A Day at the Races (10 page)

“Well that’s the first time I have been on a racecourse and backed every winner.”

“Same here.” was the cry from everyone else.

“I gather everyone did particularly well, especially with all those outsiders coming in.” said Mike.

“I won £1,000 on the first race betting on the tote alone and probably another £2,000 on the bookies.” said Maurice.

It was also a similar story from the rest of the group.

“I won’t count the proceeds until we get back to Skippers, but make sure you give Moxie what you have left from your left inside pockets, so we don’t get it mixed up, and put the proceeds of your right inside pockets into the holdall.”

They arrived back at Skippers sometime after 6.00 p.m.

One by one they got into their cars and headed for home, it had been an exhausting day.

Moxie took the counterfeit money into the canteen and after what seemed an eternity counted all the remaining money and placed it all back into the holdall then took it through to Fisher to put in the safe.

He left Mike counting and sorting the real money in Fishers office and he was there for some time.

Mike had arranged to meet the following night in the Duke, when he would give them the results of their excursion

Everyone was assembled in the Duke the following evening, when Mike walked in

“Well I have to say the result was spectacular, much better than I expected, we cleared £280,000 and it would have been a lot more, but those robbing bastards paid over a hundred grand in dud money.” Everyone laughed.

“I think it shows that we can pull this off, and if we follow the same SP on Boxing Day we should have no problem reaching our total with a bit over. How much dud money was there left over Moxie?”

“Well there wasn’t that much left only £12,000 give or take a few quid, to be honest I got fed up counting it I was knackered by the time I had finished.”

“Oh really, I thought there was a good bit left over, anyway, not too worry we have plenty ready for the big one. I printed all the paper I had just in case, but we will keep things under wraps for the next three weeks, during which time I will work on who goes where.”

Chapter 11

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It was 10.30 a.m. on December 8th when a motorcycle courier pulled onto the car park of Millers garage, Central Cars. He dismounted and strode into the building.

“I have a package for Mr John Miller, it’s from Mr Richard Reichert.” Said the courier as he entered the reception area.

“I am sorry, Mr Miller isn’t here at the moment.” Said the receptionist.

“That’s ok, I will leave this with you, please see that he gets it will you?”

With that he walked out of the reception, got onto his bike and rode off.

Just after 2.0 p.m. John Miller returned to his office and was handed the parcel by his receptionist.

“Who delivered this?”

“Just a courier he didn’t even want a signature, just said it was from Mr Reichert and I should make sure you got it.”

“What did he look like?”

“I couldn’t see his face properly, he had one of those visor things down that came down over his face, but he was tall about six feet three or even taller, and he spoke with a strong Irish accent.”

With that Miller went into his office and locked the door. He opened the parcel, and inside neatly bundled in fifty pound notes was £75,000 with a letter from Reichert and a list of high performance cars on it. Bloody hell he thought that guy was for real after all, it’s so long since he had been in touch, and he thought it was probably a windup, now it seemed genuine.

Miller picked up the phone and called Neville Freely of Froyds Bank.

“Hi Neville, remember our friend the cash buyer who wanted all those fast cars, well he has just sent over 75 grand in cash, so it seems he was for real after all?”

“I will be in all afternoon if you want to drop by.” Said Freely.

“Yes I will, as I want you to check this and see if its for real and not stolen, just to be on the safe side.”

Miller hurried down to his local bank and handed the money to Neville Freely who inspected the notes through a scope, and did various chemical tests on the paper.

“Well John I am happy to tell you the cash is for real, the serial numbers don’t appear on any of our stolen lists, so I would say you are ok.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yes they are spot on, they are printed on the correct paper, and the colours match, the watermark and the foil patch are correct, and the ‘Bank of England’ is raised up as it should be so you are good to go.”

“Thank Christ for that, I want you to put this in my safety deposit box. I will put in the order for the cars today and notify Klaus in Frankfurt, and we will have a short break in Germany in early January.”

