MOST IMPORTANT

THIS BLOG IS LIKE A STORY OR A BOOK. IT READS PAGE AFTER PAGE. WHEN YOU GET TO THE BOTTOM OF THE FIRST PAGE, TITLED "I THINK I'M SURROUNDED BY ENEMIES" YOU MUST CLICK "OLDER POSTS" TO PROGRESS TO THE NEXT PAGE.

Next time I.ll smile

Why are the dates wrong?

As you read these blogs you will notice that they are headed with a lot of apparantly meaningless dates. Bloggers will guess what they are and why I have done it. To the non-bloggers or tech savvy amongst you, take no notice at all of the dates in the headings. They are there for a computer technical reason to enable the blogs to read in a similar fashion to a book. Pay no attention to them whatsoever. Happy reading!!! Mike P.S. I.ve run out of space. When you have plodded on through these blogs, right at the end just before my final photograph, you will see a little link entitled "OLDER POSTS" Click on this and it will give you my latest posts,

Am I a Bank Robber?

Well hello. I am very new to blogging. I've played around on three earlier blog sites, making many mistakes and hopefully learning the nuts and bolts. Time will tell whether this brand new site is any better!!! I am a tourist group leader, fairly advanced years but at this exact moment I am out of work, hence the time to start blogging. But, you will say, what about your title? Well, I am sure you would not be reading this if I had entitled it "Needatourmanager." I know, because I had a website and blogs with that name, hits ----- nil. But, everything I put on this and future blogs is 100% true. I may not give the whole truth, but it is nothing but the truth. And, to give the title some sense, some fourty years ago the most senior detective in Flintshire Police force said to me "We are convinced that if you did'nt do it, you know who did do it." That was fourty years ago. So as any readers can put it in present day perspective, I have multiplied all sums of money mentioned now and in the future by ten. This means that I am writing in terms of what the money would be worth today, after inflation. So, what was he talking about? The fact that well over a quarter of a million pounds had gone missing from Barclays Bank in Rhyl, North Wales, where I happened to work at that time. This money has never been seen to this day. It was, in my opinion a victimless crime. No individual lost any money, apart, possibly, shareholders of Barclays loosing about a half pence off their dividend. I might add, the Police did not see eye to eye with me on that point. I wonder if I have got you interested. In any event, more will be revealed!!! Mike Owen

THE BALLOON GOES UP

Well, Ive had a hit or two, perhaps its just my friends. But never mind, I am going to carry on with writing about my job as a Tour leader ----- O.K. I heard the groans, so instead I will write a bit more about the missing quarter of a million pounds!!!! It all started on 30th November1964. Well, thats not right, it all started when someone, maybe me or maybe one of my fellow workers in the Bank, lifted the quarter million. But, as far as I told the Police, it all started on 30/11/64. I was just going out of the Bank to enjoy an unofficial coffee break in the cafe opposite. I did this most days, as did most of the shall I say middle management of the Bank staff. As I walked out I passed a Mr Eddie Myers, a local bookmaker from Rhyl, walking in. On my return to my desk, the buzzer from the Managers room rang, a message for me to go in. I knocked on the door, and entered. Behind the desk was a Mr Bryn Roberts, the Chief Clerk of the branch. To the right was Eddie Myers. On the desk was a black deed box, open. I looked from one to another, neither said anything but Myers appeared visably distressed, his face was the colour of chalk. I said "You rang?" Roberts eventually replied "Yes, this is Mr.Eddie Myers." Me "Yes, I know." Roberts "This is his deed box." Me "Yes, I know." My job as the securities clerk included looking after deedboxes. Roberts "The last time Mr Myers looked in this deedbox, it had £100,000 in notes inside it. All three of us leaned forward and looked in the deedbox. Clean as a whistle. That will have to do for now. Mike Owen

November 30th l964. A day to be remembered.

