Reporter Anthony France quoted the photographer as saying:
‘I noticed a silver car following me. I did a few turns but it was still on my tail, so I headed for the M25. It was then that he overtook me, stopped in the road and rammed the front of my car. There was a loud smash as the two cars collided. I struggled to keep on the road. I drove for a short distance and he rammed me again. This time I lost control. It was then that he ran out of his car with a gun in his hand. He kicked my door, pulled it open and dragged me out, screaming and shouting: “Who the fuck are you?” I said: “I’m a Sun photographer.” He held me on the ground with the gun to my head. After a few minutes, he marched me towards the roundabout with the gun at my head. When we got there some gardeners were tending the plot. I asked him to show ID but he refused. The gardeners asked him to prove he was an officer but he again refused.’
The article repeated the Met damage limitation that Page was on a career break and the DPS was investigating how his company went bust leaving 150 officer investors £1.3 million out of pocket.
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Thursday, 23 November: Richard Humby had agreed to speak to the Operation Aserio team at Jubilee House in the morning. Before the tape machine was switched on they told him that only Page was under investigation. More interestingly, the DPS said their investigation might remain disciplinary so Humby should not stop his civil action to recover money. Clearly, this was a message he should relay back to other investors.
Humby made it clear he regarded himself as a victim who had been conned into investing over £150,000. He admitted receiving some cash returns, then added defensively, ‘Cash isn’t a dirty word provided it’s properly dealt with’. The money to invest with Page, he said, had come from a buy-to-let business, which he had registered with the Met.
Humby said Page had ‘pestered’ him to take a free BAT holiday. He explained that he didn’t know Fahim Baree, who had organized the ‘sweetener trips’, but Page told him his best friend had £500,000 in Dubai. Page, he claimed, also told him a Mortgage Guarantee figure was ‘bribed’ to release money on the barns.
But it was the discovery in July that the barns had been repossessed that led Humby to solicitors, while others were still thinking Page would turn up at the door with a large cheque. ‘I’m not gonna name names [of other officer investors] now because it’s up to them to do that if they come forward,’ he told the DPS, who didn’t push him.
However, Humby was willing to speculate that the total investment with Page was more that £2.5 million. Jimmy’s officers had invested about £900,000, but he was less sure about those at BP, saying it could be £400,000. And as well as investors from the MoD Police and the Special Escort Group, five Essex businessmen were allegedly owed £750,000 he said, plus £600,000 to those in Bristol.
Humby said he and other officers hadn’t taken the legal route earlier because Page warned them off saying that way no one would get any money back. But now one firm represented him, and at least six others, in trying to recover over £700,000. He said they had gone down the legal route because they were cops ‘in this mess together’. SO14 he described as ‘a fairly tight knit sort of place to work … it’s a little family’.
Detective Sergeant Tracey Hunt explained to Humby that Operation Aserio expected to be ‘inundated’ after the Sun article and at least fourteen people had already come forward. She stressed that Page’s activities could be genuine because at this stage the DPS didn’t ‘really know the score’ about the scope. Some investors had ‘ignored’ earlier approaches by her team until the Lakeside gun incident, she said. ‘It sort of forced our hand … and I think with it being in the press a lot of people thought “I’m not alone” because I think a lot of people felt they were on their own and didn’t want to look stupid.’
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Saturday, 25 November: As soon as he was released on bail, Page’s priority was to ‘put a cap’ on witnesses giving evidence against him.
Some investors who had read the Sun decided that their money was lost for ever. Others were now too scared of Page to know what to do. So when he rang to assure them that those who stayed away from the courts and the DPS would get paid out of the money coming in February, they listened politely.
Page rang Mubasher Hussain again to discuss the situation with Abishake Gill. The Heathrow baggage handler had recently pleaded with Page by phone not to shoot him.
Hussain, as usual, was non-responsive but recorded the call, which he later gave to the police.
‘Sorry I didn’t get back to you yesterday but I’ve been busy obviously,’ Page explained with understatement.
