When you hear that somebody has illegally connected up to the power supply, it’s normally just somebody’s house, but in this case, it’s four hotels.

All of the hotels belong to the same businessman and all of them are 4-star category… and all of them had connected up to a mains supply and stayed that way, for months, until a small fire in one of them resulted in the discovery of the first ‘arrangement.’

José Luis Velasco Blanco is the owner of the said four hotels in Lloret de Mar in Catalonia. These four establishments are collectively known as Grupo Savoy.

As explained above a fire broke out at the Hotel Sun Village in Lloret and firemen not only uncovered the illegal connection, but to their amazement and horror, they found a large generator on the roof surrounded by barrels of diesel.

The gentleman owes 378,000 euros to Endesa; 120,000 euros in unpaid utility bills that resulted in Endesa cutting off his power supply and… 168,000 (estimated) for the electricity allegedly swindled since November last year via his secret arrangement.

But it doesn’t end there because three of his hotels have had to close their doors, with the guests finding themselves out on the street with their suitcases.

The fourth hotel, Marina Sands, however is still open to date (8th Sept.) It doesn’t have mains electricity but manages to function with a generator. But there are limits to what such an arrangement can provide – there’s no aircon, for example. The rooms reportedly don’t have any electricity and the lifts only operate in a limited fashion.

But wait! In the case of Marina Sands, electricity was not the only utility source obtained illegally because the gas supply didn’t even have a meter and whereas an illegal electrical connection is not dangerous if correctly done, a mickey-mouse gas installation is definitely dicing with danger.

But what the hell! With the hotel at 98% capacity, the main thing is to keep the hotel operative.

In the meantime the Lloret Town Hall is not happy with the negative publicity that the situation is giving to this town on the Costa Brava. In fact, rather than crucifying the hotel owner, they’re criticising Endesa for cutting off the electricity supply in the first place.

José Luis Velasco, who is 50-years old, employs 150 hotel staff, but according to the workers union, more than a few work 12-hour days whereas their work contract states that they only work four.

All is alive and well in España Picaresca after all.

(News: Lloret del Mar, Catalonia)