Hello. I have read that a succesful blog always has entries made at least daily, even hourly. Well, I cannot do that. This explains why there is no new post from me yesterday. I must be fairly unique, I have two P.Cs and I have internet server access, BUT --- I havent got a phone, well not a landline phone. Ive got a mobile, of course. The reason I havent got a phone is because I live, if you can use that word, in an old mobile touring caravan, and, understandably, B.T. decline putting a line into it. So, my alternatives is satellite BT openzone, very expensive, or plugging my laptop onto my daughters phone line, and she lives 25 miles away. Yes, I know you can post blogs from a mobile, but I havent got round to sussing out how to do it yet, Im still struggling making a normal blog!!! So, please excuse me if my blog goes dead for a few days at a time, I will tell you the full story . Of course, if I told you I was telling you the full story, well I would be admitting that I had done it. Im not chancing that, not with the Police, maybe, reading it. Can a 75 year old man be sent to prison for something that happened 40 or so years ago? I dont think I will chance it. Anyway, back to Nov 30,1964. I left the Managers room and returned to my desk. After about five minutes Eddie Myers left the Bank, looking decidly unhappy. At sometime later Bryn Roberts, the Chief Clerk, came out of the Managers room and said to me Ive told L.H.O.(Local Head Office) About half an hour later the Manager arrived. Myfyr Hedd Jones Owen by name. Obviously a welshman, but one who had forsaken his Welsh background. He was even proud that he had trained himself to have no trace of a welsh accent, he spoke perfect BBC English. I never found out why he was over two hours late starting work that day. He was alcoholic, he went on terrible drinking trips virtually every night, and sometimes all day as well. However, he was always immaculately dressed in the morning, showed no signs of the night before, and, indeed, once told me that he had never had a hangover in his life. Ive been told since that is one sign of a true alcoholic, I dont know if that is correct. About two oclock in the afternoon the Bank inspectors started to arrive, in small groups. They had obviously travelled from some distance away. They started an inspection of the branch about three oclock. This involved first of all in checking the tills and the postage drawer. Inspectors always started by checking the postage drawer, they reckoned that all large time bank frauds were done by staff who had started out fiddling the postage drawer. Well, I had fiddled the postage drawer in my time, but I was never caught out. I dont know if you think that means anything. The District Chief Inspector arrived then disappeared, no doubt off to see Mr Myers. At about the usual time, we, and the inspectors, all left for home, or wherever. So that was day one. Mike

That evening. I'm keeping that to myself

So, the evening of 30th November. I had a strong idea I might have been followed. I am not going to say what I did or where I went that night because of my honesty and truth statement. I may reveal it later, depends on how this blog site develops. The next day, Tuesday 1st December, I dont honestly remember much about this. More and more Inspectors arrived, now there were eight or nine. Everyone on the staff were looking at each other. At one time I remember the boss saying "Now, I wonder whats this guy up to." He meant Eddie Myers. No sign of Mr.Myers. Last thing in the afternoon someone told me "They are going to do a full inspection." This is what Bank Inspectors did about every five or six years, they went to town on a Branch and looked at and into everything. It took usually about three to four weeks. Little did we know that this inspection would take about seven months, and one of the inspectors was transferred permanently onto Rhyl branch staff!!! The next bombshell was about to fall the next day. Ill tell you about that later. In the meantime, i will just tell you the staff makeup. Manager, Mr Owen, Chief clerk, Bryn Roberts, First cashier a fifty years old Ceredig Lewis, me as Securities clerk, Wyn Roberts, a bit younger than me as my assistant, Margaret Brookes a local girl aged then about thirty, Secretaty and typist, Ann Kelsey, also a typist, and about five or six young ladies in the machine room upstairs in various superiority, also at least one young lad, maybe two, who were "juniors" otherwise doing all the odd jobs that needed doing, the errands to be run etc. Oh, I missed out two more cashiers, probably Wyn would also be a busy time cashier when he was not helping me. Thats just to give you a general picture. So, to Wednesday!!!

