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Ex RAF Wing Commander cleared of stealing nameplate

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Ex RAF Wing Commander cleared of stealing nameplate

Old 9th Aug 2021, 08:09
  #21 (permalink)  
 
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Feel sorry for a dude who gets his name linked/published on an additional public forum even when he has just been found not guilty.

NutLoose Why do you seek comments about a named (and innocent) individual on a public forum along with such biased words such as 'shocking' and 'he still took it'?

Is it a self-appointed role to twist the knife from your keyboard?

Do you know this chap and have a personal axe to grind?

Is it just the rank held that irks you?

Anyway, if you are seeking dirt an a named individual please feel free to add your full name, rank on exit, location and age so that your keyboard muck-raking is somewhat closer to a fair fight and more inline with what journalists have to do.
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Old 9th Aug 2021, 08:58
  #22 (permalink)  
 
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Ummm, what should I do with my "Kismet Master" footpump then (had it for 44 yrs)?. I was about to undertake a second refurbishment on it prior to auctioning .

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Old 9th Aug 2021, 09:00
  #23 (permalink)  
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Not in the slightest, don't know him, rank is just a word these days from many a year ago and of no interest, if you read my second post I say I believed justice had been done and correctly too.
What irks me as I mentioned in the original is the fact the RAF are often loaned valuable and irreplaceable items by members of the public and do not appear to do their utmost to protect them whilst in their care, I also mentioned the PR Pilot at Benson who loaned his collection of photographs etc for which he had no copies for some display or the other the RAF was putting on, and that guys memories have been lost.
That is what irks me and yes it is shocking the RAF still appear to be losing members of the publics property, the system to record and preserve the items and their owners details is obviously still woofully lacking.
I did not name the individual, the news did, and chances are if I hadn't posted it someone else would have.



..

Last edited by NutLoose; 9th Aug 2021 at 09:11.
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Old 9th Aug 2021, 09:15
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Have to agree with NutLoose here. Besides, half of the posts on this thread have vouched for the man’s good character.

My angle needs disclosure perhaps. When the name plate was first discovered missing and the police were involved, one of those accused was someone I know well, and I have harboured mistrust towards him ever since.
Why?

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Old 9th Aug 2021, 09:20
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Jolihokistix
Only you can answer that.
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Old 9th Aug 2021, 09:56
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There's a danger of heading down the same legal rabbit-hole as the Shoreham display crash thread did. Conviction under criminal law requires guilt to be proven beyond reasonable doubt: a very high bar to cross. I daresay that most people apply a less rigorous test to their personal judgements of other people's character and actions. And why not? I'm sure I'm not alone in wanting to be reasonably sure that my friends are *not* dishonest. That difference in perspective might explain jolihokistix's feelings (which hopefully can set aside now the taker's identity is known?).

Last edited by Easy Street; 9th Aug 2021 at 10:08.
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Old 9th Aug 2021, 11:03
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Thanks for your understanding, BB & ES.
I was asked for a character reference, which on balance I gave; I am now thankful that in this case it proved to be justified.
The whole affair did colour things for many years, though, with that 1% safety net or measure of doubt, for which I now experience shame and this remaining tinge of bitterness.
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Old 9th Aug 2021, 12:00
  #28 (permalink)  
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I do hope those accused get a written apology as they will have had this hanging over them since.... but i doubt it.

https://www.herefordtimes.com/news/1...rabilia-theft/

A copy was made of the nameplate and it was eventually secured to the wall outside the officers’ mess, with the original held in a secure vault in the fine arts store.
“The crest was returned, but the nameplate could not be found and it was reported stolen and the RAF conducted their own investigation, without identifying a suspect or the location of the nameplate.”
Call me old fashioned but you would have thought the people to ask if they knew of its location would have been all of those with access to the "Secure Store" the mess committee and any senior officers, it might have then come to light and none of this would have happened. But the RAFP if that's who did the investigating says it all.
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Old 9th Aug 2021, 13:18
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On the facts presented there, one imagines that a civil case would stand a very good chance of recovering money from Messrs Angus and Jones, noting the lower standard of proof needed in civil Court. Hopefully Mr Whiting or his insurer is on it.
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Old 9th Aug 2021, 13:48
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Originally Posted by NutLoose
I do hope those accused get a written apology as they will have had this hanging over them since.... but i doubt it.

https://www.herefordtimes.com/news/1...rabilia-theft/




Call me old fashioned but you would have thought the people to ask if they knew of its location would have been all of those with access to the "Secure Store" the mess committee and any senior officers, it might have then come to light and none of this would have happened. But the RAFP if that's who did the investigating says it all.
a very well executed about turn there Nutloose, or was it just a ‘change step’ after noticing you were out of step?
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Old 9th Aug 2021, 14:34
  #31 (permalink)  
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I am sorry, but you have lost me? The written apology was aimed at those people accused that jolihokistix mentioned.
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Old 9th Aug 2021, 16:16
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Just another click bait trash thread started by a usual suspect better suited to JB.
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Old 9th Aug 2021, 17:55
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Originally Posted by downsizer
Just another click bait trash thread started by a usual suspect better suited to JB.
I disagree. The loss of an extremely valuable item from a RAF officers' mess is a valid topic of discussion here and NutLoose's update is welcomed by some of us, not least I suspect by jolihokistix given the discussion above.

