Scots couple sought buy Interpol over £1m Turkish property development scam

INTERPOL is hunting a Scottish couple suspected of masterminding a European property scam alleged to involve almost £1 million.

It is claimed 20 people have paid substantial sums to Nigel Andrews, a former Aberdeenshire hotelier, for deposits for apartments in Turkey which were never built.

Mr Andrews, 51, and his wife Margaret are said to have vanished from their offices in Marbella in June where they had set up a company called Royal Resorts Turkey. And the Spanish police were called in to investigate allegations that investors had lost €1 million - 870,000 - in a failed resort development in Turkey.

Spain's National Police force has now confirmed that Interpol are involved in the hunt for the couple and that they have made an arrest in Calpe, Alicante - reportedly Mr Andrew's brother, Lionel.

The brothers left Scotland for Spain in 2003 after the Vaults nightclub in Aberdeen's Carnegie Brae, which they had set up with another business partner, closed down just five months after opening, owing about 700,000 to creditors.

The Bank of Scotland later lodged a petition calling for the brothers to be made bankrupt.

Mr and Mrs Andrews, formerly of Kingswells in Aberdeen, have not been seen since 5 June, after it emerged their apartments project would not go ahead because of a building ban.