Plantation A Legal Thriller

by J M S Macfarlane

Chapter 84

  One of the central police stations in Athens was in Syntagma Square, near the criminal courts. This was where Christoforou was taken immediately after the incident at the Parthenon.

  Two hours after he was arrested, finger-printed, photographed and given something to eat, he was brought up from the cells for questioning. He’d asked for a lawyer to be present and had spoken with someone from one of the local law firms.

  Before the police began their interrogation, an inspector from Athens Special Branch took Stefanides aside, to find out more about his involvement in the case. This was a wise precaution : the police knew Stefanides was linked to the Security Service and didn’t want the Justice Ministry on their backs. Initially, they’d complained amongst themselves when he’d asked them for assistance but had done as they were asked.

  The conversation was on the usual basis – if either of them were ever asked about it, they would deny it took place.

  “This case is cross-border,” said Stefanides. “In England, Portugal, Greece and Africa. The main fraudsters are shipowners and also smugglers. All of these criminals are Greek nationals. They’ve been pushing a claim against the British marine insurers for two years. A court in London gave them a judgment over a week ago. The only way to prevent them getting the money is to produce proof of fraud. That is why we were pursuing Christoforou – he was the ship’s master and this wasn’t the first ship he scuttled. If this type of activity is allowed to go on, Greek ships will be uninsurable and Piraeus will be empty.”

  “But if we’ve arrested him and he really was the Captain, isn’t that the proof the Englishman needs ?” asked the Inspector. “What else do the British courts want from us ?”

  “From what I’m told,” explained Stefanides, “the English judge might say that the ship was sunk by the Captain and the crew who stole the cargo and sold it themselves. The shipowners would say they had nothing at all to do with it – they’ve lost their ship, it was insured in London and now the insurers have to pay up.”

  “Except, you already know that didn’t happen but you can’t prove it.”

  “Correct. What probably happened was......the shipowners insured their ship for an astronomical amount – twenty million pounds – when it was really an old tub at the end of its life. Then they agreed to give the Captain a share of the insurance money if he would sink it for them. He’d already done that with another ship off Cyprus so he had nothing to lose. The cargo may have included a big consignment of contraband. All of it was transferred in mid-ocean to another ship. Then they sank their own ship, the Captain Stratos and sailed the other ship somewhere, maybe to a port in the southern Mediterranean, to unload the smuggled cargo. The crew were paid off, they all disappeared and the Captain decided to stay out of sight for a while. The Englishman told me just now that he’s made an important discovery. The Captain stayed at a hotel with all of the crew in Lagos, Nigeria, about a month after the ship was sunk. But the hotel booking was taken a fortnight before the ship went down. So there’s no doubt that this was a large-scale fraud with criminal activity extending to other countries and on the high seas. Our problem is to get the proof the Englishman needs as soon as possible. That’s why we must try and get a confession out of the Captain so we can get the shipowners – they are the real villains.”

  “Well, let’s go and see what he has to say,” said the Inspector. “I doubt he’ll put his hands up to it. When he’s close to getting a long sentence from the court, then he might cave in – but that could take months – even years. You know what the courts are like here.”

  During the first hour of questioning, Christoforou insisted that his name was Kyriacou and that he knew nothing about the Captain Stratos or how it sank. Beyond that, he refused to say anything.

  After putting him back in his cell and leaving him to think about his future for a couple of hours, they tried again but had the same response.

  “You’re not doing yourself any favours,” said the Inspector. “We know you’re not Kyriacou. We found a false passport you were using in that name in your room at the lodging house in Patra. The passport shows that you were in Nigeria. What were you doing there ?”

  The prisoner continued to ignore them and said nothing.

  “By dragging things out, you’ll only end up with a heavier sentence.”

  Stefanides had been allowed in the interview room with the Inspector and his colleague. The air was thick with cigarette smoke and the smell of sweat. He asked the Inspector, loudly for Christoforou to hear : “How long do you think he’ll get ?”

  “For the weapon offence, in a public place, with tourists around – some were children – and at our national monument, I would say three years, if he’s lucky. But then, there’s the big ones on top of that – the fraud charges. And it’s an international fraud for a very large amount and involving the sinking of a ship on the high seas. For that, I would say, fourteen years. So in all, it could be close to a life sentence – if he doesn’t co-operate.”

  “And there’s also the scuttling of the other ship, the Aegean Star and the fraud on the insurers in that case,” said Stefanides. “A serial fraudster. The judge is going to give him the maximum as a warning to others.”