Now its a missing deedbox

Wednesday, December 2nd Inspectors hard at work. Myers had obviously been interviewed. Wyn whispered to me "There's a deedbox missing."One of the Inspectors came to me me and said something like "We cannot find this box do you know anything about it?" I looked blank. It turned out that the deedbox belonged to a Mr. Ernie Taylor, a showman off the Rhyl fair. No sign of it. The inspectors all went into retreat, big conference. By chance, I went into the Managers room, after knocking, and inside was the District Inspector by himself on the phone, and just as I entered he said "this seems to confirm that Myers is telling the truth." It was fairly obvious that he was talking about the missing deedbox. I'll skip ahead a day or two now. News filtered back, Ernie Taylor had been seen, he claimed that the missing deedbox contained 75.000 pounds. So now the missing total was 170.000 pounds!!!! AND MAYBE RISING Mike

And my key fitted it

This is a bit of a nuts and bolts blog for a change. Ive had an email from a Mr Dom Gabriele in the U.S.A Email Domgab1914@comcast.net. He is obviously a very experienced blogger, his blog is, in my opinion, first class. But he says he cannot post some comments here on my blog, , perhaps he wants to say its rubbish!!! Reason being he has not got an account with Google. He suggests I put my Email address on my homepage. Well, I need a bit of time to work out how I amend my homepage. I know its easy----if only I knew how!!! I will do it as soon as pos, in the meantime a couple of my Email addresses: Hellotowyntravel@aol.com and VOrigMichaelOwen@aol.com. Also I would just mention. This blog is written straight out of my mind, I dont think beforehand what I'm going to say, and I do it fairly fast. Disadvantages: I am making loads of keyboard mistakes, things are not always in the best order and spelling mistakes creep in. Advantages: Ive told you it is 100% true. Its coming straight out of my memories. Anyway, back to the missing money. Firstly, I must have made a small error in the amounts. I said Myers £100,000 and Taylor £75,000 total £175,000. But, in the middle of the night I recalled quoting a figure of £168,000 a lot later, to the Police. I am sure of this, even after 40 years, because when asked by them how much was missing, I replied "sixteen eight" and the C.I.D. man thought I said "sixtyeight." I saw the startled glance between the two top men!!! It does'ent really matter, the final figure which I will reveal was a lot higher, in any case. Another small thing has come back to me. The securities desk, which I was in charge of, had its own deedbox. I used it for keeping the more important papers together, I kept it on my desk and at night put it in the strongroom. I had the key on my bunch. The system with keys in the Bank was every member of staff was either on the "A" list or the "B" list. Once on this list, you were on it for life. When you went for lunch etc. you gave your keys to someone else on the same list as you. If you were B, you never ever touched an A key. As most important things, and most definately the strongroom, had two locks, this meant that even if you were not in the branch, the staff had access to everywhere and everything, because you had left your keys. You never had access to the other stream so as to prevent possible duplication of vital keys. Anyway, Bryn Roberts, the Chief Clerk, came to me and said "Do you know that your box key fits Eddie Myers' and opens it?" I said No. Well, I could hardly have said Yes, that would at the very least have meant I had been messing around trying to get into boxes. Not recommended. I know this may be boring, but if you stick with it, it will help to give you the big picture. We have come to the weekend, now. Time to think. No sign of the Police. I don't know if the Bank advised Myers/Taylor not to do anything, in any event, they were unlikely to call in the Police themselves. After all, what was the money doing in these deedboxes in any case? I've no doubt we all know why, both customers dealt in cash transactions. Mike Owen

