Timeshare fraudster John 'Goldfinger' Palmer, of Bath, has faield in his appeal court bid to halve the £2 million compensation he was ordered to pay his victims.

The Court of Appeal in London rejected his argument that the figure was excessive because Palmer, from Battlefields, had already paid back millions and half his victims were still making use of the time shares they bought in holiday apartments in Tenerife.

Palmer's lawyers had argued that he should not be required to repay people who still retained the asset thye bought, even though they were persuaded to buy it by fraud.

But the appeal judges said Palmer had agreed teh amount of compensation before the order was made and it was not open to him to have 'another bite of the cherry' after 18 months during which his victims had been kept out of their money.

Palmer, in his 50s, from Battlefields, was jailed for eight years at the Old Bailey in May 2001 for conspiracy to defraud.

His estimated 17,000 victims, many of them pensioners, were said to have handed over millions of pounds to buy shares in Tenerife apartments which in many cases did not even exist.

Palmer's appeal against his eight-year jail term was dismissed by the Court of Appeal in November 2002.

But the following year, due to a legal blunder, he succeeded in overturning an order for confiscation of £33 million of his reputed £270 million assets. His victims, who had expected to benefit from the confiscation, were dismayed.

Palmer was dubbed 'Goldfinger' after being acquitted of handling gold from the 1983 Brinks-Mat robbery.

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