  “Without a doubt,” said the Inspector.

  To this, Christoforou said nothing and merely looked past his interrogators at the walls or the ceiling.

  “And while he’s doing all of that time,” said Stefanides, “the money he was supposed to get as his share of the fraud, will be taken by his accomplices on the outside. Ha, ha – he won’t see any of it. Then when he finally gets out, after having taken the blame for them, they’ll have disappeared and he’ll have nothing – he’ll be an old man with nothing to show for it. And what will happen to his family all this time ? Sad, isn’t it ? But if he co-operated, how much of a discount could he get ?”

  “Oh, well that’s a different story,” said the policeman, “he could get as much as fifty per cent off depending on the assistance he gives us.”

  “You mean, instead of a life sentence, he could be looking at around six years if he helped us ?”

  “I couldn’t make any promises of course, but it’s likely to be a lot less time than if he’s going to be difficult. Judges get annoyed with people who don’t show remorse for the damage they’ve done.”

  Suddenly, Christoforou said “Don’t try and frighten me. You’ve got no proof that I had anything to do with this ‘fraud’ you’re trying to pin on me – or any other ‘fraud’ – I don’t know anything about them.”

  “You’re denying all responsibility, are you ?” said the Inspector. “Well, that’s clever, I must say. You were the master of the Captain Stratos with a crew of twenty two seamen and a full cargo. You reported the ship to be sinking fast in a heavy storm off the coast of Portugal over two years ago. The next day, nothing was found of the ship, the cargo, your crew or you – until now. Everyone assumed you were drowned when the ship went down. But instead, you were using a false passport in the name of Kyriacou which says that you were in Nigeria for one or two months after the ship sank. And we know that you booked the hotel rooms for your stay in Lagos two weeks before the ship went down. Do you think we’re fools ? You were planning to sink the ship all along – weren’t you ? You scuttled the Captain Stratos. Then you ended up in Lagos. And what happened to the crew and the cargo ? Well ?”

  “By the way,” said Stefanides. “We’ve found the Chief Engineer, Keo. If you don’t talk, he will.”

  Again, Christoforou gave a sour look and said nothing.

  The Inspector said “Very well then. You’ll be charged with causing an affray, using an offensive weapon and endangering the public, resisting arrest, dereliction of duty as ship’s master and conspiracy to defraud. And I’ll see that you get the maximum sentence for each of them and at least fifteen years inside. You’ll be taken back to your cell and then transferred to the high security wing at Glyfada Prison. You’ll meet a lot of interesting
characters there, I can assure you.”

  “You don’t scare me,” said Christoforou. “I’ll get a good lawyer and I’ll be out in two years at the most. Ha ha ha.”

  “Take him away,” said the Inspector. After Christoforou was gone he said “He’s right, you know. When we don’t know anything about how the ship sank and what happened to the crew, he’s just as likely to say that he had amnesia or that he was washed up on the beach and doesn’t know how he got there.”

  “The Chief Engineer is Greek and is working on an oil tanker in the Gulf of Arabia,” said Stefanides. “If we can’t pick up any other leads, then maybe he’ll tell us what happened.”

  That evening, Stefanides, Demos, Nikos, his wife and Ashby all had dinner together at The Lord Byron.

  “I should be away for less than a week, if all goes to plan,” said Ashby. “At the moment, I don’t know what I’ll find in Lagos but there was a reason why Christoforou and his crew went there – and I want to find out what it was.”

  “It’s very strange. Why should he go there of all places ?” said Nikos. During the conversation, he was translating into Greek for his wife so that she could understand what was being said.

  “The false passport was run up in Lagos, by the look of it,” said Stefanides. “There was no date of entry, only an exit stamp.”

  “While I’m away, let’s assume that I’ll find nothing more to help us. You’ll need to track down the Chief Engineer and also speak with the ferry captain again and maybe Ital-Grec Ferry Lines to find out when Christoforou started working for them. We need to find out where he came from or what he was doing before that time. And to show that I keep my word, here are two orders to my Athens agent, each for fifty thousand dollars – one for you Stefanides and the other for you, Nikos. You can keep them as security while I’m away. They can be cashed but I would suggest you hold onto them until I’m back. Then I hope to be able to pay you in full. It’s looking more likely that we may get the evidence we need to persuade the court in London but we’re not there yet. We’re close but we have to keep working on it. I should be back from Lagos in a few days.”