‘So are things looking better?’
‘Yeah, I mean they’ve charged me with some load of bollocks. I’ve got to go back to court next week and go not guilty, and then I should imagine it will get written off, mate. It’s just that they’ve had to charge me ’cause they’re worried about the fucking newspapers and all that. D’ya know what I mean?’
‘Yeah.’
‘… if they write it off straight away it’s gonna look like “cop gets off”, you know, “cops look after cops”.’
‘Yeah.’
‘… which is what they are already doing now, yeah.’
‘Yeah.’
‘Now look. I’m gonna give you my new secure number.’
‘Right, okay.’
‘You know Bee [Bimal Lodhia] stole that forty grand?’
‘Yeah.’
‘I need to find out what he’s done with it.’
‘How do I find out?’
‘I am suspecting that he bought a place in Thailand and that Paresh [Solanki] was privy to that information.’
‘I’m not sure if it’s that much, I’m not sure that Abi’s trying to add in his interest payments as well … It’s difficult for me ’cause I don’t know Bee. But I trust Paresh and I don’t think Paresh would be in anything like this. Paresh would tell me. Paresh went to school with one of my best friends, so that’s why I can trust Paresh. He wouldn’t be ripping me off.’
‘Do you want to chat to Paresh because I’ve got to be careful ’cause I’m still on bail for these serious offences. They’ve charged me with possession of a firearm, a handgun, and fucking nonsense like that.’
‘Yeah.’
‘… it’s all fucking pants. It’ll get written off ’cause the coppers who come round my house and told me my life’s in danger are my fucking witnesses, ain’t they? At the end of the day they’ve charged me with impersonating a police officer, fucking idiots. I am a police officer. So do you hear what I’m saying? The charges are gonna fall off large, I’ll get off with it total.’
‘Yeah.’
‘So I need you to speak to Paresh. There’s no way I took Abi’s money.’
‘I know you haven’t. Paresh knows you didn’t take it, but we are trying to wonder what Bee’s done with it ourselves … To be honest we don’t know how many other people Bee might have done this to either.’
‘It’s very crucial that we find out and give half of it back to fucking Abi to shut him up.’
‘Yeah, yeah.’
‘…otherwise he’s gonna go to the fucking cops and obviously they are gonna to drag me in it.’
‘Have you told Abi you haven’t taken it?’
‘I’ve had to, mate.’
‘Leave him to me, ’cause he’s thinking everyone’s shafting him.’
‘Bee took the fucking dough, mate, and what has he done with it, the cheeky cunt?
‘I know.’66
Two days later, Gill and Page met at the Burger King on the top floor of Lakeside shopping centre. He gave Page £14,000 in a brown envelope and returned Laura’s wedding ring. The money was from the Lloyds joint savings account with his wife, which he had dipped into without her full knowledge. Over the next few months Gill put in another £5500 by bank transfer to Page’s father, bringing his total investment to almost £40,000. On one transfer Gill instructed Lloyds to enter the reference �
��Abi Last Chance’. Terry Page transferred the money to CMC on the instructions of his son, who gambled it all away.
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Wednesday, 6 December: Commander Sue Akers had decided that Page would be suspended. He presented himself at Romford police station with his new police federation representative because Mick ‘the Don’ Hickman had declared ‘a conflict of interest’.
When a senior officer duly suspended him, a ‘suited and booted’ Page was polite, according to a DPS report.
‘Who is the officer in the case in relation to the Osman warning, guv?’ he asked. ‘Because I’m not happy at being told me and my family’s lives are in danger and then nothing happens.’
Detective Sergeant Tracey Hunt from Operation Aserio stepped in to explain it was Superintendent Sean Walters of SO14 and Essex Police managing the matter. ‘We are doing the investigation into your financial affairs and monitoring Essex Police’s investigation of the incident with the Sun photographer,’ she said.
‘Can I contact friends at work? There are people who have spoken to you lot, and then contacted me,’ Page told Hunt with delight.
