The marathon legal saga which accuses tycoon John

The marathon legal saga which accuses tycoon John Palmer of fleecing 17,000 of his timeshare customers entered its final stages today (Fri) as the judge began summing up the case.

Multi millionaire Palmer, 50, who stood trial for handling the pnds stlg 26 million haul from the Brinks Mat bullion robbery, insists he is ‘an honest businessman.

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The prosecution claim he masterminded the pnds stlg 30 million con together with his lover Christina Ketley, 40, and cousin Andrew Palmer, 32.

His sales director Brendan Hannon, 55, and five businessmen connected with the con have already been jailed, the jury has heard

Scores of victims have come to the Old Bailey to tell how they were promised their old timeshare would be sold for them at up to 600 per cent profit if they bought at a Palmer development on Tenerife.

The holidaymakers, who included retired police officers, hoteliers and trading standard officers were also promised a full refund if the property was not sold.

But they were simply left lumbered with both properties and the refunds were never made.

Palmer insists Irishman Hannon, a former used car salesman described in court as ‘having swallowed the Blarney stone’ perpetrated the fraud behind his back.

The tycoon has told the jury he was too busy flying his Lear jet and fleet of helicopters to know what was going on in his 13 resorts from 1989 to 1997 when the fraud was being carried out.

Ketley, is the mother of Palmer’s son James, 9, and ran the British side of the operation from premises in Brentwood, Essex.

She has told the court how he would not read handfuls of faxes received from bitter customers.

Andrew Palmer, 32, who did not give evidence in the trial is said to have been Palmer’s ‘man in Tenerife’ and his ‘heir apparent.

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He has not given evidence during the trial but his lawyers have argued he too was ignorant of what was gong on.

Palmer first stood trial for timeshare fraud in September 1999, but had to be retried after seven months for legal reasons.

The jury in his second trial, which began in October of last year, is due to retire on Monday week.

Judge Gerald Gordon told the jury today: ‘To be part of this conspiracy it is not necessary to know how the other conspirators carried out their roles, provided the conspirator was party to the common aim.

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The court has heard Palmer later paid out to the loss adjusters hunting Brinks Mat gold.

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

The trial continues.

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