A German boat owner based in Mallorca has uncovered a wide-spread fraud involving more than 470 false registrations and flaggings of yachts and around 500 false "captains´ licences".
The matter came to a head when the German yachtsman discovered that having paid 200,000 pesetas in 1987 he has been sailing under false papers for the last 17 years.
These false documents are thought to have been issued by the ex-consul of Paraguay based in Barcelona between 1974 and 1999.
The Paraguayan authorities are urging everyone to be wary of these false documents and to get in touch with them via the consulate to check the legality of them, some of which are suspected to be in the Balearics.