For Queen and Currency: Audacious fraud, greed and gambling at Buckingham Palace

by Michael Gillard

  It fell to BAT boss Rahul Sharma to recover the position for the prosecution. He strode confidently into court in an open-neck shirt, stripy trousers and carrying a Chanel bag. But his evidence was anything but fragrant and even left the judge perplexed and apparently unhappy.

  Sharma accepted he had mentioned to Khan and possibly Page something about a £100,000 company cash-flow shortfall following the tsunami. After investing the same amount with Page, Sharma described having a brief wobble. ‘I didn’t really know what we were getting [into],’ he told the court, so he asked for his money back. However, he reinvested the £100,000 because he said Page was offering a 20 per cent monthly return and worked for the Queen. Sharma said he never stopped to think how Page could pay such quick returns, but he was clear it was not from spread betting.

  All was fine with the investment, he said, until the other queen in his life, his wife, discovered what he’d done. She was not amused about his use of company funds and the lack of security. Sharma said he too became concerned that BAT’s auditors would discover he had used company money in a private property investment. His wife wanted the money back and Sharma admitted that the jobs of Khan and Baree were on the line.

  Before Cooper started his cross-examination, Rivlin made an interesting observation to the barristers about Sharma’s evidence thus far. ‘It must be obvious to everyone this witness is being somewhat vague about certain matters,’ he said with Sharma and the jury out of court.

  When cross-examination started, Cooper showed the BAT boss a NatWest document for the £100,000 investment in which he had recorded the purpose of the transfer as ‘cash for trading’. Sharma claimed it meant trading in the barns not spread betting. He went on the attack and accused Page of running a Madoff-style Ponzi scheme.

  When Pardoe took over the questioning, Sharma had already conceded that in the heat of the moment he had once made ‘a death threat’ to the Page family over the phone. When Laura’s barrister asked him about the abusive call, Sharma conceded that he may have called her ‘a fucking bitch’ and said he was going to ‘kill’ her and the children. He apologized to the Pages but in the same breath, before leaving the witness box, asked for his money back.

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  Just before Fahim Baree was due to give his evidence, Laura had a vicious but illuminating row with her husband. The judge and jury were not there to hear it but the press, prosecution and defence barristers could hardly block it out.

  It was just before the late May Bank Holiday weekend and Page had come to court in a tracksuit. He was expecting to spend the next few days locked up for refusing to comply with the judge’s recent decision that he report twice daily to the police.

  Laura sometimes goaded her husband into pissing off Rivlin, but on this occasion it dawned on her that if Page was banged up she would have no money for the kids as only he could sign their benefits cheque.

  ‘I’m only fucking here because of you!’ she shouted at Page. He could hardly argue with that but wasn’t in the mood to back down either.

  ‘Well, you fucking drove the Range Rovers.’

  ‘Shut your fucking mauff!’ Laura barked back.

  ‘You knew what was going on,’ Page told her dismissively.

  In the end, he put on a suit, made no stand against Rivlin and was at liberty over the Bank Holiday with benefit money to spend.

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  Baree came to court in a grey suit and white open-neck shirt. Day took him gently through his childhood friendship with Page. Baree then explained how he was cool towards his best friend’s property scheme until he saw him driving flash cars.

  Baree had piled in with £30,000 without a contract and opened a CMC account for Page who he believed was spread betting as ‘a side-line hobby’. He later opened a second spread-betting account with IG Index but distanced himself from any gambling. ‘If I ever involved myself in any way with spread betting it would be on Mr Page’s instructions,’ he said. He also reminded the jury that he had been left with a £41,000 debt on the CMC account.

  There followed a series of admissions: allowing his name to be used on ULPD sales documents, bringing in investors, acting as a conduit to pass on quarterly payments and allowing his bank account for transfers to strangers.

  However, there came a point, Baree recalled, when he was under ‘pressure’ from Sharma and BAT colleagues to recover their money. His boss was beginning to ‘panic’, he said. But Baree denied any knowledge of a kidnap plot or being involved in threats.83

  Throughout the ULPD fraud, Page had held off investors with the excuse that money invested through Baree in Dubai’s booming property market had been temporarily frozen on its way back into the UK because of the war on terror.

