As many people will already know, Kevin Crellin AKA David Henderson and Golden Eagle Pilot was convicted of three counts of fraud by deception at Oxford Crown Court. As a result, he was also in breach of an existing suspended sentence. He has now been sentenced to a total of 21 months imprisonment.
The three frauds were:
He obtained a significant amount of money from the mother of a young pilot in respect of training and aircraft rental which was never provided
He took cash from two people who thought they were sending money to the then wife of Jetblu who was badly burned in a fire in his aircraft. One of those counts was mine and I was called to testify about it. The total amount he collected was actually almost £6000 but only two contributors pressed charges.
Unfortunately, the case ran longer than I had been told it would and I was only able to watch the prosecution case from the point at which I gave evidence (I was first on but there were legal arguments before that which I missed because you are not allowed in court before you testify).
Jetblu was in court for the defence case and Crellin's performance in the witness box. I will leave it to him to give a detailed account of it but, from what he has told me, if it wasn't so serious, it would have been funny: Crellin's defence was unconvincing in the extreme. I did get some flavour of it from his barrister's cross examination of other prosecution witnesses.
In summary he claimed that the money for the lessons and aircraft rental had been paid over to a flight school. Unsurprisingly, there was no documentation and the school denied ever receiving the money. Also, an examination of his bank account showed a payment from the first victim going in on one day and a payment of exactly the same amount going out on the next. Where to? To pay a fine for another fraud. And no, I'm not joking!
He claimed that the money donated to Jetblu's wife was paid to her in small amounts in cash at meetings at motorway services. Apparently she preferred it that way rather than having it paid into her bank account.
At first he claimed he couldn't remember where they met, then said it was on the M40. This would have required her to drive for several hours with small children in the car for each meeting. The jury didn't believe him.
As I say, I'll leave it to Jetblu to fill in the gaps: from what he told me, Crellin's testimony must have been well worth hearing!
Finally, I would like to add a word about the process. It took absolutely ages and numerous contacts with various police forces and Action Fraud (AKA Chocolate Teapot!) to get anything started. In the event, the police officer at Thames Valley Police who ended up with the case did a superb job: the difficulty was in finding him.
The prosecuting barrister was quiet, understated and ruthlessly effective.
The defence barrister had the air of a good player brought on ten minutes from the end of a game when his team is six nil down, playing up hill on a sloping pitch on a rainy day. Which I suppose he was.
The judge was scrupulously fair and, I understand, made the time to talk personally to Jetblu although he was not a witness. I'll let JB expand on that if he would like to.
The moratorium on discussions here was at the police officer's request as he wanted to avoid anything that might prejudice the case. I would likely to thank the Mods, and everyone else here, for respecting that.
One small gem from the proceedings: when I was giving evidence, the judge asked me to explain how the forums work with particular reference to the rather whimsical user names some of us have rather than posting under our real names.
When I explained that, the defence barrister said, under his breath but the prosecutor heard and repeated aloud:
"Sort of a 'nom de Prune' then?". Everyone, including the Judge, laughed at that except Crellin. But then, by that time he didn't have much to laugh about.....
Goes to show that the court isn't serious all the time!
Anyhow, we have a result and now this piece of human sewage can be flushed down the toilet of history where he belongs.
By the way, a final piece of trivia: I believe that David Henderson was actually the name of the commanding officer of the RFC at the beginning of World War 1. I wonder if KC knew that?