My apologies for arriving late to the party. I have been preoccupied on other important business against yet another conman and his newly groomed wife.
Well where do I start? It is probably best to first start by the early beginnings of goldeneaglepilot. Many will recall the famous thread here called Ferrybadexperiance.
Well, it was just that..... goldeneaglepilot seemingly appeared to be assisting a few of us victims of ginger. He seemingly appeared very well versed in law and told many that he was a solicitor. As a few months went by a few PM's were sent backwards and forwards and what he had to say sounded plausible. Later we exchanged mobile telephone numbers.
That was fatal mistake number one. From that moment he totally invaded my privacy. He would call some days up to ten to fifteen times from 08.00 until 21.00 with just mundane information. After a week or so I would just not answer my phone. It became a private joke with my children when my phone rang "not David Henderson!" Unbeknown to me [and I am nobody's fool] I was being groomed. For those that have had the displeasure of speaking with Crellin he is very very convincing. If I had not been on the receiving end myself I would also disbelieve that anybody could get duped. Without making any excuses whatsoever, I fully understand how the management here fell hook, line and sinker to Crellin.
My personal suspicions arose when I met two highly respectable forumites here from PPRuNe in London for lunch. One was a barrister, the other a JP. They both totally disbelieved that Crellin was authentic. I reserved judgement. I later met up with Crellin.
I flew up to the Midlands and he picked me up. [Many may remember the surprise rondevu I had when I confronted Ginger] From the moment I saw Crellin, the face did not match the very well spoken voice. I knew instantly that he was never a solicitor. I came home and immediately announced my findings to the wife. Something was just not quite right with him. Because of the level of intrusive phone calls, my wife considered him to be my friend.
[I have still not yet quite worked out her philosophy on that one, especially when she could see me deliberately ignoring his calls] Cut a long story short, within just a few hours of my accident they were both in touch with one another and she also fell hook, line and sinker for his pathetic stories.
Revenge is sweet and best served cold........getting on for the good bits.
Simultaneously, a very smart and articulate lady whom was also a victim of Crellin was doing some investigations alongside my own independent investigations. it soon became known that Crellin was a professional conman of the highest order. Whilst management here have been lambasted, they themselves have been conned and that has been a very bitter pill for all concerned and involved to swallow. All I'd say there guys is that it has been very embarrassing for everyone whom has had the unfortunate displeasure of coming into contact with Crellin. It has cost some more dearly than others.
The Trial
I missed the first day as I was unfortunately occupied elsewhere. Jonzarno and myself overlapped on the second day where the prosecution was still presenting its case. As Jonzarno has said, the prosecution counsel was mighty effective and very articulate in the way she presented her case. You could see the defending barrister rolling his eyes as he quietly retracted and reclined further back in to his seat looking for his tin foil hat.
The Judge, His Honour Eccles QC was absolutely magnificent. Quietly spoken yet effectively ruthless when delivering case law at various intervals throughout the trial.
On the third day it was the defense case. A major debate was going on about a former flying owner whom was a prosecution witness and had since emigrated to a Pacific island with no internet access. Whilst his statement was read out in court defending counsel wanted to cross examine him. The Judge directed that it was not possible to cross examine and the jury had to reserve judgement on that matter and convict purely on the other matters.
Crellin was then called to the witness box. Immediately he got up from the dock, he hobbled to the witness box and asked if he could sit down as he had very high blood pressure.
The prosecuting barrister mumbled "wait until I'm finished with him" the Judge heard her and smiled. The defence submission was taken from a very mitigating position.
P Counsel - Crellin "Tell us about your fascination with aircraft" Well your honour, I owned a 50% share in a Rockwell Commander a few years ago when I owned my own computer software business. Then I had a few relationship issues. My girlfriend was diagnosed with cancer and it all went downhill from there.
P Counsel - Crellin "Tell us why you wear a jacket all the time" Well your honour, I have been taking these tablets that the doctor gave me for a chest infection and I woke up in the morning and I had grown a pair.
P Counsel - Crellin "Are you embarrassed by that feature?" Well your honour, they are ok but my boyfriend still won't call me Kay. [That was a joke]
P Counsel - Crellin "Did you commit any of the offences that you have been charged with?"
Nope. They are all liars!
P Counsel - Crellin "Did you commit any of the offences that have been read out in your previous convictions?" Nope. I posted all the parcels. The postman just didn't deliver them.
D Counsel - Crellin "Mr Crellin, do you realise that for the postman to deliver the items you first must post them? Yea but, no but, yea but.........are you calling me a conman?
D Counsel - Crellin "Mr Crellin, you pleaded guilty to those offences. Are you now saying that you did not commit those offences? My Counsel said that it would be best if I pleaded
guilty. Mr Crellin, the advice was probably very sound but are you now trying to convince this jury that you are innocent? No Comment.
The trial was comical really. I genuinely expected Crellin to put on a good defense but as Jonzarno said he was on a slippery slope down and getting a good pounding at every opportunity. The jury was constantly shaking their heads in disbelief and I genuinely believe
Crellin at that stage knew that it was good night Josephine. His defence was absolutely shocking.
His bank statements and mathematics was also quite funny. All the deposits in by donations totalled about £6k. He had also listed everyone down by screen name. When he asked how did he pay the money over he said - Cash. He was asked how. He said by cash withdrawal from the cash machine. He was asked to total his direct debits, telephone, court fine of £1800 and a bailiff fee of £200. It all totalled about £4k. When he was told that only left about £2k to hand over Crellin said that he always had large denominations of cash about the house and made up the missing £4K from that. The Judge at that stage said if you had large sums of cash about the house why was it when you received one particular deposit of £2400, you then paid out £1800 within 24 hours? Crellin's answer? I don't like walking about with large amounts of cash. The Judge looked at Crellin - then looked at the jury enough to say he's not taking me for a muppet, I don't know about you. The Judge then said "very well" looked down, started writing whilst nodding his head in total disbelief.
Last night was his first night inside. Bring on Queen Bubba.
Once again everyone, thank you so so much for your kind generosity and support. I do partly feel responsible for some of the grievances caused here.
You are all great guys and it would be really good if we could all now unite having put this despicable piece of
behind bars.