Unravel a Crime - Tangle With Women (13 page)

Lisa gasped.

“
Oh yes, said Brakespeare,
”the firm had some big clients. It used to wind up peoples’ estates after their
deaths – slowly I might add, and the money went into the National account.”

“
But how could Hatton ‘borrow’
from it.”

“
He was the only signatory”

“
But how did the money go? I
mean didn’t anyone at the National notice. They must have known that it wasn’t
his money.”

“
He withdrew the money by
cheque payable to the firm – Hattons - but made sure that it was credited to
his personal capital account in the ledgers, so he could draw on that account.”

“
Weren’t there other partners.
Didn’t they notice what was going on?”

“
Hatton dominated the firm.
There were 4 other equity partners, although they had less than a 50% share in
the firm between them. They had been sucked into the business by Hatton – as I
was. They didn’t pay close attention to the accounts side. Few solicitors in large
firms do. They employ a cashier and expect the cashier to keep things under
control. They also tended to leave the management to Hatton – after all he was
the reason for the firm’s success, the driving force behind it.”

“
So what about the cashier, didn’t
he notice.”

“
Not he, she. No, but then at
some stage she had been one of Hatton’s many lovers, and he was financially
generous to her. She was under his spell.”

“
So what went wrong?”

“
The usual story. When times
were good, there wasn’t a problem as Hatton paid back the money – with
interest. When business started to slow, about 3 years ago, even before the
recession came in, and his ‘cash flow’ wasn’t that good, he suddenly found that
the National account was a few million short. The money belonged to a large
estate he was winding up – or rather one of his clerks was doing the work for
him, and it suddenly had to be paid back. The clerk blew the whistle to the
clients; the clients complained to the Solicitors Regulation Authority who sent
in accountants and they discovered the situation and closed him down. In
fairness to him, Hatton put his hands up.”

“
Was the money paid back?”

“
Well that’s where Masters
comes in. If a solicitor is fraudulent, as Hatton was, then anyone who loses
money can make a claim to the Solicitors Regulation Authority’s Compensation
Fund. All solicitors have to make a contribution to it every year. It is meant
to cover cases of dishonesty or any other situation where a solicitor’s
insurance doesn’t protect him. However the Compensation Fund wasn’t at all
happy at having to fork out several million, as you can imagine, and therefore
complained to, or rather claimed the money off the National, because, and as
they rightly argued, they should have noticed that not only were being sums taken
out of the account, but were being put back, which is an odd thing to do with
other people’s money.”

“
What did the National do?”

“
Paid up. This was when
Masters was planning to become a bank, and they just couldn’t face any
scandal.”

“
And then what?”

“
The National went after the
money.”

“
From Hatton?” asked Lisa.

Brakespeare looked straight
into her wide eyes. Oddly enough he was beginning to enjoy the pathos he was
creating. He deliberately paused and then spoke slowly.

“
From all the partners.”

“
All – what you mean you as
well?” she asked slowly with wide eyes.

Brakespeare just nodded his
head in affirmation, and was slightly surprised to see Lisa’s eyes fill with
tears.

“
But how could they, if you
your salaried partnership was meaningless?”

“
Just because I was held out
as a partner. Under Partnership Law – and you ought to know this – anyone who
is held out as a partner of a business by the business is as liable to the
public as the “real” partners.

“
Oh yes, the Partnership Act
1898 – I remember. What did the National do. Did they get their money back?”

“
Not all of it , so the
National made us all bankrupt.”

Lisa gasped. “Even you.”

“
Even me, despite the fact
that I was not personally involved. Even the Solicitors Regulation Authority
accepted that, and that’s saying something. If a solicitor strays they go after
him with religious zeal.”

“
So you lost – everything?”

“
Everything.”

“
But were you, are you
married?”

“
Yes, I had a wife, Sophie,
and two little children by this time. The house had to go and raised a few
thousand, but I was left with nothing.”

“
Your wife, how did she take
it.”

“
She left.”

“
She left you?”

By this time Lisa’s eyes were
wide open. There was an awkward silence, then Lisa’s hand came across the table
as she leant forward.

“
Jonny, I’m so sorry, I really
am.”

On a happier occasion
Brakespeare might have been tempted to follow up the situation, although he was
enjoying the drama of it. Taking Lisa’s hand, he squeezed it, but let it go
immediately.

“
Thanks, he said huskily, and
there was silence.

It was Lisa who broke it. “But
the Solicitors Regulation Authority. They couldn’t have done anything terrible
to you, otherwise you wouldn’t be here.”

“
No, they suspended me from
practice They accepted that I had neither control over nor any knowledge of the
situation, but they’ve put a restriction on my practising certificate so that I
can only be in practice as an employee.”

“
That’s hard.”

“
Not really. I think I’ve had
enough of partnerships. They could have struck me off. They did with Hatton’s
equity partners, because they really ought to have kept an eye on things. So
here I am.”

“
So here you are.” She
hesitated, “but your wife, can I ask, what’s happened there.”

“
As I said she left me, took
the kids with her and is now shacked up with a builder called Tony.”

“
Are you divorced?”

“
Yes, but only about 6 months
ago. We had a divorce by consent after we had been separated 2 years.”

“
Didn’t she want you back?”

“
No. In a way I can’t blame
her. What you women want is security, and she lost hers. In her eyes I suppose
that I let her down.”

“
But you didn’t!”

