“Is she represented by counsel?”
“No your honour, I think not.” The clerk looked to Hetty for acknowledgement.
“Very well, Mrs Champion please stand and make your presence known to this court.” They stared disparagingly at her as she stood and raised her hand and smiled cautiously.
“You do realise that you are not permitted to speak at this hearing?” It was more a declaration than a question, as Henrietta certainly did not expect that her presence would be completely ignored in what followed.
The Judge on the left of the trio put on his spectacles and began to recount the charges initially brought against Henrietta by the CPS for conspiring with Newman and Hoare to defraud the bank but recanted none of the evidence she had submitted in her defence which had been properly prepared and signed with affidavits. Henrietta sat quietly wondering when he might repeat any words in her favour but none were forthcoming. He summed up:
“Mrs Champion claims that her legal team let her down and acted negligently by making her sign an ill-advised plea and by apparently not explaining the ramifications of that plea. The named lawyers entirely deny this accusation and say she was happy with them until very recently.”
And that was it! Her application to be allowed a hearing, in which she would attempt to overturn her plea and have it retracted, was turned down. The Judges moved on to the merits of the next appeal application of a taxi driver who had raped his drunken female fare.
Simon took Hetty by the arm and bowed respectfully to the Judges before he guided her out of Court.
“I’m shocked too, darling girl. Who would believe that at an oral hearing, the claimant can’t speak? What a complete misnomer and a waste of more than two hundred pounds in travelling expenses.” Even Simon was despondent and did not know what to do to cheer Hetty up before the return journey but suggested shoe shopping and lunch on Bond Street.
April 2012.
Simon realised that Hetty needed more of a defence than he could give and spoke with the partner of the original law firm he had employed. The man was convinced by Simon to ignore the previous complaint of Aiden Hoare and sanction the renewed representation of Henrietta. The firm write to Court for the Judges authorisation of a legal funding transfer, then made a request to the previous lawyers for Henrietta’s file and notes.
It was blatantly obvious that the electronic notes of the interviews with their client had been opened and redacted, so they asked for the accompanying handwritten notes made by Sarah but they were flatly refused. It was explained to Simon and Hetty that the new firm could not demand the notes but it was expected that fellow lawyers would and should be forthcoming. They could not understand the refusal but Simon realised that the firm had covered their negligent tracks by injecting mythical conversations which intimated that they had fully appraised Hetty on all aspects of the reprisals of her plea.
The new firm were at a disadvantage but were not prepared to take the old firm to task in court. They simply set about preparing a new more acceptable S17 response which Hetty would be able to sign and submitted evidence from Oscar for his claim on the flat in which he and his mother lived. Everyone was understandably stunned when the CPS rejected the new S17 in favour of continuing the court process with the initial document prepared by her former lawyers.
In a private conversation with Hetty, Simon divulged his own dilemma: He told her that many years earlier his wife had requested a divorce when she became aware of his extra-marital adventures but he had not wanted the negative publicity or the loss of half his wealth and the power which it afforded him. He apparently convinced her to forgive him and keep up social appearances by giving her a written commitment to cause no future embarrassment and the guaranteed promise of 100% of his assets in writing if she remained by his side.
Unfortunately the inevitable gossip surrounding the developing relationship between Simon and Hetty and the number of times they had been seen together meant that his original excuse of legal assistance had worn too thin and his wife had walked out of the marital home. Simon was in a difficult position as his wife was entitled to everything as previously agreed. The Bentley had gone, the London House had been sold, the valuables, paintings, jewellery and wine had been removed from the house and Simon was left with a carpeted house, his bed and a few essentials in the kitchen. He decided to take free legal advice from a QC he had previously employed and knew well.
When he returned from London, he called in at Hetty’s home.
“My barrister pal says your case can’t be pulled back at this late stage and must now run its course. He reminded me that even the DPP said ‘one goes into court for a verdict, not justice’. The git ordered the lobster and said he hoped your judge would use compassion and discretion rather than stick to the rule book. As for my financial predicament; he reminded me how much I had paid to stitch myself into the legal and straight jacket in the first place. I don’t have the funds required to try to undo what has been done.”
“Did you have the lobster too? I know it’s your favourite.”
“The man’s legal pragmatism took away my appetite, but the little I ate, I enjoyed.”
May 2012.
Henrietta had been lead to believe by DC Wooster that once the frauds had been investigated, her complaints of domestic violence and extortion would then be addressed by the Police. She hoped that now she was released, the Police would begin the process of pursuing Terry but when she phoned to make enquiries about the police progress, she was told that the investigation could not be authorised.