‘You are not to discuss the investigation or interfere with it as outlined in the letter you had from Essex Police,’ said Hunt. ‘We will inform payroll you are back at work but suspended on full pay.’67
Back at home, Inspector Tracey Bell from SO14 called to touch base with Laura about her husband’s welfare following the Osman warning.
‘We are going to the press,’ Laura told the SO14 officer.
‘Your husband is a serving police officer and can’t speak to the press.’
‘He is but I’m not.’
‘It could make matters worse for him if you do,’ Bell responded.
A week later, Laura was told to call Superintendent Walters at SO14 as he had some important news. She dialled the number with some nervousness.
‘Oh hello, Mrs Page. I just wanted to let you know the good news. You will be pleased to know the death threat has been lifted which was behind the Osman served on you and Paul last month.’
‘Well, I am pleased,’ said Laura, ‘but I am also angry at being kept in the dark about who was behind it.’
‘Mrs Page, I can’t go into the intelligence behind the Osman warning. This is just a welfare call to let you know you needn’t worry.’
‘I don’t believe there ever was a threat, if you want to know the truth. We’ve discussed it, Paul and I, and think it was just a way for them DPS officers to get a foot in my door to question me.’
‘Mrs Page, I can’t go into this, especially not on a police line.’
‘Well, let me tell you I can go into it and the truth will come out in court.’
‘There is a time and a place, and I agree that is court. Can I speak to Paul?’
‘He’s not here.’
‘Could you tell him to call me, please? If he doesn’t call I’m afraid I will have to send officers around. Thanks.’
It has never been disclosed on what basis the Met now felt they could tell the Pages there was no longer a threat to their lives or the possibility of kidnap.
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Monday, 18 December: Laura was pushing Harry around her local Sainsbury’s when she noticed a woman employee smiling strangely at her. At first, Laura thought it was a parent from the school. She smiled back, but as they got nearer, the women’s demeanour changed.
‘Do you think you are going to walk in here and smile at me? I’m Lionel Gore’s girlfriend.’
‘I can tell, you fat fucking bitch,’ Laura replied. ‘I’m going to report you to the manager.’
‘That’s alright because you’ll have Old Bill coming round. They are right what they say about you. You are a hard-faced bitch.’
That very day, Lionel Gore, an engineer, was giving a witness statement to Operation Aserio about his £45,000 investment with Page. In it, Gore explained that his brother, Nigel, had worked with Page at Buckingham Palace and recommended the scheme to him. Although Page had suggested taking up references from ‘high-ranking officers’ before he invested, Gore said he trusted his brother’s judgement. The £45,000 investment came from selling his house and moving in with his girlfriend, Jenny Palmer, the woman now confronting Laura at Sainsbury’s.
Gore had received cash returns of £5500 but then it stopped. He started to worry when he was laid off and couldn’t get hold of Page. His brother, who had moved to Hampshire Police, told him to call Mick Hickman at SO14. Gore recalled in his witness statement how ‘the Don’ said he would have advised against investing in the barns after receiving nothing back from a significant amount of his own money given to Page.
Page had tried to mollify Gore by agreeing to pay for the ‘once in a lifetime holiday’ to Florida, which the engineer was planning with his children. But days before the departure, Baree had to cancel the holiday because of non-payment. When Lionel returned from a caravan staycation, he instructed debt collectors. They informed him that ULPD was recently dissolved and Page had a large number of country court judgments.
Laura couldn’t wait to get home and tell her husband about the Sainsbury’s showdown.
At 12.10 pm Page phoned Detective Inspector Michael Orchard at Jubilee House. He explained calmly that his wife had just been abused. But Laura took the phone off him and relayed her version of the story, in particular the part where Operation Aserio detectives had apparently described her as ‘a hard-faced bitch’.
Orchard refused to reveal to whom his team had spoken but assured Laura that they acted with professionalism at all times. He advised her to report the matter to Essex Police. Something Jenny Palmer had already done.
