Brits fly to Ibiza holiday home only to find family have moved in and changed locks

The head of the Public Prosecutor's Extradition Unit, Marc Robinson, is involved in his own legal battle in Ibiza to try to recover his property from the squatters

The house was in Ibiza, Spain (

Image: Getty Images)

A lawyer has revealed he and his wife were trying to evict squatters from their Spanish vacation home after they arrived for a break with their children to find strangers inside.

Marc Robinson, head of the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) extradition unit, is embroiled in a legal battle in Ibiza to try to recover his own property after the shocking discovery dashed his family's hopes of an Easter getaway.

The ongoing nightmare facing the legal expert, who spent over 17 years as a CPS prosecutor and ended up handling murder and kidnapping cases, was revealed today by the newspaper Spanish digital The Objective.

The Robinsons flew to Ibiza with their daughters on April 4 and arrived at their property around 10:30 p.m. to find that the lights of their vacation home in the municipality of San Antonio were on and the door locks had been broken. changed, the publication reported.

The couple called police who spoke to a man inside who said he admitted he was squatting there with his wife and two children because he "had nowhere to live".

A friendly neighbor allegedly told the Robinsons that they saw at least four other men in the garden when the officers left.

Sophie, Mr Robinson's wife, told The Objective that almost a month later they were still trying to get their property back after filing two separate complaints with a local court.

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One is a lawsuit against the squatters that she said hasn't even been admitted for processing yet.

Ms Robinson told The Objective: 'The police report has not yet reached the court and preliminary proceedings to evict them from our home have still not been opened.

"The Civil Guard told us that they couldn't do anything because when they arrived there was only a man, a woman and two children that they couldn't expel without a court order. because they say they are family and have nowhere to live.

"But we know there are more people in the house and it should be easy for the police to prove it."

Mr. Robinson practiced as a trainee lawyer in London and Hong Kong before becoming a law professor at university and then joining the CPS in March 2004.

He describes online how he "cut his teeth prosecuting Bow Street Magistrates Court and West London Youth Court" while handling cases in Crown Court and moving on to prosecuting kidnappings and serious money laundering cases.

He joined the Homicide Squad at the Old Bailey in 2008.

Later, before taking up his current position as Head of Unit in the CPS Extradition Unit, he worked as a British Liaison Magistrate in Spain and assisted the Spanish Ministry of Justice in setting up the Spanish Asset Recovery Office.

Spain is infamous for being slow to evict squatters, leaving homeowners who fall victim to them feeling they have virtually no protection against the problem.

Courts can take over a year to resolve cases and many landlords end up paying private companies that specialize in dealing with squatters or give them money to move.