Holiday home fraud 'netted millions'
This Is London

September 22, 1999
A 12-year multi-million pound timeshare fraud on the island of Tenerife cheated thousands of innocent holidaymakers, the Old Bailey heard today.

The racket ran for so many years that it resembled the long-running West End musical Miss Saigon, although not The Mousetrap, the jury was told.

It was a "slick and professional operation" involving "glib, fast-talking and untruthful salesmen" care-fully trained to dupe ordinary holidaymakers.

The staff were backed up by a confusing network of companies run by John Palmer, and by the systematic use of complicated and deliberately misleading paperwork, the court heard.

Palmer, 49, of Bath, is defending himself in a trial expected to last six months. There are six other defendants, all legally represented.

David Farrer, QC, prosecuting, told the court that the victims of the fraud were "people of very ordinary means, modest incomes and people on a pension or not in good health - the reality is it could have been one of us".

He added: "They were tricked into handing over what for them and most of us were large sums of money which in the vast majority of cases they could ill afford.

"They were tricked by lies and promises that the timeshare apartments they already owned would be sold very quickly if they bought a new one at a simply incredible price. It is one of the largest and longest-running rackets to come before a court in this country."

The fraudsters continued to operate even though they were under investigation by the police.

Although the thousands of victims came from many different European countries, the largest single group were British, the court heard.

The companies involved "did nothing but bank the fees that were paid", said Mr Farrer. "These people, mugs or not, were confronted by ruthless salesmen both in Tenerife and in this country, based in Brentwood, and systematically designed to part them from their money as rapidly as possible and make recovery of the money as difficult as possible."

Palmer and the other defendants, Christina Ketley, 39, of Brentwood; Martin Addington-Smith, 48 of Horsham; Malcolm Watsford-Wallace, 52, of Maidenhead; Alexander Thompson, 52, of Kingsbury; Michael Harbison, 35, of Kenton, and Simon Stevens, 36 of Orpington all deny conspiracy to defraud

The case continues.


© Associated Newspapers Ltd., 22 September 1999