I am ambushed---by Inspectors

I am now writing about the second week. Believe it or not, nothing much seems to be happening. However, there was a very tense atmosphere in work, everyone was eyeing up everyone else, and we were all wondering what would happen next. Work was more or less the same as normal, allowing for the fact that we were in the middle of an inspection. The inspectors went about their work in the normal way, I had a lot of contact with them because I handled all the deeds, stocks and shares, life policies etc which made up a securities clerks life. The inspectors had queries, they even found some minor things not quite to their liking, but nothing much. However, one incedent jolted me a bit and showed me that, although the atmosphere was tense but normal, things were not normal at all. My boss, the Manager, was the local Treasurer for the RSPCA. He didnt want the job, it just went with the position of branch manager. On the Wednesday it was the annual general meeting in the Church hall in Rhyl. He either did'nt want or could not attend, so I was delegated to go. Why me? Well, surprisingly, Iwas fairly close to the boss. He was a very abrasive character, most of the staff and certainly all the girls were frightened of him, especially if he was in one of his frequent nasty moods. But he and I seemed to get on reasonably well. Anyway, I went off to the AGM in the afternoon, gave my report, listened to the barking of a thousand dogs which seemed to be in the hall. It finished about 5.30 p.m. I walked back to the Bank with all the RSPCA papers and accounts and arrived back just as the staff and the inspectors were leaving by the side door. I went in, put the papers in a drawer, and turned around and let myself out into Sussex Street in Rhyl. Imagine my surprise, wherever I looked in the road, in every direction,was an Inspector ---- and they were all walking towards me!!! None of them said much, they were all eyeing me up and down and eventually they dispersed to their cars. The next day Wyn Roberts, my assistant, said to me that he had overheard one of the inspectors say , when I was going in the door, "He's got an ideal chance to get it all out of the Bank." They must have thought I had a secret hoard of the £168,000 hidden inside the Bank, and I was going to come out with it stuffed in all my pockets!!!! Well, sorry, they were disappointed. I mention this little incedent to show how, under the surface, we were all suspects, but I was becoming a prime suspect. I'll tell you why I was a prime suspect when I go on the give you my profile as at that time Mike Owen

The third week

It is almost boring, apart from the fact that the Police might walk in at any time, having been called in by the Bank or someone. The routine inspection was coming towards the end, but the senior inspectors were more at work finding out staff profiles. The second in command was a jovial, man of the world type by the unusual name of Bill Bayley. I will refrain from making any jokes in case he happens to read this blog, and no doubt he has heard them all his life. I have not heard of him for years, but I believe someone once told me he had retired to Prestatyn, just up the road from me. I cannot remember the details, he must have been talking to me, and he must have raised the question where the missing cash might be hidden. The only thing I remember properly about this is that he and I arrived at my bungalow presumably in my car. The intention. For him to "look over" where I lived. We disturbed our lodger/friend who was inside cleaning. Bill Bayley looked around, went in a bedroom or two, opened a cupboard door here and there. We returned to the Bank. If this was supposed to be a search, will it would'nt have rated high in my book. Perhaps it was just supposed to frighten me. I don't know. But, I did.nt know if my house was the only one they had been to, as far as I knew it was. So that told me that I was near enough the top of the suspects list. It was also about this time that we on the staff realised that something else was missing from the Bank. We had a very large, battered brown suitcase which we used, mainly, for carrying the HVPs (High Value Parcels) to the Post Office, sending surplus cash to Head Office. We used it constantly in the summer, but in November. out of season, not so much. Nothing was kept in it, it was just used as a carring suitcase. But --- it was gone!!! Something else for the inspectors to think about. Mike Owen

Will the robber stand up?

The Bank and its work carried on more or less as usual. But the tension was still building up.The Inspectors were often missing for a long time. Who knows where they were going, who they were talking to. Even the customers were begining to realise that something was wrong, they were saying "Who are these strange men with briefcases?" On the Thursday the inspectors, the whole lot of them, left very early in the afternoon. About 4 o'clock the boss called about eight or nine of the more senior members of the staff into his room, very unususl. But then, loosing £168,000 was unusual!!! The gist of what he said was as follows. "After you have all finished work, I want you all to go straight home, or wherever, but don't hang around the Bank, go right away, and do not on any account come back. And do not on any account stay around outside. I will be in this room, by myself, for at least an hour after the last of you has left. I will be alone, no one else will be in the building. Then, if one of you, whoever he or she might be, would care to come back and talk to me, it could, possibly, help towards clearing up this business." So, we all went home. The next morning we all came to work. We were all looking around for a missing face {or even one in handcuffs}. But, no one was missing. The operation was obviously unsuccesful. However, at least the suspects had been narrowed. Those that were called in the room knew they were suspect, the rest, mainly the girls from upstairs, knew they were in the clear. The whole thing had obviously been set up by the Inspectors.

