I told Andrew Bruce that, leaving aside the issue of
who would win the case, his client must know that it had absolutely no chance of recovering
any money from me, that I knew there must be some alternative agenda behind the Claim,
but that it would only result in Renault spending a fortune to make a point and that,
with what I knew about Renault and the things that go on in its subsidiary dealer
operations, no one, least of all Renault, would come out of the case smelling
of roses. Surely, I asked him, we could
reach an amicable resolution without going through a Trial?
Given the circumstances, Andrew Bruce couldn’t have
been more direct in his reply. Andrew
Bruce told me that his client fully understood my financial circumstances, and I could
therefore read whatever I wanted into it, but his client would not be dissuaded from
going to Trial, no matter what the prospects of a financial recovery might be.
So that was it then. From as close to
the horse’s mouth as you could get without being bitten. It
wasn’t the money. It never had been. It
was all about hanging me out to dry to protect the tender arses of a bunch of self-serving
hypocrites at Renault’s HQ. They had
known what was happening all along, but would use duplicity and a trumped up fraud
allegation to cover up their part in what had really taken place.
And so, knowing all of this, I vowed that when all of the Courtroom antics were over
I would do whatever it took to expose the hypocrisy and double standards that had
been applied by Renault simply to spare the blushes of some of its managers.
But how to get my story over? I’m not
Renault, so I can’t afford to take out pages of advertising in the Press for publicity
about the Trial. And speaking of publicity about the Trial, there has been none. No
publicity at all from Renault. All that
has appeared are some observations in lawyers’ tomes on obscure legal issues raised
by the Trial. With the exception of one
very brief statement to a reporter from a car magazine, there has been absolutely
nothing from Renault about the case outcome. Presumably
Renault would like the whole thing to go away quietly and expire without a sound.
Fat chance, Renault. If the reptiles
running your business think that they can take a corporate decision to destroy someone
for their own company political ends, then lose the fight and just quietly slip back
into the swamp, they have another think coming.
I have lost my family home, my business and my personal reputation, all to save the
necks of Renault employees, so there is absolutely no way that I can let Renault or
its employees off the hook.
But without the financial resources to publicise what really happened, there's only
one thing to do. I just have to take the long way round. So I have written this
book. This book is the only way I can
exorcise the peculiar feelings of malice, repugnance and yet, despite all that they
have done, pity that I feel for both Renault and the despicable, malevolent people
there who tried to destroy me.
I have to tell everyone the whole story from my side, with all of the detail and,
most especially, set out the extent to which Renault had actually been prepared to
go to protect its own people at my expense.
Perhaps Renault considered that the cost of artificially manufacturing a public crucifixion
for me would be a small price to pay to preserve the reputations and salvage the jobs
and careers of those who had previously been only too willing to go along with the
sale of cars under the BALPA account? After
all, what’s a million pounds to a multi-billion pound global empire like Renault’s?
But then again, where did that one million pounds come from to begin with?
Well, the answer, of course, is you, if you have ever bought a new Renault car or
had a Renault serviced.
You see, Renault took your money for your car, or your spare parts, and
the money of many, many, other of your fellow Renault customers and then squandered
hundreds of thousands out of the profit they undoubtedly made from you on their legal
fees to try and destroy me. Just think
about that next time you buy a car.
So where to next for me? Well, the end
of this book isn’t actually the end of the story. No,
not at all. You see, as I’ve rather sadly
decided after the cowardly 'no-show' by Renault’s employees at the Judgement Hearing,
life’s too short for forgiveness.
And, quite frankly, I have found that you can have a lot of fun being bitter and twisted
especially when, like me, you know where more of the bodies are buried.
It’s show-time ….
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