A FRAUDSTER jailed after making a fortune from masterminding a timeshare swindle could be forced to pay £80 million to his victims.

John "Goldfinger" Palmer, who cheated thousands of Britons, including John and Vera Davidson, of Owlwood Lane, Dunnington, could be made to pay compensation. It could be the biggest-ever legal action in Britain.

Mr Davidson said today: "It's not enough.

"We should go for him and get as much as we can. Personally, it's not the money we lost but the discomfort and anxiety that he caused that we want compensating for."

Palmer, 51, from near Bath, was sentenced to eight years in prison last year after a judge heard he had built up a multi-million pound timeshare business in Tenerife which was investigated by police. They discovered he had cheated an estimated £30 million from his customers.

Lawyers have announced they are seeking compensation for 16,000 of those defrauded. Another 400 have already received payments.

Sandra Grey, chairman of the Timeshare Consumers' Association, said: "Given Palmer's criminal conviction and the precedent set in that trial for compensating Palmer's victims, we feel there is a very strong case and therefore a very strong chance of success.

"This action is being entirely driven by the desire to get Palmer's victims fair recompense for the losses they sustained."

Mr and Mrs Davidson were awarded the money they paid to Palmer by the trial judge. But Mr Davidson said: "We will be finding out what these claims for compensation are based on.

"If it's to get money back that was given to him, then we won't claim because we've already been granted that. For everything else, the discomfort which he caused us, we would want to claim."

Palmer's con involved promising customers that timeshares already owned would be sold to defray some of the cost of buying into one of his resorts. He also said that new purchases could be rented out to produce a profit.

Neither promise was kept.

Peter Wylde, a partner in law firm Irwin Mitchell, said: "We are gathering information on all 16,000 victims and we aim to ensure everyone who joins the group is properly compensated."

Updated: 12:03 Monday, November 04, 2002