Thursday, December 20, 2007

The suspects

Ive spent all day working on trying to understand blogging, i am having a lot of difficulties not least the fact that I joined Blogger and then, only the next day when I didnt understand it at all, I switched, as I thought, to Blogger Beta, and I seem to have ended up with two blog sites with different settings and I cannot cancel one of them. So I wont tell you any more of my bank fraud story, just a list of the suspects. How did I know who was on the list? I don't really remember, I suppose it was just a word or so here and there amongst the staff, the way the Inspectors treated different ones, even a gut feeling. Perhaps I should say, now, that a lot of the people I am writing about have, sadly, died. Both the people I have mentioned who had lost the cash, I know they have both died. So have two on the suspect list. The others,, I don't know. Here goes: The Manager, Myfyr Owen. Alcoholic, known to have a female friend, surprisingly never appeared to be short of cash. His bank account was always reasonably full and he wasent scraping for an income, I know. One of the perks of being Manager was that he was an agent for several insurance companies and he picked up a commission on all the premiums. But, he could not be bothered with the bookkeeping it involved and he asked me if I would do it permanently, and I could have the commission. I jumped at the chance, the work was done in the Banks time, it was a doddle. Next , Bryn Roberts, Chief Clerk. Was Treasurer of the local Round Table. Had recently bought a very grand house in Rhyl, it was in probably the best road in the town. He was married to a lady who had a reputation for being expensive. I don't know if this was true, and bank staff had mortgages at a very preferential rate of interest, but, it was grand!!! Next Ceredig Lewis, Chief Cashier. Probably the oldest of the staff. Always broke,dont know where it went. No sign of gambling, nor excessive drinking. He did spend a lot of money on travelling around, he was for ever driving to South Wales etc. but by present day standards, nothing much. He was often borrowing a few pounds before pay day. (Years later after I had left the Bank and had a shop, he would come to me to cash a post dated cheque, and ask me to hold on to it for a week or two before cashing it). Next, myself. Fond of fast cars and fast women, I did a certain amount of motor racing which cost a lot. Also had a liking for alcohol. I never had enough money, I was always flat broke by pay day, I had previously been pulled up by the Manager for going overdrawn, only by very small amounts, before pay day. So I had got in the habit, if a cheque arrived before pay day, I asked one of the younger girls to take it out of her account and I gave her the money when I was paid. It was a form of borrowing, I was always inclined to dish cheques out without thinking if I had enough money. The inspectors found out about this, of course. Next Wyn Roberts, my assistant. Apparantly very steady, fairly recently married, lived in a bungalow in Abergele. I think he ran a car, but I'm not sure. No sign of drinking or gambling, indeed none of us, as far as I know, where gamblers. Finally, Margaret Brookes. A local, home grown girl, typist, engaged to one of the Bank's inspectors (he was not on the present investigation). Why she was on the list i'll never know, I would have thought she was the last. However, apparantly she was. Six little niggers as Agatha Christie would say. Mike

2 comments:

eastcoastlife said...

Your story is getting more interesting. I don't think you are 75, your memory is very good, I'm much younger than you and I kept forgetting things and names.

Is your name really Michael Owen? He's a great football player in Newcastle Football Club.

Needatourleader? said...

I am definately 75, take a look at my photo--that should tell you. And, Yes, my name is Michael Owen. I even have an Email address "VOrigMichaelOwen@aol.com" This is an abbreviation of The Original Michael Owen. Also he lives only about 20 miles away from me, close to the Checkpoint Club I have mentioned in my blogs. And I'm a lifelong supporter of Liverpool Footbal Club, where he started playing at 11 years old and stayed until he moved to Spain.