Timeshare conman in court victory

John Palmer appeared on the Sunday Times Rich List

Victims of timeshare trickster John Palmer have expressed anger that he will not now have to pay back £33m.

Palmer won his appeal over a court confiscation order, on Wednesday.

He had been ordered to pay the money after being jailed for eight years, for a massive timeshare fraud.

Palmer, from Battlesfield, near Bath, Somerset, will still have to pay £2.3m in compensation to hundreds of victims who were left in debt.

It is ridiculous that this man does not have to pay up

John Davidson

The 52-year-old swindled 17,000 people, many of them pensioners.

He was convicted at the Old Bailey last year of the £30m fraud.

One couple who were victims, pensioners John and Vera Davidson, paid a deposit of £4,200 in monthly instalments for a timeshare through Palmer, after they were offered £19,500 for their existing one.

The Palmers, from York, found the existing two-week timeshare was never sold.

When they stopped the instalments, the new apartment was taken away.

Palmer has a fortune estimated at £300m

Mr Davidson said: "It is ridiculous that this man does not have to pay up."

Palmer was acquitted of handling proceeds from the £26m Brink's-Mat bullion robbery at Heathrow.

After that, he went to Tenerife where he built up a multi-million pound business.

Since he was convicted of tricking thousands of Britons, his assets have been frozen.

The restraining order will remain in place until the Appeal Court judges give their reasons for the ruling in October.