‘There was,’ Alexander replied. ‘Over the past five years, there were instructions to this same company to construct four previous facsimile classic sports cars with a similar specification of voids. An AC Cobra, another similar Ferrari, an Aston Martin DB5 and a French car, the marque of which is now defunct, a Facel Vega.’

‘And where were all these vehicles destined?’

‘To LH Classics of Chichester, which the Financial Investigation Unit have established is owned, through a convoluted chain of offshore companies, by the defendant.’

Cork nodded again. ‘I see – and to your knowledge were any of these previous cars entered into any endurance rallies?’

‘Not that I have been able to establish, no.’

Cork went on. ‘Detective Sergeant Alexander, during your raid on the defendant’s home, did you discover anything else of interest?’

‘We did, yes. We discovered a number of prepaid travel cards, to countries that tallied with the offshore chain of companies that LH Classics is owned through, which include Panama and the Cayman Islands. The total amount of credit on these cards was just under £200k. We also found in a safe in the house a cash amount of £62,500 sterling, a further £87,000 in US dollars and a further £320,000 in euros.’

‘Well,’ said Cork, ‘don’t we all put a bit of cash aside for our holidays?’

The remark made someone in the court laugh out loud, and Cork milked it for all he was worth, dramatically pausing before addressing the detective again. ‘Was there anything else, apart from the defendant’s – ah – holiday fund – that you found during this raid?’

Jack Alexander nodded. ‘Yes, we discovered an amount of cocaine, which the defendant said was for his personal use. But more significantly, we found a key, very cleverly concealed in the false bottom of an aerosol fly spray canister in the garden shed. It ultimately led, after several months of investigative work, to a private safety deposit box on the premises of a company, Safe Box Co, on the Hollingbury Industrial Estate.’

‘Oh? Did you manage to take a look inside?’

‘We did, it was opened under warrant. It contained more foreign currency, for the countries I have already mentioned, totalling £392,000, along with six USB memory sticks.’

‘DS Alexander, can you tell us what was found on these memory sticks?’ Cork questioned.

The DS replied, ‘Further information relating to the movement of high-value cars in and out of the country that did not contain drugs and were part of appearing to maintain a genuine business front. There was also significant information relating to LH Classics and the company’s bank accounts overseas.’

Cork addressed the DS once more. ‘I am now going to ask you to tell the jury and the court in more detail about the information you have just summarized.’