I was the first man in England to get care custody and
control of his children.
The vulnerability started in the early seventies.
My solicitors in Swindon Wiltshire that handled the
debt collecting of my architectural practice had made a mess of my divorce, as
the solicitor that was due to handle it could not and a substitute stepped in.
I decided to handle the case having studied military law at RMA Sandhurst. It
meant some studying in the Swindon library but I handled it successfully.
Because of the divorce Peter Jolly and I had to shelve
our plans for an architectural practice based in Lambourn Berkshire and both
got temporary jobs at the Crown Offices in Reading. Later he joined them full
time and for more security for my daughters I took a job in the Town Planning
office at Swindon Wiltshire - Principal Planning office, promised that the bar
would be lifted for promotion, but it was not.
Obviously I was frustrated and one day a salesman
David Hobbs walked into the planning office. Noting my frustration he suggested
that I set up and architectural practice in Swindon and that he would also draw
a salary as he could bring a project of 48 houses in the Cotswold for which he
had a financial backer; who also managed the BOAC pension fund and might employ
us to design and office complex. David Hobbs formed Brenmine Securities Limited
and off the shelf company.
He moved to Lambourn with his wife Kate and after the
48 Cotswold houses which made £48,000 (of which I saw none) he wanted to do more
projects. I said why not go to one bank for the development company and he said
no, "that we would try several banks and then decided which one to
use" It all sounded fine and I would too busy with my head over the
drawing board to see what was going on, providing the cash flow to support his
income My bungalow was given as a guaranteed unwittingly to more than one
Merchant Bank by me as he had no equity in his house really.
I moved to Madrid in May 1974 with a view to see if a
branch office for my Architectural practice could be opened there. I took Malcolm
Ward in as a partner and he took care of the Swindon Office. Ken J had been
blowing hot and cold about the Swindon office complex but finally we had the
green light. Whilst at Swindon
I had designed severval housing estates and a couple of houses that were featured in the Ideal Home Magazine House 1 - House 2.
A non-resident in the UK was not allowed an overdraft
so I asked David Hobbs to collect the rent of my bungalow in Lambourn and pay
it into ban/building society every month without fail as I had not sold it
before I left for Madrid. I came back after 6 months in Madrid to see how the
architectural practice was doing in Swindon. David Hobbs said “I will give you
the rent money as Kate has been using it for housekeeping during the six months
you were away in Madrid” Something did not smell right.
Prior to leaving for Madrid David Hobbs., having used
my architectural practice to support him for a few years suggested that I had
the architectural practice, that he had the construction company and that we
shared the holding company. Like a fool I accepted his proposal. In view of the
“misappropriated rent” I decided to resign from the holding company Brenmine
Securities Limited with the company´s main bankers in Hungerford releasing me from my guarantee. David Hobbs
promised me that his accountant Rob James would get me released from all the
merchant bank guarantees. All lies as I
was to find out the following August
Also at a later date David Hobbs had requested a short
term loan for his construction company from the architectural practice via the
clearing bank and it was not repaid. More warning signals.
I travelled by train from Madrid in August 1976 and
during the trip managed to read a copy of the Telegraph. In it I saw and eye
catching advertisement for a developer company seeking an investor. Upon
arrival in Swindon I confronted David Hobbs about it and he replied “How did I
know?” By the end of the month I had merchant bank trying to seize my property
in Lambourn for David Hobbs company loans. His accountant Robb James it would
appear had not got me released from the Merchant Bank loans. The property had
been on the market and during that August I had managed to sell it. The
purchaser said “return to Spain and everything will go through alright”
The trouble is in the UK that when the house is
surveyed for the buyer, the surveyor normally works for a real estate agent and
can persuade you buyer to purchase one of their properties. That is what
happened to me! Well financially I could not remain in Spain as the peseta had
sunk to 100 to the pound. A friend in my apartment, Peter Havas had rung up my
phone bill ringing the Middle East for his business. I put my furniture in
storage and went to the bank in Madrid to get some money for petrol. There was
none – Peter Havas ´phone calls had emptied it!
A friend Dave lent me 5,000 pesetas (the only loan
from a friend in my life) I drove to Bilbao with my two children´s bicycles on
the boot of the Lotus Europa. At Bilbao the boat was full. There was a foot
passenger left stranded there so we decided to return to the UK via France with
the lady sharing the costs
– It was an eventful trip the car breaking down
between Bilbao and San Sebastian, but a good Spanish mechanic fixed to
alternator. An overnight stop in Poitiers France before finally landing on the
English shores to a barely finished bungalow in the UK.
