The killer of John “Goldfinger” Palmer must have been close to him because they knew weaknesses in his security system, his former business partner has said. Lebanese businessman Mohamed Jamil Derbah, who was once Palmer’s right-hand man in Spain but was not involved in any crimes, said the crook had been in good spirits shortly before he was shot dead.

Palmer phoned two days before to say a gallbladder operation had gone well and the pair regularly met for coffee in Tenerife.

Mr Derbah also told how he “inadvertently” helped Kenneth Noye on Tenerife, at Palmer’s request, but said he had no idea at the time he was wanted for the M25 road-rage murder of Stephen Cameron.

He thinks whoever was behind Palmer’s unsolved murder must have known about a CCTV blind spot when he was shot after being watched through a spy-hole in the fence of a Brentwood property in 2015.

Palmer and Noye are two of the leading characters in BBC drama The Gold, about the 1983 multi-million pound Brink’s-Mat gold bullion robbery.

Palmer was known as “Goldfinger” despite being cleared in 1987 of smelting down Brink’s-Mat gold.

He went on to build up a £300million timeshare fortune and featured on the Sunday Times Rich List.

Mr Derbah worked with Palmer while the latter built up his timeshare empire on Tenerife in the 1990s but denies any ­criminality himself.

In 2001, Palmer was jailed in the UK for eight years after being found guilty of swindling 20,000 people out of around £30million.

Mr Derbah, who now runs newspapers and encourages business links with the island and Africa, revealed that he patched up his friendship with Palmer in the years before his unsolved murder.

“He called me two days before he died. People think we were fighting, it is true there was a big fight going before, but after he came out of prison we were good friends. When he came to Tenerife, every two days we’d have coffee together.

“John went to England and rang me to say the operation was OK.”

The pair fell out in 1998 when Mr Derbah was involved in a rival business.

In the next three years a “street war” raged across the island during which Mr Derbah survived two assassination attempts in Tenerife and one in Paris, according to the 2017 Spanish biography about him called From The Shores Of Lebanon To The Coasts Of Tenerife.

It detailed how he was arrested in 2001 and briefly imprisoned by a Spanish judge in connection with timeshare activity. But he was never charged.

In 2001, Palmer was jailed in the UK for eight years after being found guilty of swindling 20,000 people out of around £30million.

Mr Derbah, who now runs newspapers and encourages business links with the island and Africa, revealed that he patched up his friendship with Palmer in the years before his unsolved murder.

“He called me two days before he died. People think we were fighting, it is true there was a big fight going before, but after he came out of prison we were good friends. When he came to Tenerife, every two days we’d have coffee together.

“John went to England and rang me to say the operation was OK.”

He said he then got a call to say Palmer, 64, had died. Initially, police believed his wound was linked to his recent operation. It later transpired he had been shot.

The hit was carried out shortly after it emerged Palmer and a number of associates were facing more timeshare fraud charges in Spain. Essex Police believe the murder may have been connected to the upcoming timeshare trial, and Mr Derbah agreed the timing was suspicious.

He said: “How can John Palmer get killed when they charge him in Spain with 15 years in prison?

“How he can get killed after, not before that? Think about it. The way they killed him, there was no camera, so who can know that? Someone must be close to him to know there was no CCTV.”

Earlier this month we reported on a newly released recording of a man in an interview in 2001 saying that he had been “indirectly involved” in helping Noye during his time on the run on Tenerife after he murdered Mr Cameron, 21, on a slip road of the M25 near Swanley, Kent, in 1996.

We can reveal it was Mr Derbah who was recorded during an interview for a planned memoir yet to be published.

Part of the recording was released on social media by Mr Derbah’s former accountant Paul Blanchard, 77, from York, last month.

In the recording Mr Derbah said: “John Palmer told me to be involved and if I’m involved in that, I’m involved indirectly – not for the criminal case – I didn’t know exactly what he did…”

Mr Derbah said Noye had visited the island a few times with Palmer before he went on the run and had attended a boxing event where their associates fought each other in a bar.

Speaking about the recording, he said: “I did not know Kenny Noye when he first came to Tenerife.

“I’m working for John Palmer, every time he brings some people and he ­surprises you. He asked me if I would help him to go away and he came over.

“When Kenny Noye came with Palmer he left Tenerife the next day or day after. I didn’t know what was going on and at the same time there was no order from the police looking for him.

“After he left, it all came out. If I knew someone killed someone, I would never do that even if John Palmer told me to.”

• The Gold, BBC One, tonight at 9pm

Source: Read Full Article