The week before Christmas

Now a bit of personal issues. I was in a rather dodgy marriage. Don't forget, this was in the sixtys, free love etc. I was involved, heavily, with someone who, in my opinion and virtually every mans opinion who set eyes on her, the most attractive lady I had ever seen in my life. Emma Peel of the avengers, she was the spit image of her. She had asked me to go as her partner to the Chester Motor Club's Christmas fancy dress knees up in a nightclub in Chester. She was going as Cleopatria, me Julius Ceaser. She made the fancy dress out of bits and pieces costing next to nothing, but it was most impressive. I was worried, most of the Inspectors lived around Chester. What would they think if they saw me driving through Chester as a Roman with this exceptional beauty. Never mind, it did'nt stop me ---- and against all the expensive opposition --- we won first prize. I don't know if the judges fancied her, I suppose they did. Second, we had the Bank staffs annual Xmas party at the Kings Head, Llanrhyder. This was a strange night, there was a strained atmosphere most of the time, did'nt stop me and several others drinking too much!!! At a much later date, the police claimed at one stage I said loudely at the bar "Here's to the missing money." They asked me if I had said it, I said I did'nt know, they said if I did say it what did I mean? I said I had'nt a clue. I've still got photos of it, everyone looking at everyone else. As we were all going home on Xmas eve Mr Bayley, the inspector, said "Happy Xmas to everyone-----except one." Was he looking straight at me? Mike

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

A night in Payne's Corner House

I am thinking about redoing this entire blog, and dating it as it happened in 1964. What a job!!! But, it might be simplier for anyone daft enough to read it, that is, apart from the two or three hundred from the Rhyl area who would be MOST interested, if only they knew what I was doing. However, can I go back to Boxing Day, 1964. Anyone who has read this, or who knew me from that time, will know that I was well involved with Monica, the beauty from Sandycroft with the morals of an alley cat. My Wife was delighted, we were going to spend Xmas with my Mother and Sister in Rhos on Sea, further away from Sandycroft than Rhyl where we lived. Unfortunately for her, unknown .Monica and her husband where spending Xmas at the Stanley, a rough pub in the middle of Llandudno. Her friend was manageress for a few weeks. So, Boxing night I slipped off, a night with Monica at Paynes Corner House, a sort of West Indian steel band, a nice atmosphere and I was with , without doubt, the most striking beauty in the place. We sat down, I looked up, and there, in the balcony, was Susan Jones, a young lady from the machine room in work!!! Oh dear, well never mind. Just another thing to put the suspicion more on me

