Following the botched robbery the accused ran into the street and threatened several people with a large knife.

The mayhem was brought to an end when the man was tackled by an off-duty policeman from Santa Cruz who happened to be at the beach on holiday with his family.

After hearing women’s screams the officer chased and tackled the 47-year-old from Barcelona, identified only by his initials, E.V.L. and, with the aid of another man, subdued him until local police arrived at the scene and took him into custody.

The accused, believed to be living in Santa Cruz de la Palma, is being held on remand pending a court appearance in Arona.

However, according to the latest government data, April saw a decline in the fall to just 0.7 per cent compare to last year to stand at 783,258.

Despite this, the Canary Islands captured more foreign tourists that any other Spanish region, more than 25 per cent of the total number of visitors to Spain.

Alotca is an association formed to lobby the Government in connection with tourism legislation, and to help those affected by it. The initials stand for Asociación de afectados por la ley de ordenación de turismo de Canarias (Association of those affected by the Canarian tourism regulation law). The association lobbies to create an atmosphere in which the fines as imposed are seen as monstrous which it is hoped will affect both Government policy and legal judgements when fines come to Court.

The following report is reproduced with kind permission from Janet Anscombe, one of five founder members and committee member of pressure group, Alotca.

The first appeals against fines issued to property owners reduced the fine to 13,800 euros. The second appeals under the Plan Especial went to Court last Thursday. Before the hearing, however, the judge called Alotca lawyer José Escobedo and the Government’s lawyer into a meeting. Also present were a legal assistant from Tenerife Litigation (the office of the two Alotca lawyers, José Escobedo and Santiago Saenz), and the two chief inspectors from the department of  Tourism.

There are two things that have been the subject of much discussion and rumour and need clarification;

• First, the judge has confirmed that Canarian law is valid, and applicable, to cases of fines levied against individuals for privately letting their property for holiday rentals.

• Secondly, he confirmed that previous judgements concerning “prior authorization” have no relevance at all to these cases.

The judge requested the meeting because he had certain things to say in general terms about the specific cases being heard and others like them still to come to hearing.

He considered the fine amount levied to be disproportionate (proportionality of punishment fitting the infraction is written into the Spanish constitution); that Alotca lawyers had prepared a strong and detailed defence; that the Government nonetheless had a case that could be developed during a hearing; that such cases would take a considerable time to hear; and there were so many of them that court time used would be inordinate. As a result, he had consulted with other judges and it had been decided that all such cases would be heard by that same judge through Court, number 4 in Santa Cruz.

Having made these comments, the judge then asked that a class action be formed for an out-of-court settlement which would apply to all appeals currently under way.

Since Alotca has brought the vast majority of cases to be heard, and was also behind the first appeals to be heard, the class action is to be conducted through Alotca association with cases being handled by other lawyers to form part of the Alotca action.

To agree to settlement  the appellants will be required to sign a document acknowledging that they had been in error, that this error had resulted in a breach of the law, that they accept a fine as punishment, and, naturally, confirm that there will be no future breaches.

The document will stand as a legal judgement so that even though the subject of an out-of-court settlement, any future infractions and fines arising from continued illegal letting would be penalised at the second offence level of up to €30,000.

The Government has been given a month to liaise with José Escobedo and Santiago Saenz to negotiate the settlement, involving the final document to be signed and the level of the fine: the judge said that in his opinion, it would reasonably be in the region of €5,000.

The Court provided José Escobedo with a list of all cases involving other lawyers, and any appellant with a non-Alotca lawyer who wishes to join the class action must instruct their lawyer urgently to contact Tenerife Litigation who will require a document to be signed by so that their cases can be presented to Court as part of that action. Those who are already with one of the two Alotca lawyers need do nothing.

Any enquiries  of a general nature can go through Alotca member Janet Anscombe  but  Tenerife Litigation does expect to hear directly from lawyers of those who have been fined and who are to join the class action.

If anyone has just received a fine, or does so over the next few weeks, please also contact Janet Anscombe urgently to find out what Alotca lawyers will need so that time is not wasted with them answering basic initial questions.

Alotca is also about to start negotiations with the OCU (organización de consumidores y usuarios), the Spanish Consumers Organization, which is preparing to fight the recently announced national proposals to limit tourist letting throughout Spain.

The announcement came yesterday from the chief executive of the Cabildo Insular de Turismo, Carlos Alonso, who said the plan would result in up to 170,000 passengers annually and the creation of, directly and indirectly, 1,600 new jobs.

Alonso said the new services were expected to generate as much as 29 million euros of extra revenue for the island in the first full year of operation alone.

The new base will begin operations in October with the permanent stationing of two of the company’s aircraft based in Tenerife and an expected 39 weekly flights linking several Nordic cities, as well as the UK and Germany.

Included are connections to Stockholm and Goteborg in Sweden, Oslo, Trondheim, Bergen and Rygge in Norway, Copenhagen and Aalborg in Denmark and Helsinki and Oulu in Finland.

The routes also will link the island with Hamburg, Cologne and Munich in Germany and London Gatwick.

In a meeting organized by the group, ‘Executive Forum España’, the minister said the measure would be included in the new ‘Ley de Emprendedores’, which is due to pass through parliament in the next week or two.

In a further move to boost inward investment, the minister added that, under the new legislation, residency would also be granted to foreign entrepreneurs willing to invest in the country.

Police said the woman was attacked by a man with a knife at around 8 pm and that an investigation is being conducted by the Guardia Civil.

As yet, there is no information as to the cause of the attack or the identity of the assailant.

Most local police forces have been using their own communication and incident codes for many years, some self-created and so they differ substantially from each other.

The new system is easy to understand and will be easily assimilated to migrate from old codes to new with minimal difficulty.

It comprises of a two-digit code that determines  the generic service group followed by a two digit extension which determines a specific report type.  A colour code is then added to the numbers set the level of seriousness of the situation.

Two of the occupants escaped the wreckage under their own steam while the other two family members had to be cut free by firefighters following the accident in Los Realejos.

Following a difficult rescue operation, complicated by the risk of the vehicle becoming dislodged and falling still further into the ravine, one of the occupants, a middle-aged woman was transferred to the University hospital in Santa Cruz having suffered severe trauma.

A second passenger, an 85-year-old woman, was taken for treatment to a nearby medical centre, while the two other members of the family, a seven-year-old girl and a woman, 41, suffered only minor injuries.

Police say that, as yet, they have been unable to establish why the car left the road.

According to a spokesman from the Tenerife Cabildo, the long called for move could lead to an increase of up to 100,000 passengers using the airport along with the creation of 600 much-needed jobs.

The result of their efforts was a pile of rubbish and debris weighing in at 150 kgs.

The clean-up was part of an initiative instigated jointly by the island Cabildo and the local council.