Unravel a Crime - Tangle With Women (19 page)

Breezie gave Newberry what
Brakespeare knew was a professional smile; his eyes cold. Newberry rocked
backwards and forwards in his chair trying to stop himself saying anything.
Breezie sensed this and continued.

“
Look I know that there’s an
awful lot that you want to say to me, and believe me, I’m more than ready to
hear it. However you must remember that we are dealing with a legal case, and
in all legal cases what we have to do is find the elements which make up the
case against you, and allocate our resources effectively to deal with those elements.
What we need to do first is to understand them.”

Newberry nodded.

“
Good, as I was saying the
charge against you is that you, and I quote, ”ensured” that properties which
had not been properly valued would be accepted by the Society, or bank as I
understand it now is.

Now to my mind the prosecution
case is based on the mud slinging principle; if you throw enough mud at people,
then some of it will stick.

Mr Brakespeare, I understand
that you have some experience of prosecution, would you agree?”

Brakespeare jumped in his
seat. Breezie must have been making enquiries about him. Many barristers did of
the solicitors who brought work to them, so that they could judge the quality
of the work they were likely to receive.

“
Well, I am sure that your experience
far outweighs mine, Mr. Breezie, but yes I would agree with you. If you have no
direct evidence of guilt, you have to create a situation putting the Defendant
in a sufficiently compromising situation, that he has to climb his own way out
of it.”

Newberry looked as if he was
going to say something. Breezie jumped in again quickly.

“
I expect that you’re going to
say that it is for the Prosecution to prove their case beyond all reasonable
doubt. It is. Unfortunately it is for us, that is you and your legal team, to
create the reasonable doubts. So let me sum up? What is the picture is that
will be painted to the jury? It is that David Newberry, a Surveyor and more
importantly valuer, employed by the National Building Society had at some
stage, a financial stake in a property development company; that he enjoyed the
hospitality of the principal shareholder of that company and that accordingly
some valuations were produced of properties purchased by that company, which in
hindsight, indicate that they were not worth the purchase price that was
disclosed in the mortgage application.

This is of course on the face
of it a classic mortgage fraud. If , for example, a mortgage lender is only
prepared to lend 80% of the market value, by over stating that value, a higher
percentage of the true market value is borrowed. I’m sure that you understand
that Mr. Newberry.”

“
Yes, I do.”

“
Now someone in your
solicitors office has done something quite unusual, and looked at the valuation
evidence. Was it you Mr. Brakespeare?”

Brakespeare shook his head.
“No, I’m afraid not, at least to begin with. It was a trainee executive.”

“
Lisa Barnes?”

“
You know her?”

“
Of her.”

“
Well it was her idea to
analyse them.”

“
Was it now?”

A wry smile spread over
Breezie’s face.

“
Well I must say that on the
face of it, these spreadsheets do give us something with which to attack Mr.
Black’s valuations.”

“
Isn’t that enough?” asked
Brakespeare

“
Unfortunately, not in my
view. You see valuation, and I have dealt with negligence claims against
valuers, is a very empirical business. At the end of a day a property is worth
what someone is prepared to pay for it. I think that you will find that no two
valuers will agree on a precise figure, and while it may well be that Mr.
Black’s figures are inconsistent, at the end of the day that is only part of
the evidence.”

Breezie leant across the table
towards Newberry and softened his voice. “You see Mr. Newberry unfortunately a
jury is going to be asked to look at the big picture. If they don’t like what
they see, they’re not going to be worried to much about the inconsistencies in
Black’s valuations. They are going to see that overall, the properties have
been down valued. This, coupled with the other aspects of the case, such as
your association with the company, is in my view, not going to present too
happy a picture to them.”

“
So you think I’m wasting your
time?” asked a downcast Newberry.

“
Mr. Newberry you can never
waste my time. As I said we have to take the elements that make up the
prosecution case, and attack them individually. Mr. Black’s valuations are, I
repeat, but one element. Now I have read what Mr Brakespeare has summarised as
to your position in this case, and I can see that you are quite adamant that
the Nationwide valuations were accurate, or at least as accurate as valuations
can ever be.

“
And I didn’t do them all.”

“
Indeed not, and that is
another curious aspect of this case, because the valuers who did carry out the
majority have all made witness statements saying that you put no pressure on them,
nor have they been charged with any offence. That would seem to me to indicate
that there was nothing wrong with their valuations.”

“
Is that right?” Newberry
looked at Brakespeare.

“
Mr. Newberry has not seen the
statements.”

“
Well that is going to have to
change “ smiled Breezie. “Right, here is what I propose.

Firstly the statements. You
are going to have to give copies to Mr Newberry, and he’s going to have to see
all the exhibits. I want you firstly to take a detailed statement from him as
to his version of events; secondly I want him to make whatever comments he can
on the witness statements, and finally any comments he has on the exhibits.”

Brakespeare nodded silently.
He knew that it had to be done. It was the thought of the hours to be spent
with the unpredictable Newberry that he was not looking forward to.

“
Next, we need to look at
these valuations. We are going to need some expert evidence of our own. Do you
know anybody who might do Mr. Brakespeare? It will have to be in London,
someone whose office is near these properties. Valuers are supposed to be
expert only in their own patch, isn’t that so Mr. Newberry?”

“
That’s right, a house might
be worth a totally different price to a seemingly identical one ten miles
away.”

“
I think I might know someone
who might help” said Newberry. “He’s called Richard Quinn. He used to do some
valuation work for the National, before we were fully in house on that. He has
his own agency. He should be able to help.”

