SUSAN EMMETT
The Times
Saturday July 07, 2001
The EU timeshare rules that give protection to buyers were designed to prevent people suffering a similar fate
to that of Kathleen and Charles O’Hara. Seven years ago they were driven into debt by slick holiday resort salesmen.
They were among the customers of John Palmer, who was jailed in May this year for defrauding 17,000 holidaymakers
in a £30 million scam.
Palmer — whose timeshare operations were based in Tenerife — was known as “Goldfinger” after he was accused of
handling gold from the Brink’s-Mat bullion robbery at Heathrow in 1983.
In common with other Palmer customers, Mr and Mrs O’Hara, who already owned another timeshare, were assured by
salesmen that they could trade in that property for a luxury penthouse suite on the sea front and still make a
large profit on the transaction. In some cases the profits promised to those who were cajoled into investing in
one of Palmer’s properties and selling an existing timeshare were as high as 600 per cent.
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