Marbella, on the Spanish Costa del Sol, is well known by thousands of foreign tourists who flock to Spain every year to enjoy the sun, sea and sangria, with perhaps a round of golf thrown in. But the majority of them return home without realising that behind the neatly trimmed streets and glossy exteriors there lurks scandal and corruption on a massive scale.
Marbella's eccentric mayor, Jesus Gil Y Gil, has been not been untouched by some of these scandals. As well as being the boss of the mecca of tourism, he is also Chairman of Atletico Madrid football club, and in deep trouble with the law. Earlier this year, he was arrested and briefly jailed, accused of illegally funnelling £2 million of Marbella's public funds to finance the club by using faked contracts. He was released a week later after posting bail of £420,000, but still faces charges.
Mr Gil always insisted that the publicity for Marbella, which the Atletico players carry on their red and white striped shirts, was free. But when anti-corruption police raided his offices last January they found documents showing the town had been funding the club to the tune of at least £1 million a year.
Mr Gil, who has 80 more court cases pending, says he plans to sue the special anti-drugs prosecutor Carlos Jimenez Villarejo, who last month accused him of having links with the Italian mafia. A leaked police report refers to tapped telephone calls of conversations between Mr Gil and two alleged Italian clan members. "The nearest I have come to the Mafia is to have seen the God- father movie three times," he says.
Last January was not the first time Mr Gil has seen the inside of a prison. In 1969 he received a five-year sentence for criminal negligence after a restaurant complex he constructed near Segovia collapsed, killing 58 and injuring over 100. It transpired that his company had cut corners, built without the assistance of either architect or surveyor and used substandard cement. He was pardoned by Gen Franco after only 18 months in jail, borrowed more money and set out on his path to riches.
Mr Gil set his sights on the brash resort of Marbella a decade ago and began to buy up land. He established his own development company, dealing with colourful characters such as the Saudi arms dealer, Adnan Khashoggi. He pointedly ignored planning and zoning laws, building how and where he chose. The Socialist town hall declared him persona non grata in 1990, so Mr Gil established his own political party, the Independent Liberal Group (GIL) and stood for mayor in the 1991 elections. He won by a landslide, and his first act on taking office was to order the demolition of the former mayor's home because he claimed it stood in the way of a new road he intended to build.
His often foul-mouthed insults to anyone who crosses him are notorious. He has been banned by national and international football authorities from matches on numerous occasions; and was involved in a public and televised punch-up with the owner of another football club who had angered him.
Over recent years Mr Gil's behaviour has become increasingly eccentric. He installed a life-size bust of the Gen Franco in the town hall, accepted the gift of a large white Rolls Royce from one of Marbella's many Arab sheiks to use as his official car, and constructed two triumphal arches at the town's limits.
Other fantastic plans he has proposed for Marbella are the construction of a giant off-shore island to be used as a leisure centre and casino. He originally proposed using a decommissioned British aircraft carrier from the Falklands war for this purpose.
But Marbella is not hurting. Hotels are full to capacity. The Arabs - always popular big spenders - have arrived en masse in the footsteps of King Fahd of Saudi Arabia who came with his entourage of hundreds to move into his summer residence, a replica of the White House in Washington.
In spite of his troubles with the law, Mr Gil is enjoying his summer. The flash parties, with tanned jet-set beauties dripping with diamonds and Rolex watches, are in full flow and the Mayor is happy to accept their invitations. His grinning face, shirt open to his bulging waistline adorned with a heavy gold chain fills the pages of the local press. He is confident he can, once more, talk his way out of trouble.