Many expatriates who left the rainy streets of the United Kingdom for the sunny beaches of Spain have found themselves crippled with debt and are fleeing back to the UK.

The Spanish property market was badly affected by the financial crisis and many who have had to abandon their Mediterranean dream have simply left the properties behind for the debt collectors, unable to sell them.

Speaking about a young family and their abandoned property, a British employee of a Spanish bank which specialises in preparing repossessed properties for auction, said: "They just disappeared overnight, packed a couple of suitcases and went, leaving no forwarding address."

"There are thousands of others like them. Often they don't tell anyone they're going, because they're leaving behind debts that they can't pay, even though they might have substantial equity in the property they're abandoning."

"Many people, particularly young families in recent years, sold up in the UK and put everything they had into their 'place in the sun', only to find everything go badly wrong as the economy collapsed and work dried up," says the bank worker, who requested anonymity.

Spain is really feeling the effects of the global financial crisis, and it currently holds the European record for unemployment , with more than 15% of the working age population unemployed.

"Some feel badly treated. The banks here can get very heavy-handed as soon as people fall into arrears on their mortgages. Men in suits turn up at the door making demands, and people don't know what to do."

"Many Brits are running scared. Many are angry," he says, going into detail about the 'revenge' some wrought on their properties before leaving. One man backed a cement lorry onto the rear patio of his apartment and had the entire ground floor filled with cement.

"The mood here has turned ugly," he said.

The situation for ex pats in Spain has become so desperate that the British embassy in Madrid has teamed up with the Department of Work and Pensions (DWP) to offer guidance to struggling ex pats and explain to them the help they are entitled to.

At one of their road shows, the DWP's most senior civil servant, Sir Leigh Lewis gave a blunt and somewhat depressing speech.

Speaking at a large hall in the town centre of Torrevieja on the Costa Blanca , he said: "Much as I would love to wave a magic wand and tell you everything is going to be all right and we will pay your pensions and benefits in a standard euro rate in future, the truth is we are not. "

"The fall of the pound against the euro must be extremely tough for those of you receiving pensions and other benefits who have seen their value fall. But the fluctuating exchange rate is something we all have to live with."

"Over the years there have been good times and bad. It's a case of swings and roundabouts," he said.

Gillian Merron, minister for consular affairs added: "The big message to anyone still thinking of moving abroad is: think very carefully before you go and don't take anything for granted. Life happens. Things go wrong, and they go wrong in Alicante just as they do if you stay at home."