I recall there was already a thread running about it (here) and maybe the mods could merge this in. Funnily enough, that thread was started not long before Mr Angus reportedly sold the nameplate to Mr Jones. The topic of the nameplate's disappearance came up very early in the thread.

The emoji doesn't quite convey the degree of scepticism I feel towards Messrs Angus and Jones's accounts.
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Old 9th Aug 2021, 17:57
  #34 (permalink)  
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Sorry guys I’m going to stop posting stuff of interest, I feel some of the comments I have received on the thread, especially the last couple just do not make it worthwhile posting, I thought it would have been of interest considering the threads posted at the time about its disappearance.

and in case you do not remember the poor guy trying to get it back

"Lord Dowding" Locomotive Plate

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Old 10th Aug 2021, 01:05
  #35 (permalink)  
 
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Thanks for the link, NutLoose. A blast from the past!
I have to agree that if the RAF is going to run museums, they will need to disavow their chaotic past.
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Old 10th Aug 2021, 09:19
  #36 (permalink)  
 
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For my sins, I was the last PMC of the mess at Bentley Priory and was responsible for managing the return of various items to those who had loaned them and also for trying to get other stations to take things that belonged to the service. I still have the screwdriver that I used to remove the last nameplates from in front of the mess. We had a lot of items to return to Mr Whiting, which were of considerable value. Given that he lived in the south of France and the RAF insurers were terrified of anything being stolen enroute - we ran a Blackbuck style operation with a Ford Galaxy and a hot handover in an Ikea car park on outskirts of Dijon. The two of us on the last leg to Mr Whiting were rewarded with a lovely glass of red wine when we got to our destination. As for the alleged theft itself, it was way before my time but given the amount of stuff that we found during close down, anything is possible.

The close down itself was comical in many ways. The best was the scrap metal dealer who arrived to remove the Hunter Gate Guard. He took a saw to the outer skin of the wing and then tried to snap the wing off with a crane. We left them for a while before explaining the purpose of the main spar. The main thing I was most pleased about was that the person who bought the snooker table in the basement, managed to take it away themselves without us having to lift a finger.
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Old 11th Aug 2021, 10:17
  #37 (permalink)  
 
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Originally Posted by NutLoose
Sorry guys I’m going to stop posting stuff of interest, I feel some of the comments I have received on the thread, especially the last couple just do not make it worthwhile posting, I thought it would have been of interest considering the threads posted at the time about its disappearance.

and in case you do not remember the poor guy trying to get it back

"Lord Dowding" Locomotive Plate
Nutty, what you post or don't post is entirely your decision of course. The only point I would make is make sure it is your decision and not one foisted upon you by the trolls who inhabit the internet, here and elsewhere. For what it's worth I don't think this thread is clickbait or any other word bite derogatory phrase. On the contrary it raises rather painful issues about the Royal Air Force as an institution. Based on what has been reported and commented on here I would hesitate to lend it a used bus ticket, let alone something as valuable as the OP article.

Having said that, I volunteer at a preserved railway and cannot understand the collectors' mania that prices a locomotive nameplate (no matter how illustrious) above the value of certain complete locomotives! The value of this one to its rightful owner is of course greater than any monetary value, and the withholding of it for so long and in such circumstances is shameful.
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Old 11th Aug 2021, 11:36
  #38 (permalink)  
 
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Chug Indeed you have embarked on for what is for me painful territory. The oafish trashing by often quite senior officers of historic material , usually to "make space" has been an experience of mine. One arrogant buffoon gave the job to a couple of junior WRNS (!) and I desperately managed tp get some immediate post WW2 off to my Branch historians . "Dissolution of the Luftwaffe" being one small example. .Sadly material I have donated to other organisations seems to have "gone missing" (i.e.been purloined) over the years......
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Old 11th Aug 2021, 13:45
  #39 (permalink)  
 
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Originally Posted by Just This Once...
Feel sorry for a dude who gets his name linked/published on an additional public forum even when he has just been found not guilty.

NutLoose

Is it just the rank held that irks you?

Anyway, if you are seeking dirt an a named individual please feel free to add your full name, rank on exit, location and age so that your keyboard muck-raking is somewhat closer to a fair fight and more inline with what journalists have to do.
Am I to gather that to post on this thread a certain minimum rank once held is required? I was once a Queen's Scout. Is that august enough?
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Old 11th Aug 2021, 15:36
  #40 (permalink)  
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Only if you had a woggle.
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