“I will look forward to that.” Said Freely.

Miller nodded and thanked him gave him an affectionate hug, and went on his way.

Miller had just got back into his office, when his secretary buzzed him to say Mr Reichert was on the phone.

“Hello Richard nice to hear from you again.”

“Did you receive my parcel with the cash and details of the cars I want, I think its probably near enough ten percent deposit?”

“Yes I did, I must say you are very trusting, your courier didn’t even want a signature, what if decided I didn’t get the money?”

“Well you could say that, but I assure you our friends in the Sicily wouldn’t take kindly to that, I can assure you they would be more than pissed off, however if you want to go that route that is up to you.”

Miller could feel the hair on the back of his neck stand up, a chill run through his spine, there was something very threatening and menacing about the way he said it, and it made him feel he wasn’t joking.

“Richard that was just my way of a poor joke, please don’t take me seriously.”

“That’s ok John it would be out of my hands anyway, but lets put that behind us. You need to give me the cost of each of these models and the total cost so that I know what the balance is that I need to get to you.”

Miller did a quick calculation and told Reichert that the total bill was for £735,00

“Right so I owe you £660,00 for the balance of this order, when can I have my cars?”

“I will put the order in now, we should be able to deliver them to your depot mid January, if that is ok?”

“I think the best thing is when you have the cars in stock, we will send one of our drivers down with the balance of the money, so we can pick up the cars then.”

Miller didn’t like this, as he felt he wasn’t in control of the situation so he decided to change the terms, now he wanted paying in full before he delivered the cars.

“I am sorry Richard, but I would like the outstanding balance before I take delivery of the cars.”

“Wow John, that kind of sounds like you don’t trust me and that seems a bit rich, especially when I have entrusted you with 75 grand. Not sure if my associates in Sicily would go along with this. I think maybe I should send someone down to take back the money, you have just broken my trust, and I now feel uncomfortable going ahead with this deal as it stands.”

Miller was stunned, why had he opened his big mouth, he realised he had over stepped the mark and he didn’t want to lose this order and started to panic.

“Look Richard forget I said that, the deal stands as you suggested, that you pay over the rest of the cash when you collect the cars. Its just that things have been a bit quite lately, and I have a cash flow problem and as I have to pay cash up front it would have helped me out.”

“Are you telling me, that as a major dealer they don’t give you any credit, because if that’s the case, you need to have a talk with them and renegotiate your terms of trading?”

“I am afraid that’s the case for an order this size, if it was only one or two cars, they would give me thirty days credit, but for this size of an order I will have to wire funds to them in advance before they ship. However I will talk to them, and I am sure I can work things out, so don’t worry Richard.”

“That’s settled then, but I don’t want anymore unpleasant surprises, I just want my cars so that my staff are looked after, I am sure as a business man you can understand that. Anyway have a great Xmas John, and I will speak to you early in the New Year.”

Chapter 12

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Mike called a meeting at the Duke for 7.30 p.m. on the Thursday before Xmas to outline the plan for the Boxing Day sting.

Everyone was present, Fisher Thwaites and his two sons Maurice and Ian, Moxie and his two cousins, Peter and Stuart, Derek and Tony Robinson and their bother Harold, Frank Bishop and his two nephews Clive and Granville. Kenny Fitten and his sons Malcolm and Howard and Mike and his two nephews Walter and Harry, Linton Swift and Brian Petch and his brother Colin.

Mike spoke. “Does everyone have a drink before I get Maria to lock the door of the committee room?” Everyone nodded.

“Right we are going to do this with seven groups of three, and I will give you your venues in a minute. Kenny has made about twenty or so overcoats and I know you have all been measured for them and some of you already have theirs, but those who don’t will pick them up at Skippers Dairies on Boxing Day.