Henrietta had been made aware by the Police that Terry would soon be released from prison and she became increasingly nervous that he might want to find and punish her. She felt that if the police did not bring him to task for his varying abuse, they would derelict their care of her and quash her Human Rights in the process. She wrote to the chief of her local force to make her complaint and reminded him of the police motto ‘to protect and serve’ and quoted the Equality Act 2010 in which ‘it would be unlawful for the police to discriminate in carrying out their functions’ and ‘police have a duty to treat victims and suspects fairly and equally in accordance with their human rights.’ Henrietta said she did not believe DC Wooster had acted appropriately.
She complained to the IPCC about the way she had been treated and received a reply in which she was told that as a year had passed since she first went into the police station, she was now out of time to make any complaint which might be considered. The IPCC wrote to her and claimed that it would be ‘unfair on the officer in question’ to try to remember the facts of an old case after so long.
Henrietta sat at her computer with newly acquired skills and Googled various sites on the internet. She could not cope with the idea that she was guilty by default and that no-one would help her recover her innocence or her money. She found the UK citizens’ rights and protection of law act 2000 in which it said all citizens have: The right to liberty and security, the right to a private life and family life, the right to not be discriminated against and the right to be able to protect one’s property. She scoffed at the list of rights and wondered what had happened to hers, as DC Wooster had given damning and inaccurate statements to the press which had been plastered all over the newspapers. Henrietta’s public ridicule ostracised her from most of her friends who could not understand why she had pleaded guilty if she wasn’t. Even Hetty’s mother said that ‘there is no smoke without fire.’
Henrietta wrote to the Prime Minister and met with her local MP, who after considering all the documents which Hetty and Simon presented to him, wrote to the IPCC and the Police on her behalf to complain. He could not be ignored and was able to arrange a meeting for Henrietta with an independent officer for the intended purpose of looking into the lack of action taken against Mr Newman. Ironically, the Detective sent to meet Henrietta was the head of the financial crimes unit and not independent at all. The Detective Inspector informed her that no investigation would be authorise
d until after the courts had confiscated all her assets. He also told her that an investigation into the abuse was not in the interest of the public purse or the police force. He accused her of wasting police time and being vexatious.
She repeatedly complained to IPCC and quoted the Metropolitan Police Chief who said: ‘Victims should have a say on whether the crimes against them are investigated.’ However the IPCC informed her that they had granted a dispensation to the Police which meant that they could handle her complaint in whatever way they saw fit, including taking no action at all. The IPCC also made clear that the law would not allow a ‘convicted criminal’ to challenge the right of the police force. They said the matter was closed and she was subsequently advised by various officers to ‘get over it’, ‘let sleeping dogs lie’ and told that she was good a good looking woman who could begin her life again.
Henrietta was furious that the police refused to help her and sought to take the last of her assets to pay for Terry’s crimes, yet they had allowed him almost two years before his arrest which enabled him to hide his stolen wealth off-shore and create documents which alleged he was without means. Simon was sickened by the display of professional negligence and inefficiency and decided to take her to employ the services of a renowned and respected private asset recovery company. He paid for an agent to hand deliver a prepared statutory demand to Terry for the recover the sum of the signed loan notes he had given Hetty previously. At least then she would have some money to offer up to the court. Simon asked to be kept informed of the Servers progress and was delighted when he was told that the defendant had ‘flipped’ and had to be restrained by the prison guards when he had been handed the document and had made threats to kill Henrietta upon his release. Simon requested the Server to follow up on the visit and chase Terry who refused to pay. The agent duly arranged to serve Terry with a request for his bankruptcy, so that Henrietta could make a claim on his not so hidden assets and Simon was informed of the date and time the Server was to re-visit Terry in prison. He planned a celebratory lunch with Hetty.
As they sat in the restaurant waiting for confirmation of Terry’s demise, Simon’s phone rang. He answered swiftly but could not believe the news. The agent told him that despite the booked visit, the prison had failed to inform his company that Terry had been released two days earlier on the instruction of the CPS and therefore the agent was unable to complete his mission. It meant that Hetty’s claim was lost and the process could not be repeated unless they could find Terry within 24hrs and the prison had declined to furnish the agent with the necessary information. The return of her money was lost forever. Henrietta felt lightheaded and sick but it could not blame the chilled Chablis.
June 2012.
The Police suggested that Henrietta’s MP was wasting valuable time on a constituent who was a fantasist. The politician phoned to tell her that he did not know how to help her further but told her not to give up. He said that since the heightened public awareness of sexual abuse from recent celebrity cases in the press, Parliament had sanctioned funding for every force to have a new Domestic & Sexual Violence team and were taking all manner of abuse seriously. He told her that the CPS had even begun to prosecute offenders for stalking and therefore suggested she go to make a fresh statement to the newly appointed department at the local Police Headquarters.
Henrietta visited main city centre police station and was interviewed by a female police officer who took notes but said it was unlikely that anything could be done after such a long time as the crimes were time limited and had become ‘statue barred’ and warned her that the case would only be investigated on the approval of the CPS. The officer said that if Hetty’s case was considered to have little chance of success in court or the CPS didn’t like the case, it would be dropped.
