Yahoo News Man questioned in connection with John 'Goldfinger' Palmer murder investigation
Police say the man, originally from Tyneside but now living in Southern Spain, walked voluntarily into a police station and is now being questioned on suspicion of murdering Mr Palmer in June 2015.
Mr Palmer, who earned his nickname after being implicated in the infamous Brink's-Mat gold bullion robbery in 1983, was shot six times in the garden of his secluded home near Brentwood but police initially failed to notice that he had been gunned down and put his death down to natural causes, with the wounds thought to be the legacy of recent gall bladder surgery.
"We believe it was very much a contract style killing. The search is not just for the gunman, but the person who wanted Mr Palmer dead," said Det Chief Insp Stephen Jennings after the inquest.
He added: "Because of Mr Palmer's lifestyle and previous involvement in criminality, this has been a wide ranging and extensive investigation. A lot of it is based on his lifestyle.
"The Brink's-Mat robbery in 1983 has been one of the potential lines of inquiry. He was arrested and suspicion of smelting gold, he was never convicted of that.
In 2001 he was convicted of a timeshare fraud which had 16,000 potential and losses in excess of £33 million. He was sentenced to eight years in prison, so that is 16,000 potential motives."
Mr Jennings said that at the time of his death Mr Palmer was also being investigated by the Spanish authorities in connection with another alleged property fraud scheme and was due to stand trial in Madrid.
He said police were also investigating possible links with the Hatton Garden heist, Britain's biggest ever burglary, of which at least £10 million in cash, jewellery and other valuables, has never been recovered.
He told the inquest: "We know he (Palmer) was associated with some of the individuals convicted of that crime."
The hearing was told that Palmer had been moving around his extensive grounds on a green six-wheel garden buggy - seem clearly on CCTV security cameras at the house - and had been making use of a garden burner in one secluded part of the property when his assassin struck.
Police believe the gunman lay in wait behind a six-foot wooden fence and monitored Mr Palmer's movements through a secret spy hole that had been drilled in the fence and the murder was the work of a professional assassin.
