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A Spanish disco is offering no more dance-night experiences after The Eye revealed they were run by a crooked South Wales property ‘expert’ with a string of jail convictions who had his legs broken when a drugs deal soured.
Howard Williams changed his name to James Daniels and in a past daytime ‘business’ he ‘sold’ or rented out luxury villas at Murcia in Spain, but customers complained that he disappeared after pocketing deposits worth thousands of pounds.
Williams/Daniels was also in charge of evenings at the ‘Discoteca CopyRight Roldan’, but new adverts for it were removed after our earlier reports about him on The Eye.
The discotheque’s Facebook page has not had a post since February 20 at 7.41am – just after we published our latest disclosures about the man who ran it.
Once his disco started advertising for staff on October 1, and opened on October 21, events, mainly at the weekend, were publicised extensively in advance.
After the dance nights there took place, the page was often full of posts of photographs from them.
But from February 20 there have been no posts – and now we can disclose that the dance nights were shut down completely following revelations by The Eye.
Our stories about Williams have prompted a huge reaction.
The following angry comment was posted on our Facebook page by someone describing himself as Howard Williams, with a profile picture of a sunny beach and a man with a large stomach: “You write total lies about people, bully to the point of harassment and suicide, and will not answer a direct email (The Eye has had none from a Howard Williams)? This is not journalism this is a mixture of Phil Parry (The ex journalist) and (others) you are pure scum!!!!! Let it be publicly known that The Eye does NOT care about people it just lies to make fictitious stories up. BULLYING, LIES, MENTAL HEALTH ABUSE TO NAME BUT A FEW!!!!!”.
Soon afterwards, came another from a different person which was less insulting but bore striking similarities with the earlier one.
Also on our Facebook page this person wrote: “Quick question I have contacted you before (no contact has been made with this individual) and had no reply… it was a question of where to send info for a possible story but now I’ve read all your articles and you seem to be harassing people not reporting? your post today refers to targets not story’s (sic) so are you hate campaigners/reporters or journalists? confused”.
These comments ignore the fact that The Eye have reported that Howard Williams’ own father, Bill, described him as a “complete crook”, how he was called by the police to Clifton suspension bridge where his son was threatening to commit suicide, and that Williams’ former business partner Sam McManus has admitted to us he was fooled by him and that he was a ‘sick man’.
Yet life for conman Williams continues.
Apart from the closure of his disco, the past criminal convictions and the drug deals, we also showed how he did not even own the house given as Hengoed, Caerphilly that he offered in his ‘business’ renting out a villa for £180 a night, despite proclaiming he was a property ‘expert’.
Meanwhile the law has often caught up with Williams the fraudster.
Over 10 years, his jail sentences have totalled four years four months, and they have involved 25 counts of deception.
He has been made bankrupt three times and he has fleeced countless innocent people.
On one property website, the anger of an individual is clear: “He (Williams/Daniels) makes you pay circa £10k deposit and then disappears into the sunset”.
Williams also said he performed at expensive property ‘seminars’ in upmarket hotels or golf clubs around South Wales where customers were duped once again.
For £299 potential clients were tempted with a “Special Offer February Deal – Sourcing and rent to rent training weekend”.
The ‘offer’ was removed from Williams’ Facebook site, where he was known as ‘The Shoes’, soon afterwards, and when The Eye contacted the golf club, they had no record of it taking place.
Even within his own ‘organisations’ Williams’ methods are clear, with Mr McManus (otherwise known as ‘Georgeson’) explaining how he was also conned.
He said: “He (Williams) has fooled many people and I can only be grateful that there are good investigative journalists like you guys who expose greedy people like him.
“It is embarrassing to admit that I am yet another victim of his greed”.
Stories like these in the past have led to awards for our Editor Phil Parry, yet others in the Welsh media such as WalesOnline have a different idea of what constitutes news.
The website’s Editor Paul Rowland threatened to sue us for an accurate satirical piece concerning the number of items they have published about a Cardiff bar called Coyote Ugly, which features scantily-clad women dancing for a largely male audience, and he recommended to a reader who was anxious to break into journalism to write lists about the best places in Wales to find street food.
While WalesOnline publishes sexist articles about the opening of bars, reaction to our real story exposing the criminal past of a South Wales ‘estate agent’ has been enormous.
We have been inundated by people with more details of Williams’ bogus deals.
Williams’ family has also given The Eye further disturbing information about his background.
Apart from describing to us how Williams was a “complete crook”, his father Bill told The Eye that he spent part of a Christmas day outside the walls of Cardiff prison to be near his son inside.
Bill Williams, who ran a sofa business in South Wales, believes his son stole about £250,000 from him in cash and stock. 
But ‘selling’ and renting out luxury villas in Murcia, Spain are not the only strings to Howard Williams’ bow.
As well as questionable property deals and holding disco dances, illegal drugs have also featured strongly in his life.
As well as being attacked and having his legs broken when one deal went badly wrong, we have also disclosed how in the past he has teamed up with another man, jailed for drug offences.
Williams launched the ‘Crisis Housing Charity’ and asked for donations from the public in a venture designed ostensibly to help former convicts find homes.
The ‘charity’ gave an address in Cardiff but does not now exist.
Now Williams’ new evening venture of a Spanish disco also does not now exist after our disclosures.
What next?
The guy is a compulsive liar. 4 years for 23 convictions seems pathetic to me. Not enough intelligence to rehabilitate from what’s is clearly a mental illness. Let’s hope the next drug deal goes bad too!