Wander00,
...there were coffee bars, St Athan was one such station where crew room coffee bars were turning over £30k...
Yes, I'm afraid I was thinking of squadron sized "tea swindles", such as the Canteen we ran in the '50s in the Auxiliary Fighter Control Unit at Thornaby. I don't know what the turnover of ours was, but it was a good business, for I remember that it had accumulated about £1,000 in my kitty by my time (it had been going for years). The NAAFI moaned about it, but we paid no heed.
Some of it had been earned by a barefaced fraud for which my predecessor was responsible (he got Christmas Cards printed by an unscrupulous printer, who then invoiced them to us as "Recruiting Posters"; the North Riding Territorial and Auxiliary Forces Association settled the bill without question; we sold the cards cheaply and made a killing). Needless to say, I put a stop to all such shenanikins !
One of my first tasks after appointment as Adj was to bring in one of my secretarial auxiliary officers, the Assistant Manager of a Darlington bank, to collar and safeguard all the cash he could, open an account at his Bank with it for us, and keep proper accounts for what was, (as being not even a Non-Public Fund), below the RAF radar; the Station Accountant Officer didn't want to know about it.
Although there were three Auxiliary units on Thornaby (608 Squadron, 2608 (Regt) Squadron and ourselves) plus SHQ, and they would all have tea bars, many used to prefer coming over to our Canteen. Thornaby was not a (Regular) WRAF Station but I had about 70 Auxiliary WRAF Radar Operator and Fighter Plotter trainees on strength (who, among other things, ran the Canteen). That may have been a draw !
VAT didn't come in till the 1972 Finance Act (it was, IIRC, one of the preconditions for joining the EU).
Danny.