  Before the trial, Page’s lawyers had asked for Baree’s bank statements to be disclosed. They were looking for the £370,000 that Page had falsely claimed he had given his best friend to invest in Dubai, where Baree had family.

  The lawyers’ analysis of the account during the ULPD period found no evidence of such a huge amount of money going to Dubai. But they were looking forward to cross-examining Baree about an apparent black hole of around £100,000 that they thought they had discovered. The investors’ money it seemed went through his bank account but hadn’t been transferred to another investor or to CMC.

  The star prosecution witness admitted to the jury that Page had paid for a family holiday to Dubai in the summer of 2005. However, he steadfastly denied investing any money from Page there.

  When he was asked to explain the £100,000 black hole, Baree was unable to tell the jury where it had gone but he did confirm that the DPS had never questioned him as a suspect in fraud or money laundering.

  By far the most dramatic part of Baree’s evidence, however, came when he was made to explain the decision to re-mortgage his mother’s house for £150,000. He said he did it because Page needed money to complete the barns, even though most of the money, £80,000, was transferred to Steve Phillips and from there to CMC.

  Baree broke down in tears. But after regaining his composure and taking a sip of water, he said of Page: ‘This is a person very close to my family that helped me bury my father …’ He broke down again, before adding, ‘… He knew that home didn’t have a mortgage. Page is just a liar. I’m sorry.’

  Sadly for Cooper, Baree was the last witness he cross-examined in the trial. On 9 June, the barrister breezed into court and told the judge: ‘My Lord, Mr Page met us this morning and has told us adamantly, despite us attempting to dissuade him, that he wishes to dispense with our services. I’ve reminded him about my Lord’s letter and the potential very detrimental effect on his wife’s case.’

  Rivlin sighed. ‘This is not the first time we’ve been here. Is there anything I can do to help?’

  This time Page was going through with it. He told the judge he felt fit and competent to represent himself. In fact he had been drinking the night before and by Laura’s reckoning was still pissed on the morning train into court, making a show of her by loudly bad-mouthing a woman passenger.

  Day knew the decision almost certainly meant the end of Page’s chances of getting off. However, there was concern that the former Royal Protection officer was now truly a wild card with no knowing where his style of cross-examination would go.

  Baree was recalled to give more evidence, this time with his former best friend asking the questions. There was a buzz in court akin to the moments before the opening bell in a well-matched title fight.

  But first, the judge was asked to decide whether Baree should be given a caution against self-incrimination. The unusual matter arose because his mother had given evidence directly contradicting her son about the application he, Paresh Solanki and Bimal Lodhia had organized to re-mortgage her house.

  Mrs Baree denied that her son had taken her to a mortgage broker with her passport. This left the question hanging how were false details entered on the application form given to Abbey National.

  In the end, t
he judge decided not to caution Baree. Page was unleashed to lob his first question at his former best friend, who sat with his legs apart like a man watching a lap dance.

  ‘My Lord allowed me to ask you to come back, Barretts, to answer questions,’ Page explained, deliberately using Baree’s childhood nickname.

  ‘Who?’ bristled the witness. ‘I’d like you to address me as Mr Baree.’

  Rivlin intervened in the testosterone fest and told Baree it was difficult but he must answer Page’s questions truthfully. Baree was visibly annoyed at being asked about his mother’s re-mortgage and laughed at what he called Page’s ‘stupid questions’. However, he admitted telling Lodhia that there were debts he needed to clear with the re-mortgage money. When Page pressed further, Baree gave an extraordinary answer, that on the face of it looked like an admission of fraud. ‘The mortgage,’ he said, ‘was taken out on the pretence of getting a holiday or retirement home for my mum, as you know.’

  Page was already feeling the emotion when Baree added, ‘My mum trusted me and trusted you’. At that point Page started to well up. ‘I am not going to call her back,’ he replied tearfully. ‘I can’t face her.’

