Dubbed as the richest category-A high-security inmate in prison history, Timeshare fraudster John ‘Goldfinger’ Palmer has failed in an attempt to slash the £2.3 million compensation he was ordered to pay his victims.

The Court of Appeal rejected Palmer’s claim that the payback was excessive, and ordered the conman to repay the amount in full.

Palmer's slick salesmen ripped off an estimated 17,000 victims - many of them pensioners who lost their life savings and was jailed in May 2001 for eight years. The victims are thought to have paid some £30 million in total for shares in holiday apartments that were overpriced or did not even exist.

‘Goldfinger’ Palmer’s legal team had asked for the compensation to be reduced saying many victims were still using the time share priorities in Tenerife and arguing that £10 million had already been repaid.

The appeal judges refused to accept the argument saying it was rejected by the Crown as "by no means reliable".

They added Palmer had agreed the amount of compensation before the order was made, and it was not open to him to have "another bite of the cherry".

Palmer was also refused permission to re-open an earlier appeal against his jail sentence.

Many other victims will not be pleased however, as the fruadster last year succeeded in overturning an order confiscating £33 million because of ‘crucial flaws’ in the procedure followed.