A grandad thanked accused timeshare fraudster John

A grandad thanked accused timeshare fraudster John Palmer in court after it emerged the tycoon has repaid pnds stlng 10,000 lost by the pensioner in the scam.

Royal Reeve (corr), fell victim to timeshare touts when he treated his young granddaughter to a holiday in Tenerife to help her recover from a serious riding accident.

Fraudsters even used a childminder at the resort in a relentless high-pressure sales bid to persuade Mr Reeve to buy a new holiday home.

The court has heard the fraud allegedly organised by the Palmer duped as many as 17,000 holidaymakers and raked in up to pnds stlg 30 million.

His sales team encouraged existing timeshare owners to buy extra weeks on the promise that their original weeks would be sold for them.

But the weeks remained on the market for years and many customers were simply lumbered with holiday time they did not want.

The Norwich pensioner confirmed that mega-rich Palmer, who is defending himself, sent him a cheque after he gave evidence against the 49-year-old multi-millionaire in a fraud trial last year.

When he thanked his alleged trickster, Palmer smiled and replied: ‘Not at all.

‘

The grandad’s financial nightmare began in June 1990 when the family travelled out to use a 2 week timeshare they already owned at the Island Village resort.

‘My granddaughter had been thrown from a horse and broken both wrists so we went out a day late because she had to have the plaster removed,’ explained Mr Reeve.

But Mr Reeve and his wife were unhappy when they arrived at their holiday home.

‘It was in a bad state to what it should have been.

‘

They complained and were introduced to an American salesman who suggested they move to another apartment in the new Phase 4 development by selling their existing one.

‘He said it would sell in nine months for pnds stlng 13,000 pnds in the American market,’ continued Mr Reeve.

‘It started out at a year, but he said Mr John Palmer
wanted to sell them quicker so it was brought down to nine months.

‘He opened a folder.

He had green ownership papers and all the way down it had the word ‘sold’.

‘It was genuine and after he explained the American market you could understand why.

‘

Mr Reeve was told his initial two weeks would be sold in a maximum of nine months for pnds stlg 13,000, making a good profit of pnds stlng 5,000 on his 1986 investment.

Several days later he was taken to see the new homes that were under construction.

‘Although they weren’t built, the garden had been done,’ said Mr Reeve.

‘It was very attractive.

‘My wife didn’t come that time as she had arthritis, but later I got her to look at it, and she liked it.

‘

But the pensioner told the jury that his wife felt ‘dubious’ about buying the property, and the couple pulled out of the deal.

For the rest of their holiday the Reeves were constantly approached by the salesman.

They were even accosted by a childminder who worked at the resort.

‘I called her a ‘busy bee’.

She was asking why we pulled out, and what it had done for others.

She said it was a good thing, and it had worked for her.

‘My wife was still dubious.

We were getting visits everyday.

We couldn’t understand why they kept visiting us.

‘Every evening when we were by the pool having a drink, they would approach us.

‘Finally my wife said: ‘It seems allright.

If you want to go ahead, go ahead.

”

The couple signed an agreement to pay just under pnds stlng 10,000 for their new holiday flat, with a deposit of pnds stlng 2,193.

But back home in Northam Close, Clover Hill, Mr Reeve was stunned to find out a deposit of pnds stlg 2,193 had been taken in one lump from his credit card, despite his instructions.

His suspicions grew when he received documents from the resort.

‘When that folder arrived, I said to my wife: ‘We’ve been had.

‘

‘I had only bought it on the consideration that the other would be sold.

‘

Mr Reeve contacted the finance company arranging the deal in Billericay, Essex:

‘I spoke to a youngish fellow.

When I told him what had happened he became very abrupt and told me to get a solicitor.

He just didn’t want to know.

‘

The pensioner realised that with the cost of the finance deal on the new flat he couldn’t afford the maintenance on both properties.

‘I realised I would be paying it off over a period of twenty years,’ he told the jury.

The Reeves agreed to pay pnds stlng 8,000 to relieve their financial difficulties.

Two years later when there was no sign of a sale or rental Mr Reeve stopped paying his maintenance fees.

But his weeks were valued by the company at pnds stlg 3,100 and when three years maintenance fees were deducted he was left with just the pnds stlg 512.

Palmer, representing himself at the latest trial, asked: ‘After the last trial did you receive a cheque from me?’

‘Yes I did.

Thank you,’ replied the pensioner.

Palmer: ‘Not at all.

That was the first opportunity I had.

‘

The jury have heard that Palmer, 49, was acquitted in 1988 of smelting down gold stolen in the legendary Brinks-Mat bullion robbery when gunmen stole pnds stlng 27 million from a Security Express depot at Heathrow Airport in 1983.

But the tycoon insists that detectives are determined to set him up for fraud after he was cleared of that crime.

The prosecution allege that Palmer, with his girlfriend Christina Ketley, 39, and his nephew Andrew Palmer, 31, ran a network of salesmen that conned holidaymakers by offering them a ‘resale deal’ on old apartments.

But the defendants claim that senior directors operated the scam behind their backs.

Palmer, of Battlefields, Bath, Andrew Palmer, from Meadow Cottage, Meadow Lane, Solihull, and Christina Kettley, of Foxdown Cottage, Sandpit Lane, Brentwood, Essex, all deny two charges of conspiracy to defraud between 1989 and 1997.

The trial continues.

ends