts Service charge, and to collect the charge from the Administrators of Timeshare Community 1 and Club Los Claveles.
20. Non-compliance by Wimpen (new) with the DOA Statutes by collecting payments directly from Club members after 2 May 2017 when the Club administration contract expired.
21. A long list of non-compliances by WimPen (new) in conducting the May 2018 Timeshare Community 1 (Escritura) and Development Owners Association (DOA) AGM, including misusing the Club’s membership register to canvass votes from owners in Germany and elsewhere and using their own rapidly increasing votes in a clear conflict of interest to ensure that their candidate for Presidency of the DOA, and their bid to continue to administer the DOA, were passed by Escritura owners only, representing less than 2% of the resort’s owners. Club owners were prevented from taking part in voting for highly contestable reasons which are the subject of a current legal challenge and in a clear infringement of natural justice where owners who pay for and use the services of the DOA are not allowed any say in how their contributions are used.
22. Continued resistance by WimPen (new) in June 2018 to the acceptance of the arbitration award by the Spanish Supreme Court for enforcement in Spain, in which all of their arguments for non-acceptance were rejected. These arguments included the previously discredited data protection and joint bank account arguments.
23. Non-compliance by WimPen (new) on grounds of appeal to the Arona Court order of December 2018 to stop collecting maintenance payments from Club members in the absence of an administration contract with the Club after 2 May 2017.
24. WimPen (new) continuing to send intimidating letters to Club members after the Arona Court order, threatening to block their membership unless they pay WimPen. (Only the Club Committee has the constitutional authority to block, i.e. suspend, membership).
25. WimPen’s behaviour in sending these intimidating and threatening letters is, by definition, extortion which is a criminal offence and we hope that the Club’s Spanish lawyer will take legal action against WimPen on behalf of the many owners who have suffered distress and loss as a result of receiving these letters when the appeal is over and done with.
26. WimPen (new) renting owners’ apartments without their permission, charging them for electricity used by the renters, and continuing to accept short duration rentals of a few days in breach of the Constitution and previous commitments to stop doing this.
Yours sincerely,
Richard &Ann Burston (Villa 44. Weeks 41-43) sent by email 7 April 2019.