Monday, December 24, 2007

I am ambushed---by Inspectors

I am now writing about the second week. Believe it or not, nothing much seems to be happening. However, there was a very tense atmosphere in work, everyone was eyeing up everyone else, and we were all wondering what would happen next. Work was more or less the same as normal, allowing for the fact that we were in the middle of an inspection. The inspectors went about their work in the normal way, I had a lot of contact with them because I handled all the deeds, stocks and shares, life policies etc which made up a securities clerks life. The inspectors had queries, they even found some minor things not quite to their liking, but nothing much. However, one incedent jolted me a bit and showed me that, although the atmosphere was tense but normal, things were not normal at all. My boss, the Manager, was the local Treasurer for the RSPCA. He didnt want the job, it just went with the position of branch manager. On the Wednesday it was the annual general meeting in the Church hall in Rhyl. He either did'nt want or could not attend, so I was delegated to go. Why me? Well, surprisingly, Iwas fairly close to the boss. He was a very abrasive character, most of the staff and certainly all the girls were frightened of him, especially if he was in one of his frequent nasty moods. But he and I seemed to get on reasonably well. Anyway, I went off to the AGM in the afternoon, gave my report, listened to the barking of a thousand dogs which seemed to be in the hall. It finished about 5.30 p.m. I walked back to the Bank with all the RSPCA papers and accounts and arrived back just as the staff and the inspectors were leaving by the side door. I went in, put the papers in a drawer, and turned around and let myself out into Sussex Street in Rhyl. Imagine my surprise, wherever I looked in the road, in every direction,was an Inspector ---- and they were all walking towards me!!! None of them said much, they were all eyeing me up and down and eventually they dispersed to their cars. The next day Wyn Roberts, my assistant, said to me that he had overheard one of the inspectors say , when I was going in the door, "He's got an ideal chance to get it all out of the Bank." They must have thought I had a secret hoard of the £168,000 hidden inside the Bank, and I was going to come out with it stuffed in all my pockets!!!! Well, sorry, they were disappointed. I mention this little incedent to show how, under the surface, we were all suspects, but I was becoming a prime suspect. I'll tell you why I was a prime suspect when I go on the give you my profile as at that time Mike Owen

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