THE WEEK AFTER XMAS

Back to workl after the holiday. The pressure is building up. We are all being interviewed constantly by the Inspectors. Questions about our own lifestyle, questions about other members of the staff. One of the many things the inspectors have done is, go over our Bank accounts, our own personal ones, with a microscope. They found out that there was one of my cheques missing, from back in October. In other words, it had not been presented for payment. Would I tell them who is was payable to. I could not remember. But, in early October, my Wife , eight year old son and myself did go for a weeks holiday in London. We stayed at the small hotel that the Bank used to accomodate staff when they were on training courses in London, that is how I knew it, and when we got there we found that one of the Rhyl staff , a young lady from the machine room, happened to be there at the same time. We spoke briefly to each other. I think, what happened was I was unsure whether I had enough cash to pay the bill. Because I was afraid of being embarrased if the bill was for more than I had in my pocket, prior to going to the reception I made out a cheque payable to the hotel, so, if needs be, I could pull it straight out of my pocket. In those days, cheques were often not accepted. In fact, I had enough cash, so I tore the cheque up. The Inspectors obviously did'nt believe this story. In fact, they did'nt seem to believe anything I said. They thought I had given a big cheque out to a moneylender or something like that. Also, every day, I thought more and more of the staff were pointing the finger at me. Maybe I was paranoid, but, with hindsight I don't think so. So, about midweek, I awoke in the morning, looked at my watch, 09.45 a.m. I should have been in work at nine. I was always at the death, 5 minutes late. But, this was different, everyone was going to be stareing at me, I'd have to try and make excuses, and -- the atmosphere of suspicion ----- on my way into Rhyl in my car, on an impulse, I turned around and drove off into the country, who knows to where. Mike

Was it collusion?

Sorry to keep the five or so readers I've got in suspense as to where I went on the morning I overslept. When the audience is bigger, you will find out. In the meantime one thing I was questioned about in detail was "Who did I think had done it?" Obviously it was an inside job, there had been no break in and it was impossible to get into the strongroom when it was locked because it needed two members of staff at the same time to produce keys.But, the next question "What about collusion?" This is where two or more members of staff get together to pull a fraud. This is always reckoned to be the worst type of inside bank fraud, I don't really know why. My reply to both questions was a rather long drawn out statement which, in effect, meant I did'nt have a clue. However, one thing I was sure of, and I told the Inspectors. If it WAS collusion, then, in my opinion, it was the manager, Myfyr Hedd and the Chief Clerk, Bryn. Why. I don't really know, just a strong gut feeling, but more, I did'nt think anyone else on the Bank's staff were close enough to do anything like this together. The Manager and C.C. spent hours together .in the office, talking. They appeared to understand each other well, I won't say they were friends, but they appeared to "get on." Not like the rest of the staff, all the girls were frightened of the Manager. I got on reasonably, but no more. Now, back to making links!!!

On the run?

Back to the story. Its just after Xmas, I've overslept, and instead of driving to work, I am driving the opposite direction to goodness knows where. I had no iodea where I was going, I was just driving, thinking. I ended up in an area around Trelogan, if anyone klnows North Wales. I had a brilliant view accross Prestatyn and Rhyl towatrds Llandudno. I stopped the car, and just thought, and thought and thought. What a bloody mess, my life in the Bank would never be the same again whatever the outcome. Too much had already come out about my private life for me to be able to carry on in my cushy job with a good chance of promotion. Also, there had been shortfalls in some of my work, nothing too drastic, most of it to do with securityaspects. The sort of thing was the handling of keys. I have already told you that thetre were two "streams" of key holders. However, Caredog Lewis was one offender, and me I must admit. He used to keep his keys in his till drawer along side him when he was on the till. Often, if I needed to get in the strongroom, which I did several times a day, he would say"I'm too busy. Here help yourself." (to the keys). So, I had the full set. I suppose everyone on the staff knew this went on, it should'nt have, but I think we all did it at busy times when we needed to get in quick. But, the Inspectors were not amused. This was just one of many things which were going through my mind. The missing suitcase----about a year or so before I helped myself to this case to go on holiday. When I came home, I forgot to take it back to the Bank. Of course, after a few days, someone was shouting "Where's the case?" Me:- Hold on, I won't be a minute. About half an hour later I walk in with it!!! So, all the staff then knew it was easy to walk out with this case without being noticed. I had no doubt the Inspectors had been told. So, it was looking bleak for me. After about a couple of hours, maybe three, I started to drive. I remember going in a country phonebox near Tremerchion, a little hamlet. I don't remember who I phoned, remember I am telling the truth, but---I do know that I was thinking it was the most important call of my life. Who to. I don't know, it might have been my Wife who, by now, would have been wondering where I was. But, I don't think so. More likely, I phoned the Bank and told them I was'ent coming in because I thought they thought I had done it. But I don't remember who I spoke to if that was so. A bit of a mystery. Anyway, I carried on driving, further and further away. By tea time I was in Newport in Shropshire, I did'nt really know where I was. I had decided. I wrote a letter to the Chief Inspector telling him I thought I was top of the list, and I was sending the letter to his office in Shrewsbury because I was afraid if I sent it to the Bank in Rhyl, some member of staff might open it, it might be the guilty person, and they might destroy it. So, that might take a bit of suspicion off me, I did'nt know. I never heard if he received it. Anyway, back driving now, mind possibly a bit clearer. Heading back to North Wales. I stopped at a pub, always my solution to any problem, had a few pints (long before breath tests) and carried on feeling a bit better. Back close to Ewloe and into the Checkpoint Club, THE PLACE for anyone and everyone in the early swinging sixtys. I knew it well. Monica was in there with two of her lady friends and three hopeful males. You should have seen their faces drop when I walked in, I was the number one favourite at the time, and they had just lost their chance!!! After closing we all went back to one man's house near Penyffordd, and later I took Monica home, then back to Rhyl to bed, probably about 3 a.m. I wondered what the next day would bring.

