by Neil Wild
At least the thoughts took his mind off work.
Brakespeare was relieved that Newberry seemed to be in one of his less aggressive moods as they entered the doors of Fountain Court Chambers in Birmingham.
He had not spoken to him since the previous Friday, and had left it to Margaret to make the necessary arrangements for the Conference. If Newberry was still nursing any grievance about his treatment by the firm, he had not mentioned it on the way up.
“It’s changed since I was last here,” Brakespeare thought as the automatic glass doors hissed open for them, and they entered a reception area looking for all the world like the foyer of an upmarket hotel.
“Take a seat”, he said to Newberry, and went towards the reception desk where no less than three receptionists sat with telephone headsets and microphones.
He had to wait a few minutes until one of them finished her call, and looked at him with a smile.
“Conference with Mr. Breezie – Mr Newberry and Mr Brakespeare.”
“I’ll tell him you’re here.”
Brakespeare sat next to Newberry on one of the soft leather sofas.
“So what’s going to happen?” asked Newberry for at least the third time that day.
“We’ll have a strategy meeting as to how best to prepare your defence.”
“I thought that we knew how – all those spreadsheets and stuff.”
“As I said in the car on the way up, let’s wait and see what Breezie says”
Brakespeare looked up to find a young man in a smart suit standing in front of him, looking at them both enquiringly. “Mr. Brakespeare and Mr. Newberry?”
Brakespeare nodded.
“Mr. Breezie will see you now. Would you come this way?”
He paused while they stood up and gathered their briefcases. He then led them up a flight of steps to the first floor.
“We could take the lift, but it’s quicker this way,” he laughed politely.
He opened a door which led into a room at the front of the building overlooking the back of the Victoria Law Courts and Steelhouse Lane Police Station.
Philip Breezie was in his early to mid forties, about 5’10” tall and dressed in the old fashioned pinstriped trousers and black jacket uniform of barristers, but no waistcoat, as perhaps as a sop to modernity.
His voice was plummy with perfectly rounded vowels.
“Mr. Brakespeare?” he enquired extending his right hand. Brakespeare took it and smiled. “How do you do?”
“And Mr. Newberry. Very pleased to meet you.” He shook the client’s hand rather more warmly, thought Brakespeare.
“Do come in and sit down, both of you.” He gestured them to where two plush chairs faced a large pedestal table.
“This is my pupil Giles Fortescue. You don’t mind if he listens in on this conference, do you?” he announced, and indicated the smart young man, who nodded appreciatively at the foregone decision.
“No of course not,” said Brakespeare. “Trainee barrister,” he muttered to Newberry.
Both men took their seats, and Fortescue moved to the end of the table, while Breezie sat down opposite them.
Brakespeare looked round the room. It was a typical barristers chambers. The wall behind him was lined with bookcases, while the side walls had the usual reproduction Ape and Spy prints of Victorian Judges long since forgotten.
The table was a large one designed to impress, and Brakespeare could see that the greater part of it’s surface was covered with the papers which had been so laboriously copied by the acned Tracy. Breezie had clearly flagged certain pages, and the Instructions that Brakespeare had dictated were open, with yellow highlights marked by Breezie. Most highlighted of all were Lisa’s spreadsheets. Breezie had obviously read his Instructions carefully; something not all barristers did.
“Ah, I nearly forgot. Can we offer you some refreshment - tea, coffee, water, fruit juice.?” He leant across towards Newberry. “I expect you’d like something stronger Mr. Newberry, but I’m afraid that Chambers does not allow the consumption of alcohol until after 6.00 pm.”
Newberry smiled and relaxed at the pompous joke. “Water for me please?”
“Coffee, white, no sugar” asked Brakespeare.
“Giles would you do the honours?” asked Breezie, and Fortescue picked up the telephone in front of him and passed the order down to whoever was at the other end of the line. He and Breezie were also having coffees.
“So, Mr. Newberry, not a very happy state of affairs.”
Newberry leant forward as if about to say something, but Breezie continued.
“I have read all the papers that Mr. Brakespeare has kindly forwarded to me, including the witness statements, particularly that of Mr. Black, Mr Brakespeare’s summary of your position and of course these splendid analyses.“ he waved the spreadsheets, and then paused. “Mr. Newberry, you are a professional man, and so I’m not going to beat about the bush. These are serious charges. It is not going to be easy to defeat them.”
“But what about the spreadsheets?” asked Newberry
“They help, but I am afraid that they do not defeat the Prosecution’s case. The charge against you Mr. Newberry is that you, and I quote, ‘ensured’ that the National Building Society would accept as security for loans properties, which in essence had not been properly valued.”
“But they had been properly valued!”
Breezie put up his hand. “Pray forgive me Mr. Newberry, my time is yours as far as this case is concerned, but I think that we can use it most profitably if you would allow me to deliver my preliminary opinion, and then we can discuss it at length.”
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.”
