Timeshare crook John 'Goldfinger' Palmer's killing could be linked to Hatton Garden raid
The killing of a timeshare conman who swindled thousands of holidaymakers – including several from Shropshire – could have been linked to the £14 million Hatton Garden raid, it has been reported.
Author Wensley Clarkson makes the claim about John "Goldfinger" Palmer's death in his book 'Sexy Beasts – The Inside Story Of The Hatton Garden Job', which is due to be published next month.
Palmer, 64, was shot and killed two months after the Hatton Garden heist at his remote £800,000 Essex home.
Clarkson claims Palmer may have been killed by a hitman to prevent him from revealing the identity of a leading figure in the audacious safety deposit box burglary, a man known only as Basil and the only member of the gang still on the run.
The author goes on to claim "Basil" is linked to the Adams family, the most feared criminal gang in north London. No-one has been arrested in connection with Palmer's death.
Several people from Shropshire were among the estimated 17,000 holidaymakers from across Europe who were swindled in his ruthless timeshare operation.
One of his victims was former businesswoman Hazel Turner, now 72, from Higher Heath, near Whitchurch, who twice gave evidence when Palmer was on trial at the Old Bailey almost 15 years ago.
Palmer was finally convicted in May 2001, and was jailed for eight years for the £30 million scam.
The Old Bailey jury heard that Palmer, consumed by greed, had plotted with others to take customers for every penny they had through a buy-sell scam which promised to sell a holidaymaker's timeshare at an overvalued price within weeks, if they agreed to buy another property at one of Palmer's 13 Canary Islands timeshares. Owners were told they could make huge profits, but scores were lumbered with two properties.
Cliff and Sarah Griffiths, from Meole Brace in Shrewsbury, also lost several thousand pounds through Palmer's timeshare scam.
Palmer was nicknamed Goldfinger by the media after being cleared of handling the gold from the £26 million Brinks Mat robbery at Heathrow airport in 1983.
In 2005 Palmer was released from prison after his Old Bailey conviction and within two years was arrested again in Tenerife and was charged – along with his live-in partner Christine Ketley and nephews Andrew Palmer and Dean Morris – for fraud and money laundering. No date had been set for the trial.
