British Keystone Kops will face no internal probe over how it took them six days to discover man had been murdered after they classed his six gunshot wounds as complications related to heart surgery

Bungling cops will face no questions from the police watchdog over how it took them six days to discover notorious criminal John 'Goldfinger' Palmer had actually been murdered.

It took Essex Police almost a week to find out the 64-year-old timeshare crook had been shot in the chest six times.

Bunging detectives initially judged Palmer's death to be non-suspicious and blamed 'pre-existing' injuries from recent heart surgery for causing confusion over how he died.

Palmer, who at one stage had amassed a £300million fortune, was gunned down in his back garden on Wednesday, June 24 and was discovered by a family member.

Ambulance crews were first at the scene and requested the police attend the secluded house, deep in Langton's Wood at South Weald in Essex.

In the weeks following the murder, Essex Police referred itself to the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) - the police watchdog.

But today the IPCC released a statement, which said: 'Following an assessment of the evidence provided, it has been recommended that the matter should be investigated locally by the police force.

'This decision is based on the fact that there was no evidence of immediate police contact with Mr Palmer before his death, or identifiable conduct issues from the officers who attended the scene that would require the ongoing involvement of the IPCC.

'If any conduct issues are identified in the course of the local investigation, we would expect Essex Police to re-refer these for further assessment, which is in line with the usual process.'

Palmer was cleared of handling proceeds from Britain's most notorious gold robbery at the Brink's-Mat warehouse in Heathrow in 1983, but his alleged involvement earned him the nickname 'Goldfinger'.

The raid saw six armed men break into the warehouse expecting to find £3million in cash but instead stumbled on 7,000 gold ingots worth nearly £28million.

In 2001, he was jailed for timeshare fraud after building a multimillion-pound business which cheated 17,000 Britons out of money they had paid for homes on the Spanish island of Tenerife.

Original report here

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