At the end of 2010, the newspaper O Púbico ran a report into suspicious goings on at Portimão council where a prime plot overlooking the river Arade had been sold to a company, owned in part by a former vice-President of the council, which mysteriously was granted permission for a development of nearly twice the size of that originally granted.

Looking through the reasoning for granting the larger development, it is clear that a massive fiddle has gone on to the horror of the apartment owners behind the site whose view is due to be severely curtailed, and to ruin the area surrounding the old convent São Francisco.

With around 100 persons attending: including the newly appointed National Director of SEF Luisa Maria Goncalves; Major General Piers da Silva (GNR); the Director CCEMS, representatives from the Ministries of Justice and Internal Administration and Superintendent Jorge Mauricio Commander Lisbon Metropolitan Police (PSP), the seminar in Cascais organized by Safe Communities Portugal was a great success.

Taking place at the Auditório do Centro Cultural de Cascais on 26th January 2016, the event in English was opened by Dra. Maria do Céu Garcia, Deputy to the Mayor of Cascais, who gave an overview of the threat of cybercrime and the importance of addressing this issue.

The EU Succession Regulation, or Brussels IV, came into force on 17th August of this year.
It is directly applicable in the 27 “Regulation” states, but Denmark, the UK and Ireland have “opted out” of the Regulation. However, it will still affect anyone owning property or assets in a Regulation state, including Portugal.

What does the Regulation change?

As one of the Algarve’s most hideous murders last year comes to trial in Portimão, another remains poignantly ‘open’ with the man police are certain killed teenager Bruna Nunes still ‘out there’ somewhere, evading the authorities.

Interpol and Europol arrest warrants have been distributed throughout all countries known to have been frequented by Mikhail Razvan Oprea, but since two days after 17-year-old Bruna went missing, all trace of him seems to have vanished.

A recidivist burglar died in the early hours of Sunday morning at a property at Volta do Pardal on the Vilamoura estate.

A British couple and their son were woken at around 04:00 and discovered a burglar in their house.

In a strange twist in the tale of notorious conman Kenner Elias Jones, he is now being sought not by police but by his first wife who divorced him many years ago.

Having been deported from Canada and the United States, Ken Jones has managed to outwit police forces across Europe, including Portugal, while on the run and continuing his life of fantasy and fraud.

The decision to ban the Uber cab calling service was taken by the Court of Lisbon which accepted an injunction filed by Antral, the road carriers association.

The first consequence of the decision of the court is the mandatory closure of the Uber website for the Portuguese market and of its mobile phone app.

EU Regulation No. 650/2012, known as the “Succession Regulation” or Brussels IV, is aimed at harmonizing the different private international law rules for succession among “Regulation States”.

The Succession Regulation states that the law applicable to a person’s succession is the law of their “habitual residence” at the time of their death, unless the deceased elected in their will for the law of their nationality to apply, regardless of whether the state of their nationality is a Regulation State or not.