What I propose, is that one of each group travel in one of Fishers plain unmarked vans, and two of you go by car. Linton has modified each of the vans and they have a concealed locked box under the seats accessed from the year of the van. After the meetings have finished, make your way to the van, put your coats into the van and two of you travel home by car. The vans assemble back at Skippers either later that day, although some you who are at the southern tracks, might have to stay over night depending on traffic. I will leave it up to you, but whatever you decide, just make sure you make it back here at some stage by the next day.

At no stage acknowledge one another at the tracks, and try not to make it obvious what you are doing, just try and lay as many bets as you can, and vary the amounts as we have already discussed and if you can, put on a few bets on the tote.

Now we are going to take a slightly different approach as to how we placed our bets at Catterick.

We cleared £280,000 on that day, but not a single favourite won, so I don’t think we can just rely on money laundering and outsiders coming in to maximise our situation, so here’s what I propose.

One of the team will place £500 on with as many bookies as possible to try and cover every horse in the race, one will place £10.00 on with as many bookies as possible and the third person will place a bet of £5.00 so at least you will get between £40.00 and £45.00 in kosher money back.

In addition and time permitting if you can, place £500 on with the Tote at as many windows as you can.

You will need to rotate your betting for each race, so the same person doesn’t place the same amount on each race and it doesn’t look like a pattern is developing, you will have to be careful these bookies are not mugs.

I think that by varying our bets we are less likely to draw attention to ourselves, plus we should get a good return from our winners especially if an outsider comes in. I think by placing some £500.00 bets it will swell the coffers of the bookies, so they will be less likely to be suspicious of any betting scam.

Linton has done up three sheets for each team as to how you are to bet, and he will also include three copies in each pack of the racing paper the Sporting Chronicle, showing all the runners at each of your respective meetings.

I suggest you study this before you set off from Fishers place, so you have an idea how many horses are in each race, and this will help you plan out your day. Of course you will buy a race card at the various meetings when you get there, and these will give you the latest up to date and specific details of the horses in each of the races.

For our new recruits Kenny has made the coats with ten special pockets on either side inside of the coats. The idea is that you will each have £100.000 packed in ten thousand in each of the inside pockets on the left inside of your overcoat. When you place your bets, place the change in the right inside pockets of your overcoat. This will make it easier to sort the cash at the end of the day, plus we don’t want to be placing kosher money back on with the bookies.

Kenny has made the coats in such a way that they don’t look bulky when they are packed with the cash, but it may start to bulk up when you are getting fives, tens and twenties back in your change.

You will probably have to make your way to the van, to make a drop into the concealed box at some stage, just try not to make it obvious. There will also be a further £250,000 in each van, just in case things go better than we expect and you are able to lay more bets than we think. It could also be used for one big punt on the last race, but use your discretion, the last thing we want is to make it obvious what we are up to.

Don’t put any of the duds in the box leave it in your coats just fold them and put the coats in the box at the end. Remember we want to make it as easy as possible to sort the cash, so that we can get rid of the duds as quickly as possible. Each one of you will have a key for the van and the box, so if you feel the need to unload do so.

Each one of you will be given £150 to cover your entrance fee and refreshments, and yes it’s the real thing from our dry run, that should cover you especially, if you have to stay over. To make it clear we have seven teams of three, one of the team travels in a Skippers van, the other two by car ok?

I put everyone’s name into a hat, and drew lots as to who went where, I thought that was the fairest thing to do under the circumstances. So here’s what we have arrived at.

Kenny, Malcolm and Howard, hit Kempton Park in Surrey, so you will need to leave Skippers about 5.30 in the morning. Fisher, Maurice and Ian do Sedgefield, you will leave after everyone else, so you can ensure that they have everything they need and you will only need to leave about 11.45 a.m.

Frank you Clive and Granville are at Market Rasen in Lincolnshire so a 6.30 a.m. start. Derek, Tony and Harold you are Hereford set off time about 10.00 a.m. Moxie you Peter and Stuart are at Wetherby in Yorkshire, so you can leave about 11.30 a.m.