Page took back the phone and told Orchard that DPS detectives were also telling witnesses that he had ‘seen more money than they ever will’. No longer calm, he added, ‘Listen to me, you slimy cunt, tell people my wife’s a hard-faced bitch and I’ll …’
Laura terminated the call before her husband got them into even more trouble.68
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Thursday, 21 December: With just days to go before Christmas, the Copleys finally lost their eviction battle and had to move out of Barn C.
The next day, BAT investor Jit Mandalia was celebrating his birthday at a restaurant with his family. The children were sitting at another table while Mandalia discussed with his wife the lost money from their joint account. After a few drinks, he decided to text Page.
‘Have a great Xmas. It’ll be your last as next year you and your wife will be behind bars and your kids taken into care, cunts.’ Laura reported the text to Essex Police but not that she had rung Mandalia back and left similar Christmas greetings.
Laura’s efforts to give her boys the best Christmas possible were frustrated by Page’s delusion that he could still gamble his way out of trouble. On Boxing Day morning, he was sitting with the laptop gambling on the darts.
‘I’m not staying in if you are going to do that all day. How much have you got in there?’ Laura asked.
‘About £11,000.’
‘Well, just leave it there and come out with us. I’m taking the kids to the leisure park.’
‘No, no, no,’ he said waving her away. ‘If I stay at this all day I can get it up to £22,000.’
Laura left with the boys but didn’t enjoy the day out. She couldn’t bring herself to ring home to discover how much he had lost. When she eventually returned there was nothing left.
The resentment had been growing over the Christmas period and finally exploded between them at a New Year’s Eve party. A few glasses of champagne down, Laura thought she had caught Page looking at another woman. That she wasn’t even attractive made her more enraged so she attacked him without warning.
Page had never hit Laura, but the ferocious and unwarranted assault made him lash out. She stormed out of the party with her nose bleeding profusely moments before the bells chimed for a new year. ‘I was walking around Chafford Hundred with blood everywhere and no one stopped to ask me
if I was OK.’
Chapter 18
Annus horribilis
During a speech marking her forty-year reign, the Queen described 1992 as a ‘horrible year’. Her son Andrew had separated from Fergie, who was photographed topless with a Texan toe-sucking millionaire; her daughter Anne divorced; her step-daughter Diana separated from Charles then participated in a tell-all book; and Windsor Castle caught fire sparking a public row over why the taxpayer should pick up the repair bill in a recession when the landlady was so rich.
The annus horribilis of one of her more unhinged Royal Protection officers came fifteen years later in 2007. It marked a personal nadir for Paul Page that would further damage the reputations of Buckingham Palace and Scotland Yard as they tried to get a handle on the escalating scandal.
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‘This is the last-chance saloon, mate. I’ve got no one else to turn to. I’ve got no one … I need the five [grand]. Is there any chance it’s gonna be done?’
A desperate Page was once again trying to raise any amount of cash to feed his degenerate gambling. It was early 2007 and he was still peddling the lie that a corrupt Mortgage Guarantee employee was willing to release £870,000 equity from the barns but needed a £30,000 bung because of the charges placed by officers from St James’s Palace on the development.
Mubasher Hussain was once again taping the call, which would eventually be passed to the DPS. Hussain was playing Page but also desperate to recover the money he and Paresh Solanki had invested of their own and on behalf of others.
‘We’re trying our bloody best. But the thing is all these people will ask for owed money by us,’ Hussain told Page.
‘I need that money, Bash, and I know you need it.’
‘The thing is, you’re gonna guarantee us £300,000 that you owe me and Paresh is gonna come back to us first before these other people?’
‘I’m guaranteeing you will be paid out first. Don’t worry about the other monkeys, yeah? You worry about yourself and I’ll deal with my people. I’ve got another half mill in the pipeline and that is crucial to me, mate. I must have that.’
For Queen and Currency: Audacious fraud, greed and gambling at Buckingham Palace Page 25
