The Timeshare Beat
July 3, 2001
Christina Ketley, 41, who was convicted in May along with her lover John Palmer in Europe's biggest timeshare fraud
case, has been given a two-year suspended sentence by Judge Gerald Gordon. This means that she will not spend any
time in jail in spite of the fact that she lied to timeshare customers that "they couldn't lose" their
investments.
Palmer was sentenced to 8 years for masterminding a £30 million swindle in which more than 17, 000 investors from Britain, Scandinavia and Germany were fleeced over Tenerife timeshare condos.
The judge said he believes Ketley turned to crime due to the influence of Palmer's "forceful and dominating personality". He also said he accepted that Palmer and his sales team hid large parts of the fraud from her and she had made no great financial gain.
A former hospital secretary, Ketley ran the office for Palmer's fraudulent empire, handling his paperwork and his Essex finance business.
Ketley and Palmer have a 10-year-old son, who will not be losing his mother to jail-time as a result of the judge's sentencing.
John “Goldfinger” Palmer, 52, was one of the wealthiest men in the UK. He employed 3,000 staff, spent £1
million a year on personal security and operated ten Tenerife timeshare companies. His clients were inveigled into
buying his timeshares on the promise that if they had existing ones they would be sold for them within months.
If the clients did not own timeshares and bought from Palmer, they were convinced that they could offset the cost
by renting them out. The victims were set up to use resale and rental companies owned by Palmer’s cronies and lost
thousands of pounds when the promises were not kept. Few, if any, timeshares were sold or ever rented.
Last year five of the salesmen who worked for Palmer were jailed for up to five years.
Palmer was nicknamed "Goldfinger" in the 1980s after he was acquitted of handling gold from the famous
Brink's-Mat bullion raid. He moved to Tenerife after that case and built up a multi-million pound timeshare business,
which police believe he used to hide frauds, racketeering and money-laundering. Palmer claimed he was the victim
of a vendetta by Metropolitan Police officers.
Financial experts and detectives have been searching his assets before a judge decides whether any of his wealth should be confiscated as proceeds from the fraud.