  There was a silence in court, which Page broke when he informed the judge, ‘That’s enough, I’m finished!’

  Rivlin suggested a break to discuss the legal ramifications of what had just happened in court but without the witness or jury present. With Baree gone, Page started crying again. ‘I want him out of here. I don’t want him here anymore,’ he told the judge.

  Rivlin said it was open to Page to report Baree to the police for mortgage fraud but he regarded the matter as ‘a drop in the ocean’ especially as most of the re-mortgage money had gone to CMC.

  Baree was recalled but only to face questions from Pardoe, who felt he should have been cautioned before giving further evidence. The surly star prosecution witness now suggested his mother may have been sitting in the car outside the mortgage broker’s office, but he couldn’t recall if anyone came out to verify her passport picture. ‘You are lying on your feet,’ Pardoe told him.

  Bimal Lodhia’s evidence was little help to Baree because the prosecution dramatically announced before he took the stand that they had dropped him as their witness. Douglas Day QC had told the judge and his opposite numbers on the defence bench that matters had recently come to light, which meant the prosecution no longer regarded Lodhia as a witness of truth.

  It emerged that Lodhia had been made bankrupt in 2007. But when the prosecution barristers examined his bank statements and credit card history, they discovered it no longer married with the witness statement Lodhia had earlier given the DPS.

  The prosecution had also disclosed that some of its witnesses had minor criminal offences. This included Lodhia, who had a shoplifting conviction as a youth.

  Judge Rivilin took the unusual step of cautioning him against self-incrimination before Lodhia began his evidence. The mortgage broker denied acting fraudulently over the re-mortgage of Mrs Baree’s house or stealing money from relatives and clients on the pretext of investing with Page.

  However, his bank statements showed substantial monies were given over to Lodhia but near to £100,000 wasn’t passed on to Page. He claimed his car had been robbed and all financial records were lost that could prove his innocence. He denied he had kept any investors’ money.84

  The jury was also treated to an elaborate story of how gangsters had become involved in Page’s syndicate. Lodhia claimed a property developer client had borrowed money from some Turks and Russians to invest short term in Page’s scheme. When they received no returns, they sent heavies to Lodhia’s office and threatened him but the mortgage adviser didn’t tell the police because he didn’t want to get involved.

  Witness Paresh Solanki didn’t help either when he said he no longer associated with Lodhia. Solanki only admitted filling out the initial approval in principle form. He said he did so without speaking to Mrs Baree. He expressed horror that his home address had been falsely used on her application form. He said he believed Lodhia had filled out the rest of it.

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  There were more tears and hard to accept explanations when Bristol couple Steve and Nicola Phillips gave evidence. He explained to the jury how he had driven around the West Country in a Porsche bringing in investors, taking cash commissions from money going through his HSBC account and the CMC one opened in his wife’s name.

  Steve Phillips later undermined the prosecution case when he told the jury that he only ever acted on the instructions of Page and Adam McGregor. He said he didn’t question their word because they were police officers and in McGregor’s case a friend too. The fruit and veg salesman was taken by surprise when it was pointed out in court that Avon and Somerset Police regarded him as a suspect in the fraud. As far as he was aware, he said, the DPS saw him as an innocent victim.

  That wasn’t the view of Bristol investor Adrian Marsh. He told the jury that Phillips had lied to him and that he had expected to see him in the dock.

  Pardoe made a good job testing Nicola Phillips’s claim that she had no idea the CMC account she’d opened involved spread betting. Through many tears, she denied opening the CMC welcome letter, which contained multiple references to spread betting.

  ‘Is what you said about CMC true?’ Pardoe asked.

  ‘I think I am ignorant, yes,’ she replied.

  ‘Do you read your own bank statements?’

  ‘Yes.’

  Pardoe took her to one where next to transfers of £11,000 and £20,000 were references to ‘CMC Spreadbet Plc’. ‘In one week you had caused to be transferred to CMC Spreadbet £36,000.’

