A CRIMINAL who conned a Holmer Green woman is facing a £40m clawback for the biggest fraud perpetrated on the British public.

John Palmer, who was jailed for eight years in May following two eight month trials, used a sales team to swindle 17,000 unsuspecting victims across the country, including Dorothea Evans, of Wycombe Road, Holmer Green.

Judge Gerald Gordon gave the go-ahead at the Old Bailey on Friday for prosecution investigators to probe the complex web of companies used as 'vehicles' in the swindle.

Forensic accountants will analyse companies used by the timeshare tycoon to syphon the cash.

The Old Bailey heard in November 1999 how Ms Evans had just cashed in her Spanish timeshare when she was approached by a salesman who told her she could buy a three-week apartment at the luxury Yucca Park resort in Tenerife if she allowed his company to sell the weeks in Spain.

Ms Evans told him they were no longer hers, but he said the deal was a fraud and she still owned them.

It was claimed touts would sell weeks at Tenerife resorts on the basis they could make the clients a profit by selling the person's existing timeshare elsewhere.

Once the contracts were signed, the customer was legally bound to pay for their new holiday, and their old ones would not be sold, the court heard.

Ms Evans was in Tenerife with her partner Sidney Barret in 1996 when the salesman approached the couple in the street.

Despite the judge's decision to probe Palmer's business dealings, even if Ms Evans had put in a claim for compensation it would still not be forthcoming as the confiscation sum does not include compensation claims put in by victims.

The judge ordered the 'corporate veil' to be lifted allowing experts to begin tracing the cash in his companies. Palmer was not in court on Friday, but is expected to appear when the full confiscation hearing begins on October 10.