A YORK businessman who won a battle against extradition to Spain last summer claims in a new book that he was betrayed by Spanish intelligence after blowing the whistle on "Europe’s crime lords".

Paul Blanchard, 76, of Fulford, says in his autobiography 'Wanted: secrets of a mafia whistle blower,' that he was recruited to spy on clients with suspected links to money laundering, arms dealers and terror networks but ended up at risk of 15 years in a Spanish jail.

He claims he exposed how legitimate offshore business was being hijacked by organised criminals, including the Al Quaeda cells behind the Madrid and London bombings, but was then abandoned by Spanish police, who sought his extradition on allegations of fraud, money-laundering, forgery and fraudulent use of credit cards, threats and coercion, perverting the course of justice and participation in a criminal organisation.

The Court of Appeal was told earlier this year that Blanchard had been an accountant working in Spain for Mohamed Derbah but in 2001 he had brought to the attention of Spanish police a timeshare fraud allegedly being committed by Mr Derbah and provided witness statements which led to his arrest. Judges overturned a ruling of 2020 that he should face prosecution in Spain. Blanchard said afterwards that he was now planning to appeal against his UK conviction for fraud in 2008.

In his book, Blanchard tells how he worked as a freelance corporate adviser to Mr Derbah but became increasingly concerned about possible fraud and decided to contact the Spanish authorities via Scotland Yard.

He says London detectives put him in touch with a Spanish intelligence service officer and he flew out to meet him at a hotel in Madrid. He was then taken in a convoy to Spain’s intelligence service HQ - "the nerve centre of its entire information gathering, surveillance and spying operations".

He says he was told he was not viewed as a suspect or co-conspirator but as a potential prosecution witness, and he handed over entire files displaying the accounts for some of Mr Derbah’s firms, and signed a 15 page statement.

He says that in one conversation, an officer told him: "We would like you to work for our intelligence services, Paul. We have much confidence in you as a businessman and you have shown your loyalty to Spain...we view you as a credible witness, someone we can work with.”

He also tells how, in July 2004, after he was arrested on suspicion of fraud, he told a special branch officer at York police station that he was a witness against Mr Debrah and had been working with Spanish intelligence monitoring possible terror finance. He says he subsequently met with and outlined details to an MI5 official at the Hilton hotel in York.