Eventually the meeting with Karl Davies was arranged for 14th February 1997 (St Valentines Day). The meeting was held at the offices of Edge & Ellison, Birmingham, solicitors for Barclays, Karl Davies, Angela Hardman of Edge & Ellison, Richard Foster of Taylor Simpson & Moseley (my solicitor) and myself were present.
As I walked Into the meeting room Karl Davies threw papers onto the table, swore at me and launched into a verbal attack that clearly was intended to intimidate me. What can only be described as a blazing row between Karl Davies and myself continued for sometime. Angela Hardman said little and Richard Foster was clearly shocked by what he had witnessed.
Eventually tempers cooled and Karl Davies put forward a proposal – give up both properties and Barclays would give me the ‘change’ – he estimated that to be £20-30,000.
-What about the mortgage? I asked.
-What mortgage? asked Mr Davies.
-The £25,000 mortgage on Uttoxeter Rd, I replied.
He looked a little embarrassed as he shuffled his papers – he didn’t know about the mortgage, but added that it would be taken out of the ‘change’. In other words the Bank proposed to make my family homeless and possibly leave us still in debt!
The meeting ended soon after without agreement.
My solicitor’s own view of the meeting is confirmed in this letter:
After some fruitless correspondence with Edge & Ellison I decided to take matters to the Board of Barclays, complaining at Mr Davies conduct and illustrating all of my complaints with cartoons in a ‘Story’ similar to this.
Within a week a letter was received from Paul Grenville, Head of Secretariat, Barclays Bank offering further negotiations.
EXHIBIT C CC Barclays letter 24/4/97
Another letter from their solicitors, Edge & Ellison even invited me to submit my claim for damages against Barclays!
There was a stipulation – the claim had to be submitted within a tight time frame. It was all too good to be true! – and it was!
EXHIBIT D Copy of Damages
I sent Edge & Ellison my claim and they pretended that they had not received it in time! Perhaps the real truth was that the Bank did not like the conclusion reached – damages of £673,000!
EXHIBIT E **Edge & Elllson letter 5/6/97
The Bank again refused to stop the Receivership. By now the Receivers had given my tenants at Uttoxeter Rd notice to quit, it appeared that the Receivers were about to sell the property. I had fought hard to stop the sale – I had discovered the identity of the prospective buyer and bombarded him and his solicitor with letters and faxes telling them that the Bank and Receivers did not have proper title to Uttoxeter Rd, but all now seemed lost.