How ironic that the Mediterranean’s must successful timeshare conman should call his autobiography My Time to Share. The 66-year old crook, Toni Muldoon, is now doing time in Britain. When in the near future he is sentenced he is bound to have a great deal of time to share.
There was no point in a not guilty plea. Muldoon was always self-effacing. The master crook admitted in court to his role in a £5.7 million fraud that duped 14,000 victims.
With his share of this and other scams Muldoon indulged himself with head-turning vehicles, marina yachts and sumptuous villas. Who says crime doesn’t pay, I thought to myself.
Pride comes before the fall. It was Muldoon’s conceit that brought him to my door. He needed a good ghost-writer to tell his life story. If I were playing the devil’s advocate I could be charitable and say the fiscal thug wanted to get it off his chest. A penitent he was not. He boasted, preened himself as he explained to me that he was the Mediterranean region’s most successful timeshare swindler ever.
As the region is notorious for sharks, the human species that is, his claim was breathtaking. “Hang on,” I said. “Your memoirs are going to be an admission of guilt. The ink won’t be dry on them when you get the pre-dawn kick on the door.”
Muldoon was unfazed and shrugged my concerns off. Perhaps with the benefit of hindsight he knew the game was up. His memoirs, now completed, were to be the last two fingers to an ethical world he had rejected
He is, in fairness, one of the most resourceful although admittedly immoral characters I ever met. The dictionary term for amoral is to be without moral, to abandon the concept of good and bad.
Muldoon scammed not for food, rent or to feed his family. The big shot in trainers and trackies was motivated only by the compulsion to trick and treat - himself. I got to know Toni Muldoon perhaps better than anyone else in his life. To get the better of another person, even for a few euros, would prove his superiority. He would trick someone for €5 at a time when he was worth millions. Perhaps time spent with a psychiatrist would be the better solution.
Enjoy your time to share, Toni. Because you will be better known for the company you now keep society showed that at the end of your disgraceful life you were the biggest loser of all. By the way, my friend, your memoirs make a truly mesmerising read. I am sure you will have time to read them over and over again.
Mike Walsh quite_write@yahoo.co.uk
www.michaelwalsh.es