“
That’s not quite right. I
didn’t deliberately let her down, but at the end of the day, I did.”

“
Is that what you think?”

“
Yes”. Said Brakespeare.
Perhaps he was not enjoying the situation after all - having to recall all that
had happened.

Lisa spoke softly and
deliberately. Again she leant forward and put her hand over his, and looked at
him steadily and raised her eyebrows in order to get her message.

“
You – did – not – let – her –
down.”

Brakespeare shrugged his
shoulders and continued with his tale.

“
It’s a bit like what Newberry
says happened with Clearfield. Masters loves it when things are good, but looks
for a scapegoat when things go wrong.

Anyway Masters must have faced
a few awkward questions when the money went missing from the account and the
Solicitors Regulation Authority had to be paid back. I think that Masters made
us all bankrupt so he could say that the National had taken every possible step
to recover the money. It made the National look good, and removed any obstacle
that the situation might create to his scheme to make the National a bank.”

“
And now you’re here.”

“
And now I’m here. What a
funny old world.”

There was a pause in the
conversation. They each sipped at their drinks. Brakespeare broke the mood.

“
So, you know all about me.
What about you? How did you end up in the firm? Did you know Gordon Morrison
before”

He was startled when Lisa
suddenly gulped down the last of her drink, and glanced at her watch.

“
I’m so sorry, but I really
have to go. Have to leave it for another time.”

“
Oh, all right. I was just
beginning to enjoy myself. You said that you had half an hour”

“
Sorry, I do have to go.”

With that she gathered up her
things; flashed him the warmest of smiles, and waved.

“
Byee. See you in the morning.
Thank God it’s Friday tomorrow.”

“
Byee.” Brakespeare mimicked,
and was left alone with his drink.

“
Good
Morning”, said Margaret, as she brought the Friday morning’s post in. “Did you
and Miss Barnes manage to finish whatever it was that you were doing”.

As Brakespeare was now
beginning to realise, Margaret’s immaculate appearance was exactly the same
every day.

“
Yes, thank you” replied
Brakespeare. He tried to continue to read a file that he had not yet managed to
work on, but the silence and lack of movement from Margaret indicated that he
had given an unsatisfactory answer. He looked up to see her staring steadily at
him, waiting for further information.

“
We wrote a complicated letter
to the Crown Prosecution Service on the Newberry case.”

The stare continued.

“
I’m afraid that it was not
the sort of letter I could have dictated on tape. It was quite detailed, and it
took the two of us to go through the various papers to find out what we were
going to say. You see, Lisa may have cracked the case.”

“
May she?” said Margaret
starchily, and put the pile of post on his desk. “I’ll just match this post up
for you – if that’s in order?”

Brakespeare just nodded and
smiled grimly. Office politics!

Margaret took each item of
correspondence from the top of the pile, and carried it to the filing cabinet,
from which she produced the matching file. She then added it to the pile of
files on the left side of the desk

She had only matched a few
items of correspondence when Brakespeare happened to glance up. Immediately his
eye caught the letter at the top of the unmatched pile, with it’s unmistakeable
Crown Prosecution Service logo. He immediately reached out for it.

“
Why didn’t you tell me there
was a letter in from the C.P.S.?” he involuntarily snapped.

Margaret was startled, “Oh,
what, I’m so sorry, I don’t look at the post, Mr. Mortimer opens and sorts it.

Brakespeare did not reply. He
was too intent on reading the letter. Margaret watched him.

“
I don’t believe it” he
shouted, and banged on the desk with his fist.

“
Is anything the matter?”

“
Is anything the matter? The
Crown Prosecution Service have transferred the case to the Crown Court
already.”

“
Oh dear, is that bad news?”

Bill Mortimer walked in the
door. “Ah, I thought that you might be annoyed about that. I saw the letter
when I was opening the post.”

“
Well we certainly won’t get a
pot at the case before magistrates”

“
Would it have worked?” asked
Mortimer.

“
Might have done. I don’t
really know. It might have frightened the Prosecution off when we paraded
Lisa’s spreadsheets before them.”

“
But you’ve written to them
about that haven’t you?”

“
Yes, but the letter didn’t go
last night. This decision was obviously made some time ago.”

“
Can they do this?” asked
Mortimer.

“
Yes, although it’s rarely
done. If the Prosecution have a complex or serious case they can circumvent the
magistrates and take it straight to the Crown Court. It’s all to do with case
management, and I suppose,” he gestured towards the cupboard with all the
papers, ”that this lot is complex. It means though that either the Director of
Public Prosecutions or the Serious Fraud Office must have given the O.K.”

“
Oh dear,” said Margaret. “I
don’t suppose that Mr. Newberry is going to be terribly pleased. Do you want me
to get him for you.”

Mortimer intervened. “Not yet,
Margaret. I think that we need to think about the way forward. He’s bound to
want to know what we are proposing to do.”

Brakespeare sat back in his
chair and put his hands behind his head. “Well it’s really out of our hands
now. What we need is a barrister. Know a good one?”

Mortimer pursed his lips as he
thought, but it was Margaret who suddenly took charge of the situation.

“
Mr. Breezie!”

Brakespeare looked blankly at
her. She was relishing the moment.

“
Mr. Breezie is the barrister
Mr. Morrison always uses. His Chambers are in Fountain Court Birmingham.”

Mortimer looked at
Brakespeare. “I know him ” was all he said.