Palmer's lieutenant denies that he led the scam network to tourists - La Provincia

Richard Cashman, alleged lieutenant of John Palmer -breast of the robbery of gold ingots of 1983 in the airport of Heathrow (London) and popularly known asGoldfinger -, denied yesterday that led the network of scams to tourists through timeshare apartments disarticulated in 2002 in the Canary Islands. The macro-state would have left at least 205 victims identified.

The National Court yesterday launched the trial of Richard Cashman and seven other defendants for which the Prosecutor's Office is seeking fines of two million euros and penalties of between eight and twelve years in prison for crimes of illicit association, fraud and illegal possession of weapons, according to house case.

John Palmer died in June 2015 at age 64 in his luxurious home in Brentwood, Essex (United Kingdom), after receiving two shots of such a small caliber that they were barely detected at first.

According to the public prosecutor, Palmer created at the beginning of the 80s a business structure in the Islands that, together with the provision of tourist services, became a machinery to carry out scams in the sale of timeshare apartments in the south of Gran Canaria and Tenerife. between 1993 and June 2002, date of the arrests.

He adds that the structure was directed by him until his imprisonment following a sentence handed down in 2001 by a London court that sentenced him to eight years in prison for fraud and fraud to property owners in timeshare and that Cashman took over his business.

The Spanish Police initiated the investigation following numerous complaints lodged by foreign tourists against companies and companies linked to the Palmer organization.

Cashman admits that he arrived in Tenerife in 1993 and that since then he worked for Palmer but denies that it had anything to do with the sale of the apartments in timeshare since he was in charge first of security and after the management of bars, restaurants and service of rental cars of the island resorts, with about two thousand apartments.

He said yesterday that at all times he followed the instructions that Palmer gave him from jail and his wife, such as signing checks, for what they seized but only to pay employees and suppliers of the company.

A collation of his words the prosecutor asked him for a phone conversation recorded by the police that he had with Palmer's wife in which the defendant told him that if he did the competition in the Islands to his husband could happen something bad, even murders "It's completely a lie, I never talked about any of that with her," Cashman said.

At the beginning of the hearing, ten defendants were seated on the bench, but the court accepted the statute of limitations on the offenses filed by two of them who have been exempt from this proceeding. This is Christine Ketley, who was sentenced along with Palmer in a London court in 2001 to two years in prison for conspiracy to commit fraud.

According to the prosecutor, this would be a person of great weight in the organization that had deployed the British in the Canary Islands. She asked for 10 years in prison for crimes of illicit association, fraud and money laundering and more than two million euros in fines, but the Court understands that the crimes for which she was accused and detained in 2008 have already prescribed.

Likewise, the lawyer Ramón Solano, considered a man ofGoldfingerand that in addition to taking legal advice, he would be in charge of supervising the interests of the organization outside of Spain.

The Public Ministry requested 8 years of prison for him for illicit association and fraud in addition to fines of 26 months at a rate of 50 euros a day, but as in the case of Ketley, the Chamber understands that it has prescribed.