Unravel a Crime - Tangle With Women (7 page)

He couldn't do it immediately
of course, because Ken was in his way, but he persuaded Ken to amalgamate with
other smaller building societies, which Ken was quite happy to do, and so the
Society grew and grew."

"So how did this affect
you?"

"Well as we were a small
society when I joined, a lot of our mortgage valuation work was farmed out to
private firms of surveyors. I and the other surveyors did one or two surveys to
keep our hand in so to speak, and to provide enough income to make our
department pay for itself, but the job gradually became a desk job; checking
and vetting the independent valuations. As the Society grew, then the volume of
loans became so great that Masters wanted us to take on our own surveyors
because he could see that the survey fees that the borrowers paid would
supplement the income of the Society. We're talking of some quite serious money
here."

"And so National
Surveyors was formed."

"That's right, and
eventually as the National grew even bigger, and then became a bank, we had
branches everywhere. As one of the "old boys" so to speak, I just
moved up the ranks until, as you know, I became head of the Greater London
section."

"A plum job?"

"A plum job. We were not
only on basic salary, but on commission. "

"Really. How?"

"Oh, yes, this was all
part of Masters strategy. He sees everything in terms of profit and bonuses. We
were not only there to service the Society; we were encouraged to take on
outside work also. He wanted Surveyors run as an independent profit making
business."

"Although wholly owned by
the Society?'·

"Quite so."

"When did you leave
Birmingham?"

"As I say I was very much
a desk man, and so I remained in Birmingham while we recruited surveyors in the
Greater London area. While on our staff, they functioned as the independent
surveyors had; they worked from home. We sent them valuation instructions; they
sent in their reports and I checked them. Occasionally I would spend days in
the area with them, and would do the occasional survey myself – to keep my hand
in as I said."

"How long did this
situation last – you being on Birmingham. "

"A year or two, and then
we grew big enough to open a dedicated office, in London, and I had to go down
there."

"Were you living in
Malvern by this time?"

"Yes, my wife has a job
at the Royal Radar Establishment, and it was just as easy for me to catch the
train to London from Malvern Link station as it was to catch the same train
farther down the line at Worcester."

"But you decided not to
move to London?"

Newberry who had relaxed
considerably in the course of the conversation tensed up again.

He gestured back to the
kitchen window. "As you said, no views in London.” He sounded
unconvincing. Brakespeare again decided it was better not to purse the point..

"Right, so what did you
do in London. "

"The same as I did in
Birmingham, only more "hands on" because Masters, as I have said,
wanted us to develop as an independent company, and to bring work in. In fact
many of the surveyors we took on had been independent surveyors with their own
practices which had been working for the National, and they brought with them
their portfolio of clients. "

"OK that's very useful
background", said Brakespeare, sitting back in his chair.

"Can I move on to where
we are today. What about Clearfield?"

"What about
Clearfield?" Newberry gazed steadily at him. This was not the defensive
reaction that Brakespeare had been expecting. To avoid confrontation, he looked
out of the window, and said," Well, I'm sure you know that all the
properties which are the subject of the charges against you, were all owned at
some stage by Clearfield Limited. "

"Yes"

"And that Clearfield was
operated and possibly owned by Jonathan Levy"

"Yes."

"And you knew Levy"

"Yes."

"He was a friend of
yours".

"No".

Shakespeare paused. Was Newberry
some kind of prick? He was supposed to have had some financial interest in
Clearfield; he had supposedly been on trips paid for by Levy; the whole case
turned on valuations of Clearfield property and the man was clearly
stonewalling. He probably was as guilty as hell. Might as well tell him so and
get it over with.

"Mr. Newberry, David. To
put it bluntly, stop pissing me about."

Newberry showed visible signs
of surprise. Brakespeare continued quickly.

"I've never met you
before; all I know about you is what I've read and that, to make an
understatement it is not good. I'm not the Police. I'm being paid to help you,
and anything you tell me is in strictest confidence, but if you won't come
clean and tell me all that I need to know in order to help you, then I'm afraid
that there is nothing neither I nor any other person can do to help you. I'm
afraid it's as simple as that".

There was a pause and Newberry
looked at his fingers. He put the palms of his hands were together, fingers
interlocked, as if in a form of prayer, and brought them to his lips.

"Anything I tell you is
in the strictest confidence?"

"Yes, but you must
understand that you cannot tell me one thing, and ask me to do another. Many
people ask lawyers, 'how can you defend that person when you know they are
lying?' The answers is that a lawyer cannot. Whatever you tell me I will accept
as being the truth. However, you cannot tell me that something is true, and
then expect me to act as if it were not. "

"You mean I couldn't tell
you that I fiddled the surveys and then expect you to defend me?"

"Did you?"

"I didn't. So you have no
problem.”.

Brakespeare smiled with
relief. “As the Americans say, can we cut to the chase? What was your
involvement with Clearfield? With Levy."

Newberry suddenly had a smile
on his face too.

“
If you want the truth, here
it is. Did you know that Levy was once a client of Bill Mortimer's?"

"What?"