  ‘Because Paul asked me to,’ she replied crying and holding a tissue to her nose. ‘It was an account on the Internet, but I didn’t understand what it was.’

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  Police officers are supposed to be used to giving evidence in court. But most of the line of DPS detectives who took the stand to defend the integrity of Operation Aserio looked like an inexperienced and overly defensive bunch with little mastery of the detail. ‘Woolly’ was how one prosecution source described their performance.

  Page scored an early point with the jury when he showed the DPS had decided not to refer their investigation to the police watchdog until just before the trial. The Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) had been set up in April 2004 as a result of the Stephen Lawrence case, and although a creature of the DPS there were some civilian commissioners who could give it a semblance of independence from the police.

  Detective James Wingrave, who conducted the first financial investigation from November 2004 to March 2005, could not explain why there was no IPCC supervision of the DPS operation. His boss, Detective Inspector Michael Orchard, who had led Operation Aserio since its start in April 2006, admitted the non-referral was a mistake. Unconvincingly, Orchard explained that the DPS thought it was unnecessary because the events had all happened off duty, when Page was on a career break and had ‘little dealings with the police’. However, he tried to reassure the jury by saying that ‘a lot of senior [DPS] officers were aware of the investigation throughout because of the nature of it’.

  Page’s problem was that in exposing Met shenanigans and failures, he was also at risk of building his own gallows. ‘If I was stopped earlier I wouldn’t be in the trouble I am now,’ he told the jury. He was going to ‘take what’s coming’ but not without showing that Aserio was ‘bent’.

  Wingrave did not agree. He accepted that the DPS had received a suspicious transaction report about Page as early as 1999 but shifted blame to SO14. The DPS officer said he was ‘surprised’ that senior management at SO14, who he had briefed in 2005, hadn’t acted on his recommendation to consider Page’s welfare. ‘We were concerned that a man with a gun guarding the Royal Family, with gambling debts, could be a risk to the Royal Family and other people,’ Wingrave said.

  The evidence that Operation Aserio wasn’t fair was staring the
jury in the face, Page told them. ‘I feel the back row’s a bit empty,’ he said before asking Orchard to explain why his agents were not holding hands with him in the dock.

  The inspector gave reasons that were difficult to conform with the evidence the jury had heard over the last two months. He said: ‘[Baree’s] account was, with others, that he was a pawn in Mr Page’s dealings without realizing the bigger picture.’ McGregor was another ‘pawn in Page’s affairs’ Orchard told the jury. Similarly, Phillips came forward and it was apparent he had lost money too. Orchard reasoned from an overly narrow and illogical position that the Bristol agent could not have been a party to any crime because he wouldn’t have got his family members involved.85

  Turning to the threats to kill charge, Page asked why no one else was facing a similar offence. Orchard’s reply was remarkable. He said as the senior investigating officer he had only found out during the trial that Anjam Khan was a suspect behind the Osman warning he had personally delivered to Page in 2006.

  The judge viewed much of these admissions as off the point. He was willing to allow Page some latitude in calling senior police officers. But when he wanted to call SO14 boss, Lord Loughborough, the judge refused. Instead, his former second in command was put forward.

  Retired Chief Superintendent Peter Prentice was once the Queen’s bodyguard. He had left SO14 in 2005 soon after receiving the briefing on Page from Wingrave.

  Like a fighter pacing his corner and waiting for the bell, Page was itching to get at Prentice and ask all manner of impertinent questions. But when it came to it, like an institutionalised police officer, he still called him ‘sir’.

  Page opened with the claim that the management culture at SO14 was to cover up for problem officers without involving the DPS. Prentice said on his watch the anti-corruption squad had been called in on up to ten occasions. Page asked if any of these involved an officer with a drink problem who was nicknamed ‘Shaky’. Prentice said no. What about an officer taking steroids who had his firearms ticket removed? Prentice recalled the case but not that the officer had also told his girlfriend while on night duty about his urge to put a gun in his mouth and pull the trigger.