The Judge: Victims of Goldfinger’s Pounds 300m Empire ; Scots Arrive in Tenerife to Find Timeshare Up for Sale

By Additional reporting by JANE BARRIE and ROGER DISS in Tenerife

FOR 12 years Andrew and Helen Maxwell have spent great holidays at their timeshare in Tenerife.

But when they arrived nine days ago they were horrified to find it was being sold without their knowledge.

They had been stung by serial timeshare fraudster John ‘Goldfinger’ Palmer.

Stranded and in a blind panic, hundreds of miles from their home in Dalbeattie, Kirkcudbrightshire, they called me in.

Retired fireman Andrew, 59, said: “I don’t know what to do.” The Maxwells travelled to their timeshare at Yucca Park in Playa Fanabe with Helen’s sister Ann McMath, 45, and her husband Rab, 47, of Dumfries.

They bought it in 1995 for one week a year, paying pounds 5500 up front and thousands of pounds in maintenance fees since then.

They had no idea they were handing it over to Palmer, 57, reputedly worth pounds 300million and recently arrested over timeshare, passport and credit card fraud.

He has also served four years for defrauding 16,600 holidaymakers and was acquitted of involvement in the pounds 26million Brinks Mat gold bullion robbery.

After arriving at Yucca Park on August 3, Andrew told me: “The girl at reception told us the complex was being sold and the apartment was no longer ours. An Italian firm were buying it.”

The couple had confirmation of their stay in writing from South Eastern Financial Services Ltd, the management firm run by Palmer’s partner Christina Ketley. Andrew and support worker Helen, 56, complained but got nowhere. He said: “It’s a disgrace afterwe paid all this money.”

After they called me they got alternative accommodation. But they still face losing their apartment… and they’re not alone.

Yucca Park is just one of many Palmer properties being sold by trustees to pay his debts, including pounds 3.8million owed to victims after he was bankrupted in 2005.

His other timeshares include Island Village Heights and Flamingo, which have been sold, plus Los Olivos and Tenerife Royal Gardens, which are subject to a legal wrangle.

Palmer was held by Spanish police as he landed in Tenerife from the UK last month. He is being quizzed about timeshare fraud, money laundering, drug dealing and possessing weapons.

Joint trustee Nick Wood, of insolvency firmGrant Thornton, said: “We are selling Yucca Park to raise money for his creditors.

“I am sorry this has not been disclosed to timeshare owners but to generate maximum benefit the resort needs to be sold with vacant possession.

“They can exchange weeks for the same number at another resort or lodge a claim in the bankruptcy but we cannot guarantee they will be paid in full.”

It leaves the Maxwells facing a catch-22 situation: either they take the new accommodation or risk losing their money.

Even in jail, Goldfinger is still causing mayhem.

(c) 2007 Sunday Mail; Glasgow (UK). Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning. All rights Reserved.