1975/1976 During the past year Rob James and his wife Linda
had offered to look after my daughters for which he had been paid for, due to my
being cheated by David Hobbs. He had wanted to start a garage adjacent to Steve
Coen´s premises in Swindon and I lent him £1,500. He then wanted a further £1,500
and when I could not come up with it he kicked my children out onto the streets.
We were all reunited at Lambourn and had to sleep on the floors or the one
sofa.
Well here I was in the UK again with a mortgage to
pay, two children to feed and no job. I had to go to social security the first
and only time in my life, but it was only for three months at the most as
unfortunately I met a one Doug Human whom I had known briefly before I went to
Spain. On hindsight the one parent father should have stayed on Social Security
and raised his two daughters. Well not wanting to abuse the state I took a job
as a van driver for the company that Doug Human was working for in Hungerford.
It was only part time but within a short space of time they were pleased with
me and offered me a full time job as warehouse manager. As I had planned to
return to Spain it was pointless returning to Architecture and in any case the
UK was in a housing recession.
A year passed and one weekend I had a bad attack of
asthma when the frying pan caught fire and the next thing I knew I woke up in
hospital. My tenant was holding me up at the bathroom window (I had given her
free accommodation in return for helping me look after my girls) She went to let
the doctor in and I collapsed my tongue closing over my throat. I needed resuscitation...
Well the nurse at the Princess Margaret Hospital in Swindon and her husband
purchased the house. I had to drop £2,000 but it was not worth dying for that amount.
Doug Human was not happy with his work and my eldest
daughter did not want to return to Spain as she was courting a Berkshire lad in
the village. Doug and his partner Diane
Parkes offered to look after her, obviously paid by myself and I fell for it
yet again – a loan of £1500 to Doug for him to start a similar business.
Because he was not allowed to work in a similar line of business it was put
into his girlfriend’s name.
Like the helpful person that I am I introduced them
the bank manager of the Midland Bank at Regents Circus Swindon. Whilst at Eric
Coles and Partners in Swindon I had designed the bank interior and was Christian
name terms with the manager David Maggs.
I went to guarantee £1500. David Maggs said “John I
think we will show you as a partner. There are no forms but that does not
matter we will get you to sign these papers”. Like a fool and without legal
advice I did
.
Without going into too many details the amount I lost
thanks to Doug Human., assisted by David Maggs., maybe inadvertently pushed the
loss up to £6,000 by December 1979. Had it been just a guarantee it would have
been £1500 but Maggs had duped me into signing a Partnership Agreement. About
August 1979 Diane Parkes said to me “We want all the money that you got for
your bungalow for our business” I replied that it was £4,000 less than the
figure she mentioned. She said “We want that then”
Well that Christmas at the Managers request I returned
to the UK in an attempt to sort things out. Human and Parkes had fled taking my
eldest daughter to Majorca with them, effectively a kidnapping, loading the car
with stock of their company and leaving unpaid bills everywhere. Later I believe they were caugut smugling drugs where he had got a job as the skipper of the Bejam boat.
When they could not get any more money from me they
put my daughter out on the street, into a Hungerford flat with drug addicts.
As I have said earlier my case against the Midland Bank took 20 years (without going into all the details here) and cost another £6,000
half a payment into court and the remainder in costs. Luckily I acted as my own
prosecutor
I did recover the money I loaned to Rob James who settled outside of court - the loan being in a separate account at the Midland Bank., the longer that James took to repay it the more interest he would have to repay. The manager Maggs did not like me taking this action against James.
I was not allowed to work in Spain legally from the time that I arrived 1974 until the time that Spain joined the EU - nearly twenty years. After all the experience mentioned here and these regulations what was needed was a country that would allow a company with just one director and overseas. A limited liability company was incorporated on 5/5/1981 and became an investment company.
My
Oscar Formula Ford 1600 rolling chassis vanished with my draughtsman who asked if he could borrow it. Steve Coen took over the running of Brensec race car hire with the
Reynard F75 and the
Merlyn Mk 25 and never let me down. Adrian Reynard had asked me to finance a second FF chassis in 1976 and never paid me back stating that the driver David Heale had never paid him for it!
The last attempted partnership scam against me was a Terry Howarth with a company that we formed Sunrise Holidays Limited but I a smelt a rat and got out. I reported him to the police but they did nothing. I saw him a year a two later drinking in a
Torremolinos hotel Cervantes and he boasted that he had given the policeman a free holiday. The drink allowed him to tell me "John I thought you were a soft touch but you were the toughest one I have come across" - soon after the on the English newspaper headlines were Sunrise Holidays leaves passengers stranded in Disneyworld and Spain
Do not trust anyone in business
Above are the names of those that scammed me (without
prejudice)
Notes - to be continued