"No I didn't think that
Bill would tell you. Well Bill is a bit of a wheeler dealer. I suspect that he
has earned more money outside the law than inside it. He used to run round in a
Rolls Royce until it became a liability. Too many people wanting to run a key
down the side of the paintwork. I don't know for how long or from when, but
Bill and Jonathan go back some way. Bill and I also go back a long way to when
I worked for the County Council, and he worked in the legal department. In fact
he trained as a solicitor there. Anyway to cut to the chase as you said,
Clearfield was originally one of Bill's ideas. He bought it as an off the shelf
company. He thought that Jonathan was smart enough to be successful. Jonathan
was or had been an Estate Agent in London, but like all estate agents, wanted
to be the organ grinder and not the monkey, and to go into property development
himself. Bill formed the company for Jonathan. He thought that I could help
Jonathan with pricings etc. and so he got me involved."

"But had you any previous
professional involvement with Levy beforehand; did the National lend any money
to him?"

"Beforehand, no."

"But later?"

"Certainly. "

"But what was your
interest in Clearfield. You are supposed to have 10% of the shares."

"At first, I did."

"How much did you put
in."

"In all, Ten
thousand."

"Was it your own
money?"

"Not all. I could only afford
to put small amounts in, and so I borrowed it through the mortgage on this
place. "

"Then your wife must have
known. "

"She did"

"What did she say."

"Nothing. She never
interferes with my work. "

"And where did the rest
of the investment money come from."

Brakespeare guessed the answer
almost at the same time as he asked the question.

"Bill lent it to
Jonathan. "

"So Mortimer is involved
in all this?"

"Yes, he was, but is no
longer. "

"And are you still
involved?"

"No, I got out at an
early stage."

"Why is that?"

"Well as I said, the
National started lending money to Clearfield. Obviously I wasn’t too happy. I
had clearly a potential conflict of interest."

"But the National was
supposed to be a building society. Building societies are there to lend money
to people to buy their own homes with. Is it correct that it was Masters who
wanted to move into commercial lending?"

"Yes, he was convinced
that it was one of the ways forward. As a Building Society is effectively owned
by it's borrowers, and in competition with heaven knows how many mortgage
lenders, the Society could only charge relatively low interest rates. If it
went into commercial property lending it could charge a hell of a lot more, and
make more profit."

"To look good when
Masters converted it into a bank. "

"Yes, it was all part of
the Great Plan." said Newberry sarcastically.

"OK, so you had shares in
the company, but they weren't in your name. Why not."

"Well although I couldn't
see anything wrong, it seemed a bit silly to have my name exposed just in case
someone put two and two together and came up with five."

"And so you had the
shares put in someone else's name as a nominee?"

"Yes, Jonathan's
accountant agreed to do it, on Bill's advice. "

"And what about
Mortimer's shares; was he on the list of shareholders?"

"I’m not sure. I think
that he just lent the money to Jonathan."

"At a high rate of
interest?"

"I don't know the
details; it was linked to the profits or something. "

"Why wasn't Mortimer
directly involved?"

Newberry shrugged. "He's
always too careful. Values his status as a solicitor I suppose. You'll never
see his name in the limelight - unless he succeeds." He laughed.
"Dear old Bill, I suppose you could say that he got me into all
this."

"Then what happened to
your shares. "

"Well, Clearfield was
really very successful. What Jonathan did was to find run down properties in
London - you know large old Victorian properties, ripe for conversion into
flats, and buy them"

"With National
Mortgages?"

"He then borrowed the
money to carry out the work on the strength of the mortgage from his bank. The
National got a nice rate of interest, and when the flats, which usually sold
like hotcake, went, the mortgage was paid off and everyone was happy. "

“
Until the property market
slowed down.”

“
That’s right, but then Levy
let the flats out to Local Authorities and the rent paid the mortgage
interest.”

“
But then it didn’t.”

“
That’s when the trouble
started. There were too many unsold flats. The National decided to repossess
them.”

"So how did this affect
your shares?"

"Well, during the boom
times, I suppose that I always felt a little guilty about them. I thought that
with the volume of business we were doing with Jonathan, and because I now had
the valuations passing under my nose, I had better get out, and so I was paid
off."

"The prosecution papers
talk about a settlement, was that it?

"Yes."

"So you left the company
when?"

"Well I left it as soon
as I joined, almost. As I said, it took off very quickly."

"But you had
shares?"

"No, as I said they were
in Jonathan's accountants name."

"But they were
"your" shares."

"Well I suppose so."

"So at the least you had
a financial connection with the company until you were paid out?"

"Yes"

"How much did you get
back?"

"A hundred thousand- and
I declared it for tax! I tell you I've done nothing wrong or underhand. It paid
off the mortgage on this."

"But is it correct that
you did actual valuations for Clearfield, at the time when you had a financial
stake in the Company?"

"Yes, I had to when we
had staff away or suchlike, but there was nothing wrong with my valuations;
everything just stacked up beautifully. All the properties I valued at that
time were completed and sold. No-one lost. "

"You still remained on
good terms with Levy, after you ceased to hold any interest in the
Company?"

"Yes, he continued to be
a valuable customer. Masters thought it was wonderful that we should have such
a successful client. "