A BOURNEMOUTH-based overseas property firm is lucky to still be in business after they fell victim to Spanish estate agent Audrey Dixon.

As reported recently in the Daily Echo, Dixon has gone to ground in Spain owing hundreds of thousands of pounds to at least 22 UK victims.

Among them are Graham and Sonia Higginson, of West Moors, who paid the 45-year-old estate agent £115,000 for a dream property in Almeria, Spain and have spent a further £15,000 trying to trace her.

And now a well-established local company has revealed that they too are owed £25,000 in unpaid commission by Dixon.

Janice Geddes, who runs Premier Property International Ltd from her home in Chaseside, said: "I don't know how she sleeps at night. This put such a hole in our cashflow that we more or less stopped trading. We're ticking along now but this has been a nightmare."

Premier Property International Ltd would organise exhibitions for people interested in buying in Spain and then arrange for them to fly out and meet Dixon's company Oasis Spanish Property.

Janice said: "Their conversion rate was excellent - around 70 or 80 per cent - and at first there was no problem in getting our commission from them.

"It was almost as if she was lulling us into a false sense of security because suddenly the commission dried up and the telephone calls stopped. I went out to Spain to see her but was always told she had just left the office."

The last commission paid to Premier Property International was at the end of 2002 and Janice has not spoken to Dixon since early 2003.

As well as the unpaid commission, Janice has also covered the cost of work Oasis was supposed to be doing for her clients out of her own pocket.

Premier Property International Ltd are now concentrating on selling homes in Cyprus.

Several attempts to contact Dixon and Oasis Spanish Properties were unsuccessful.

First published: Sept 3