Club class.(Marbella Club, Marbella )

Sometime in the early 1990s - while employed by the Sunday Telegraph - I was sent to report on how Marbella's fortunes were being rebuilt by a medallionman once jailed for his part in the construction of a building which collapsed killing 86 people.

Se[+ or -]or Jesus Gil y Gil had been mayor of Marbella for less than a year but was busy resurfacing roads, chasing away drug-dealers and handbag-snatchers, planting palm trees and geraniums on the seafront and in the central reservation of the town's stretch of the infamous Highway of Death, and positioning armed policemen on every other street corner.

Gil, who was also chairman of Atletico Madrid football club, didn't belong to any particular party. Like a sheriff in the Wild West, he just believed in doing what you have to do - although where the money was coming from for his clean-up was unclear. At one point, his plans included launching a direct train service from Malaga airport to Marbella and creating a white marble promenade linking Marbella to the tax-deductible excesses of Puerto Banus.

Sadly, when I arrived in town, Gil …