PUB landlords Jimmy and Tina Hutchinson appeared on national TV this week to speak of their misery trying to buy a dream home in Spain.

The couple, who run the Black Bear pub in Sandbach were filmed for the BBC programme Inside Out about their efforts to buy a home in the sunshine of the Costa del Sol.

They told how they paid a deposit of £20,000 to development company Ifos in August 2001, only to find that four years later the project had not even started.

Before signing the contract they were shown an artist's impression of what the luxury apartment complex would look like.

But a visit to the Costa del Sol this year revealed that the site remained an undeveloped hillside.

And the bad news continued when they discovered that the company had not even secured a building permit.

Yet when they signed up they were told it could be ready in 18 months and legal experts have since told them that the planning permission should have been attached to the contract.

Directors of the company denied acting illegally or in a fraudulent way and said they had many satisfied customers.

Although they have been offered their deposit back, Jimmy, a former paratrooper said that property prices in Spain have doubled in the last four years.

Ifos also offered them a discount off a new property, but they would need to spend a further £100,000.

Legal experts on Monday's programme said that as many as 2,000 other people could be in the same position.

Tina said: "We could have rented it out and had money from it that way and enjoyed holidays there ourselves. It's frustrating and upsetting."

She said they were now considering whether to take legal action for compensation, adding: "Or I will camp outside their offices in Manchester until they do something."