Mannerisms

Memec was founded in April 1974. "In April 1975, I came in to work one morning to find a hole had been drilled through the stud wall of the stores", recalls Ed, "about £25,000 worth of stock had been stolen mainly PROMs. We were not insured because Dick had been told that no one would steal the staff so there wasn't any point and all we had to do was just put up some radioactive signs, which we did. We'd had some workmen in. I think they might have tipped off the burglars."

"Dick considered resigning but Werner (Werner Stolz, Memec's original backer) said stay and we told Dick we would sell our way out of it.

 The police came and took details but nothing happened.

 We telexed every distributor in Europe, and every major customer, to say: 'If you're offered this stuff it has been stolen from us and please tell us'. We heard nothing for months.

 Then one day, we got a phone call from the people who had the stuff. They asked if we would buy it back. Dick said 'Yes if the deal's right'.

We arranged to leave £1,000 in a biscuit tin in a derelict garage behind the Archway and they would leave £1,000 worth of product in a sack. We took the sack and left the £1,000.

 We then got a phone call to arrange to sell the rest. But there was a clicking on the line and I think the burglars thought that the phone was tapped. Then sometime later date was away on business and I got a phone call from John Flood, a customer, who said: 'I've been approached about buying some stuff, and I think it's yours'.

It turned out it was his brother in law, and I said: 'Give him this name and number', and I gave him the name Les Wiberg,  and my home number,  and told John to tell his brother-in-law that I'm  a bent dealer.

 I got a call from an Irishman.  He was not very bright, because he was in a phone box, and his money kept running out, and he asked me to phone him back.

 We arranged to meet at Harrow on the Hill tube station and arranged a date. Dick was back by then and I told him. He decided to tell the police. Perhaps for my safety. He wasn't happy.

 So I then met a bunch of detectives at Harrow police station to ask before the meeting and forecasts and a couple of motorbikes were sent to the tube station.

They also sent a police van done up like wholesaler's van with a camera inside, watching.

The tube station has two entrances and, after waiting for half an hour, I thought maybe I was on the wrong side of the station. Them the Irishman came and took me to the other side of the station away from the surveillance side where the police were watching.

Then a policeman in a boiler suit came and sat next to us while we were talking. I told the Irishman there I was getting the money from the bank in Harrow that afternoon, and that I'd like the stuff.  So I agreed to go with him.  He came in my car and the police followed us, despite the fact that I'd jumped a red light, as salesmen tend to do.

It was a twisting, turning route and the bloke kept looking to see if we were being followed. The police were very clever they kept just out of sight. Even though I knew they were following I couldn't see them.

We parked outside a house and the bloke went in and came out with a suitcase full of the stuff. The signal was that I would blow my nose on a white hanky to show that the goods were right. I didn't do that because I realised that the Irishman was a goon and was not the guy who had pinched the stuff.  I wanted to go back in and get the thief.

But the police jumped the gun and arrested us both as had been agreed. They searched the house but found nothing and the reason why not they found out later on when they did a search of the house.  It turned out the living room had a trap door to a cellar where he had been hiding.

 The Irishman got 18 months. It turned out he been a nasty piece of work having held up a post office with a gun.

I changed my phone number."