A SOLICITOR who stole £150,000 from a couple's will and lent some of it to the late Dodi Fayed has been jailed.

Michael Palmer, 61, who rifled cash from the estate of millionaire Sussex couple David and Jane Elton, was sentenced at the Old Bailey to three years.

Tormented Mr Elton had battered his wife to death with a champagne bottle.

He was distraught because his 43-year-old wife had decided to leave him and he killed her while his children slept.

Mr Elton, 48, a redundant oil tycoon, drowned himself in the sea at Climping following the 1992 killing, after drinking heavily and taking painkillers.

The shocking murder at the couple's luxury holiday home in Middleton, near Bognor, stunned the quiet village and left the Elton's children orphans.

AChichester inquest in 1992 heard how Victoria, then three, told a neighbour immediately after the tragedy: "Daddy very naughty, bottle smack Mummy on the head."

Police found Mrs Elton's blood-spattered body lying on the kitchen floor next to an empty bottle of champagne.

The Old Bailey heard that Palmer, a devout Christian, of Moreton-in-the-Marsh, Gloucestershire, defrauded the £2 million estate left to the youngsters.

Palmer, who was godfather to one of the children, set up two accounts to divert money from the estate into his own pocket.

Charles, seven at the time, and Victoria, are now believed to live with their grandparents on the South Coast.

Mrs Elton also had two girls, Rachel and Emily, from her first marriage, who now live in Canada.

Palmer admitted 17 charges including conspiracy to defraud, theft, false accounting, forgery and furnishing false information.

The court heard Palmer, a former partner of Mayfair law firm Palmer Cowan, transferred £58,513 to the client account of Dodi Fayed but later told detectives he did not benefit from the loan.

He said the cash was for the late millionaire playboy's film production work in the United States.

Another £105,000 loan was paid into Fayed's firm Allied Star Incorporated in June' 1993. All the money was eventually repaid.

Palmer also gave £60,000 to Iranian arms dealer Jamshid Hashemi Naini, who was jailed for 38 months last December for fraud.

Anthony Hacking, QC, prosecuting, said: "The offences were committed for personal gain. He got himself into financial difficulties because of his lifestyle and because his firm was not doing very well financially."

Sentencing Palmer, Mr Justice Collins said: "Solicitors are in a special position so far as the public are concerned.

"They expect to be trusted and thus the courts inevitably treat a solicitor more seriously if he descends into dishonesty.

"It is the breach of trust that the court has to take into account."

John Allen, a friend of the Eltons, who is head porter at the couple's former flat in London, said: "I remember them as a very nice couple. But what happened was tragic.

"I have not seen the children since the deaths but they were devastated by the events."

A spokesman for Palmer Cowan said today: "Mr Palmer has not been associated with this company since the summer of 1997 and we would not make any further comment on the case."

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