Were they trying to trick me?

The daytime of the next day I remember absolutely nothing about. No, not plastered, although I often was. Generally speaking at night!!! I must have spent the whole day driving around again, the first thing I remember was in the early evening, I was dead hungry and I went in a Chinese restaurant to eat. I must have decided that I would have to go home. I got a hot reception from my Wife when I returned. She said that everyone in the Bank were getting on at her as to where I was. They said perhaps the same thing had happened to me as happened to my Dad. In the l950's he was the Manager of Barclays Bank in Colwyn Bay. In the days when a Bank Manager was someone. He had about two years to go to a happy retirement, he owned a very nice house in Rhos-on-Sea, very happily married to my Mother with my younger Sister still living at home, everything to live for. Except one thing, he suffered from what I consider the worst illness anyone can have, depression. He could not escape the demons in his mind, he could not stop worring every single day and night over the most rediculous things. One day, walking to work, he threw himself off the Brompton Avenue railway bridge. My Wife, of course, knew me better. Fortunately, I was the exact opposite, too laid back for my own good. Next, a knock on the door. It was Caredog Lewis, the first cashier. "Please come back to work. If you come on Monday, you will find that someone is missing." Lots of knowing looks. I asked time and again, who? After an age he said "Bryn." As soon as he left, I shot up to Bryn's grand house in The Boulevard in Rhyl. I hung around outside, hidden in the dark, watching the house. Nothing seemed to be happening, a few lights inside. After a while I gave up and went home. I don't know what I expected to see, Black Maria police vans outside or what. I did'nt know what to do. I suspected I was being set up to return. I don't remember what I did then, probably alcohol in somewhere or other, that was what was keeping me going and not cracking up. Mike

I think I'm surrounded by enemies

Saturday. I don't know how, I'm not sure if we had a phone at home, not many people did at that time. However, a message got to me. "Did I know a layby on the Rhuddlan Melidan road about half mile from Rhuddlan? I said yes. Well, tomorrow, Sunday at 11.30 a.m. the boss (it could have been him I was speaking to, i don't remember) will be parked, by himself, in that layby. Would I go there? I said I would have to think about it. I was unsure, I could see traps everywhere. In the end, I went. I nearly did'nt. His car was there, and he was by himself. I got in, and we talked. He said Bryn was suspended indefinately from work, he did'nt say what for, and would I turn up on Monday. I was still unsure, I could'nt believe what I was hearing, maybe a guilty conscience, I'll leave you to decide that. But, as we talked, I thought more and more he was telling the truth. I said O.K. I'd be there. I remember his last words well, I could do with a drink. Typical. I think if I had said yes lets go, we would have ended up in a club together!!! Thats how Barclays in Rhyl carried on at that time.