This non-descript P.O. box office in an upmarket Costa Blanca seaside resort is at the centre of an apparent fraud which left hundreds of families across Europe with no holidays this summer.

Hidden in an obscure side street in Javea are the offices of Total Post which runs a series of P.O. boxes, mostly used legitimately by British expatriates waiting for important parcels from home.

But it appears others may have been using a box at the same address to quietly pocket thousands of pounds of other people’s cash – then disappear.

A P.O. box here was also rented by a British-run company, Paul Quinn Properties S.L. which is at the centre of a Spanish police investigation into a holiday lettings website morairaway.com.

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Morairaway.com: the victims

Possibly hundreds of families have lost their summer holidays as the Spanish villa website shuts down and owners disappear

The website took hundreds of bookings for holiday villas in Javea, Moraira, Denia and along the Costa Blanca coast. All were fictitious.

At least 100 families from Britain plus a similar number from several countries including Ireland, Belgium, Holland, France, Finland Germany and Russia have seen their summer holidays wrecked after it emerged the idyllic-looking villas did not exist.

The average loss has totalled £3,000 but the final bill for hundreds of ruined summer holidays could total more than £1m.

In an effort to try to trace the fraudsters, The Times visited the company’s ‘office – but without luck. Paul Quinn was long gone.

Other worried ‘victims’ have tried to do the same, anxious to try and trace their cash.

Catherine MacPhail, a British expatriate who lives in Javea, said: “There was a man here last week who was trying to get access to this company’s (Paul Quinn) P.O.box but the people at the shop said the police would have to give permission. He was worried for a neighbour who had lost money.

“We just use this post box when we are sent important presents and I think a lot of other people do the same.”

The owner of Total Post confirmed that to gain access to Paul Quinn Properties S.L's P.O.box, The Times would have to obtain written permission from the police.

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