““
Splendid, that’s the sort of
man we want. Mr. Brakespeare, can you contact him and see if he is prepared to
be an expert witness? Ask him if he’s been in the box before, you know the
usual stuff.” Once more he turned to Newberry. ”You will appreciate that
someone who is as good at his job as I am sure, Mr Quinn is, may not be any
good as a witness. Stout men can become gibbering idiots in a Courtroom and
will agree with the last person they spoke to. We don’t know what Mr. Black is
going to be like, but our chap has to be better.

Now I think that’s it for the
moment. Do we have a date for a pre – trial review?” Again turning to Newberry
he went on, “This is not the trial Mr. Newberry, but in large cases like this,
the papers will go before a judge, I imagine here in Birmingham, who will call
everyone together, find out who is pleading guilty and who’s not, and give
directions on any matters that need to be attended to such as a meeting of
expert witnesses to narrow down the issues, and then fix a date for the trial.”

“
When is that likely to be?”

Breezie sat back in his chair
and opened his hands. ”Who can tell, a year or so, maybe more, depending non
Court availability.

“
What!” shouted Newberry, and
would have continued, but there was a knock at the door. Fortescue who had been
quietly sitting taking notes, sprang to his feet and opened it to a plump and
smartly dressed young woman carrying a silver tray with a water carafe and a
bone china coffee set, which she placed on the table in front of where
Fortescue had been sitting.

Newberry stared continually at
Breezie who ignored his gaze.

“
Would you do the honours
Giles?” he asked Fortescue.

While his pupil proceeded to
pour the coffee, Breezie turned back to Newberry.

“
I’m afraid Mr. Newberry,
that’s how long these big cases, and yours is a big case. I’m afraid that
there’s nothing that I can do.”

“
So this is British justice.”
Said Newberry venomously.

Breezie gestured dismissively
with his hands.

“
May I interrupt?” asked
Brakespeare.

“
By all means”

“
We’re talking about going to
trial, and you’ve explained to Mr. Newberry the problems as you see it with the
case. However the bottom line of the case is that it is alleged that the
properties were overvalued, either by him personally, or by a member of his
staff, acting at his direction.”

Breezie was clearly annoyed at
the interruption, but nodded politely.

“
Now I would have thought that
if we can destroy the validity of those valuations, then we destroy the case.”

“
As in your letter to the
C.P.S. I was going to deal with that.”

“
Yes”

“
I take it that you haven’t
had an answer yet?”

“
No, and of course it may not
produce a result.”

“
Do you seriously think that
they are going to drop this prosecution over a letter.” demanded Breezie.

Brakespeare was silent. He
thought of his conversation with Joe Gargan, but decided to keep it to himself.

“
Quite. In my respectful view
Mr. Brakespeare, what that letter will do is warn the prosecution of a possible
weakness in their case, and give them the opportunity to strengthen it.”

He stared coolly at
Brakespeare.

“
What?” asked Newberry.

“
I take it that you’ve seen
the letter Mr. Newberry?” asked Breezie, picking a copy up from the papers in
front of him and waving it gently.

“
Yes”

“
Did you instruct your
solicitors to write it?”

Newberry looked uncertainly at
Brakespeare.

“
No, I didn’t tell them to, of
course but…”

Breezie would not let him
finish whatever qualification he was going to make to his statement.

“
Well if your solicitors wrote
that letter without your firm instructions, in my view, you may have to seek
independent legal advice if it proves to have done some damage.”

There was a silence. Both
Brakespeare and Newberry knew what he meant. He thought that Brakespeare had
been negligent in writing the letter.

Brakespeare felt that
desperate sinking feeling in his stomach; the one that he had when he learnt of
the problems at Hattons. He had been ready to slink out and hide somewhere else
in the world. His first opportunity to restart his career and here was Breezie
telling him that he had fouled up.

But then he became angry. Who
was this prick to tell him he had been negligent?

“
Well I’m terribly sorry Mr.
Breezie, but I simply do not agree, and with the greatest of respect, I have
worked in prosecutions as you are aware, and I know the mindset of the people
there.

What they are not going to do
is go back to Black and ask him to change his evidence, so that his valuations
are consistent because, that would show that the evidence was wrong in the
first place.”

There was a silence, and
Breezie looked hard at Brakespeare. He then pushed his chair back and gazed at
a spot on the floor somewhere between the chair and his desk. Then he looked up
again and at Newberry.

“
Well what do you think, Mr.
Newberry. What do you think about Mr. Black’s valuations.”

“
I was wondering when someone
was going to include me in the conversation,“ said Newberry, archly. He
rummaged in his bag, and handed over a sheaf of papers to Breezie. These are a
photocopies of a couple of items I found in the ‘Chartered Surveyor Weekly’.
The first is about a case. I’m sure that you are fully aware of the principles
on which expert witnesses are expected to act, you will note that they are also
expected to have made an, and I quote, ‘detailed study of all elements of the
case’.

I don’t somehow think that Mr.
Black has satisfied that basic requirement.

Newberry paused while Breezie
read through the photocopy, smiling at Brakespeare as he did so. “Don’t worry,
Jonny, I’ve been doing my own homework too”, he said sotto voce.

The second cutting is an
article where the practice is noted, of lenders letting out repossessed
properties in the rental sector in order to obtain a return until the market
picks up. This is exactly what Levy and Clearfield did. The only thing that
they overlooked was the length of time the market would take to recover.”