Gready was bleary-eyed, dishevelled and unshaven, and unhappy in police custody issue plimsolls. His suit and shirt were crumpled after the sleepless few hours he’d had earlier on a hard bunk, in a cell.

He’d already been through several interviews about the alleged offences for which he had been arrested, which included the importation of drugs and his apparent links to LH Classics, with DCs Hall and Wilde, in the presence of his solicitor. This interview was being held as an initial enquiry under the Proceeds of Crime Act.

Emily Denyer, smartly dressed and looking fresh, had a sheaf of forms in front of her. ‘Mr Gready, I just need to establish with you some information about your income and expenditure.’

‘Of course.’ He blinked several times. ‘Fire away.’

‘You have a rental flat in Marbella in Spain, for which you paid £272,000 in cash, no mortgage, eight years ago. Is that correct?’

His blink rate increased, and his hands jigged. ‘Yes, from memory I believe that was the amount, yes. But we have never stayed there, it is permanently rented out.’

She shuffled through some of the papers. ‘I have here the past ten years of your company accounts, filed at Companies House – TG Law. That is your company, of which you are the owner?’

‘It is.’

She looked down at the documents. ‘After paying the salaries of your staff as well as bonuses, and yourself taking drawings of approximately £80,000 each year, you have a net retained profit of approximately £20,000 year on year. Is that correct?’

Gready hesitated and glanced at his solicitor, who looked impassive. ‘More or less – I can’t remember the exact figures.’

‘I have them here, in case you’d like to check them?’

‘No, I’m sure they are accurate.’

‘What I’m struggling with is this, Mr Gready,’ she said. ‘Out of your salary, net of tax, you are paying off the mortgage on your house in Hove, yet you and your wife were able to put all three of your children through expensive private schooling, at a cost for several years of over £95,000 a year. Where did that money come from?’

‘Our parents helped out.’

Emily Denyer nodded. ‘Good money in the greengrocery business?’

‘There was, yes, back in my father’s time. He stashed away a lot of cash.’

‘Enough to pay all those school fees and to pay for the flat in Marbella? He must have sold a lot of bananas.’

Out of the corner of her eye she caught both Kevin Hall and Nick Fox concealing their smiles.

‘It was all different back in my dad’s time,’ Gready said, defensively.

‘And in your in-laws’ time too?’ she pressed. ‘Your wife’s father was a travelling sales agent for a number of handbag manufacturers – his patch was the North of England, wasn’t it? Are you saying he salted away enough cash to let you buy the Marbella flat?’