An appointment was made for Henrietta to give recorded evidence at a specialist unit and after five and a half hours of video recorded evidence she was asked to sign the tapes over. When she asked for a copy of the tapes she was refused police evidence.
A few days later a young officer from Sexual Violence unit phoned to tell Henrietta that no-one knew where Newman was, so they couldn’t arrest him but suggested that Hetty be vigilant and keep her doors and windows locked. Hetty suggested they find Mr Newman through his court registered probation officer and let her know where he lived. A week later the same officer phoned once more to say that Terry had been interviewed but released without charge, as it was her word against his and she had no witnesses to corroborate her claims. They said they could not divulge his address to her but assured her that he did not live within thirty miles of her home. Henrietta could not believe that the police thought a few miles would deter Terry from finding her or visiting his children and had been told by her own lawyer that Terry would not have been electronically tagged as she had. It was preposterous.
She wrote to the Home Secretary and to the Director of Public Prosecutions to ask for guidance and help and enclosed the definition of a victim from Oxford dictionary: ‘A person who has suffered harm’ or ‘economic loss which was directly caused by criminal conduct.’
She received a reply from Home Office saying; ‘the code for Crown Prosecutors prohibits a prosecution from continuing if there is not a realistic prospect of a conviction’.
July 2012.
Simon drove Henrietta to London and whilst he had lunch with a business acquaintance at his club in Mayfair, Hetty went into Southwark Crown Court with the assistance of her new team. Her barrister confirmed that Henrietta’s private number plate had been sold and the money sent to the Regional Asset Recovery Team of the CPS but explained the difficulty of selling the car when Mr Hennessey held the V5 document for the vehicle. Her barrister also explained that other assets were not legally within her control and asked the Judge to vary his Order accordingly.
The Judge refused to alter the amount to be paid but was prepared to allow an extension of time to recover the assets from Simon and Oscar and suggested that Henrietta apply to the DVLA for a copy of the relevant document in order to sell the vehicle and transfer the funds to the court. Hetty felt that she would be stealing and breaking the law if she pleased the judge and told him so. His face flushed and he was adamant that if he had deemed the asset to be hers, it was legally hers! Hetty was unconvinced and asked what would happen if the vehicle’s owner called the police but the incensed judge silenced her and ordered her to do as she had been directed before the next hearing, then rose and left the court.
As Henrietta left for home, she bumped into her old barrister wearing his robes.
“Hello Kevin, how are you?” The barrister scrutinised the warmth of her smile before answering with reassurance.
“In excellent health, thank you. I noticed your name on today’s court listings. Still fighting the system? You must be tired but I am immensely proud of you. I can’t tell you how bad I feel about your demise. I just thought that when it came to paying, Simon would write a cheque to save you. I was shocked that he couldn’t.” He squeezed the wig in his hand. “Must dash, I’m in court to help another client.” He leaned forward nervously to give Hetty a kiss on her cheek.
“I hope you do a better job this time.”
“Naughty!” He scolded benevolently and waggled his finger as he headed for the entrance door to the Court.
Henrietta’s solicitor explained that the Judge’s Order meant that she had to wrestle for legal ownership of the flat she shared with Oscar, sell the car Simon had bought for her and recover the various sums of money which the Judge deemed to be hers. She was told that she must act legally and with integrity and send both Oscar and Simon a formal letter informing them of her needs and her intended action if they did not hand over the disputed assets. They also told her to go to the DVLA office, as the Judge had requested and ask for a replacement V5 and claim that she had lost it.
The following day she found the vehicle licencing office and went inside and took a numbered ticket and a place in the queue. When s
he was finally called, she told the clerk that she wanted a replacement document as she needed to sell the vehicle. The man asked her to confirm that she was the vehicle’s owner and took a few details which did not tally with his computer screen. He held up the paper sample V5 document to the glass screen and asked her if she could read, then said in a loud and sarcastic voice which was heard throughout the waiting room, that the writing within the thick blue line categorically stated that the document was NOT proof of ownership but simply identified the person responsible for taxing and insuring the vehicle. He asked her to leave or he would call for security staff to forcibly remove her. He called for the next ticket number and she slid out of the offices with a red face and tears in her eyes.
Simon was dismayed by Hetty’s intention to sell his property and questioned her deplorable actions. She told him about the recent hearing and the orders of the sententious judge and handed him a ‘letter before action’ and whilst he wanted to laugh, he also felt renewed anger towards the system which tore the poor woman’s life apart and tried to ruin the relationship with her only child and her closest advisor. He promised to help Oscar face the awkward situation he envisaged as Henrietta applied to the local County Court for her claim on their assets.
The Unsuspecting Housewife Page 27