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I fell foul of Inspector E over a case of lost drugs, recalls Harold Taylor. Harold had joined the Horsham police force in 1948, moving on to the Worthing force a couple of years later. He recalls some of the cases he had to deal with...
I had at the time returned to policing the east side of the town centre, and had been on duty at the front office doing a meal relief for the person whose normal duty it was.
A woman came in and reported that her elderly lodger had come back from the doctors, where he had been prescribed some drugs. Having got home they could not find them and the lodger did not know what he had done with them.
A couple of officers were detailed to search the supposed area that the man had covered.
As the man lived on my beat I was to go to the house afterwards and search the house. This I did without result. The result was that the Insp. had a BBC message circulated reporting the loss of dangerous drugs; a thing that was done in those days.
The following day the landlady came into the station and reported that she had now found the drugs. It transpired that when the old gent was coming down the stairs, she heard this tap, tap, and so she inspected his long overcoat and found the small bottle of tablets in the corner of his coat.
They had not got into this position in the normal way, a hole in the pocket.
There was a hole, though it was in the pocket flap, where the lining had become detached and what had in fact happened, was that the fellow had never put the bottle into his pocket as such, but slipped them down into the lining of his coat.
I had searched his coat, but I can only suppose that at the time they were still hung up somewhere in the lining. The Insp. took the attitude that this reflected upon him and was very displeased with me.
I felt this had developed into a grudge, which caused him to be particularly aggressive in pursuing a witch-hunt against me prior to my leaving the force. He had returned to the CID as its Insp.
This I resented to a certain degree, as not many months earlier, he had promised me the earth, by way of promotion or anything else he could do for me to further my career. This came about as the result of a drunken driver. The situation was this.
It was near Christmas, and there was a function on at the Police Station, I think a Whist Drive. Anyhow, there was a dearth of policemen available. I was still on the Goring beat.
I had just made my last point outside the George Hotel and was cycling home when I saw an agitated group around a vehicle about 200 yards from the George at the junction of Brooklyn Avenue.
It transpired that the vehicle had 'cut up' a young girl cyclist, then pursued her along the road endeavouring to knock her off her cycle, until stopped by two postmen on cycles who were returning home after late work.
They were alleging that the driver was under the influence of drink. Certainly there was a bottle of gin in the car, which was part consumed. The fellow's wife was certainly a 'bit over the top', but I was not certain about him, he seemed well controlled.
I could not smell his breath very well, because I had had a drink myself. Earlier in the evening, a retired constable, who was member of the club and whose son worked at the station, had met me in the street and invited me in and given me a drink.
I had taken all the particulars with a view to proceeding against this fellow for driving without due care and attention or possibly dangerous driving.
In the meantime I had got in contact with the station and asked for a mobile patrol to come out and check the man for being under the influence of drink. I had been told that there was no one available as they were all in the club and the event had not finished.
I let the man continue on his way. He went into the George Hotel and there I left him and proceeded back to the station. On my way in I was passed by a patrol vehicle coming out.
When I got back to the station I discovered that the car had gone to attend an accident between a bus and a car on the Littlehampton Road, and from the description of the car, it was the one I had been involved with earlier.
I eventually discovered that they had brought this fellow in for being under the influence of drink or drugs, but the doctor had failed to certify him.
On the bus involved with the accident were several policemen and women from Littlehampton, who had attended the club earlier, and were witnesses to another charge of dangerous driving in the event that the drink driving charge failed.
The circumstances surrounding this fellow were that he was a planter or some such thing, returned from Malaya where the uprising was taking place.
Apparently he took exception at having to give way to this young cyclist as he came from a road with a halt sign, with the result that he tried to aggravate her as much as possible. In fact one of his replies to me was to the effect, that if it had taken place in Malaya he would have driven her off the road.
The young girl, the daughter of a local bank manager, was a junior librarian at Worthing.
As I said, Insp. E had promised me the earth if I got a conviction in this case, more or less implying that I should weight the evidence against him. I did not think this necessary and it was not. He had told me 'Get a conviction and you'll never look back.'
The man was given a one-year disqualification, but here I think is where the law can be balanced to play dirty. The other case of driving against him was brought on for the next case, and because when they convicted him, he already had a conviction for one year, they increased this to three years.
An odd little episode followed another short spell I did on CID. From a tip-off it was decided that we would keep observation on a row of lock-up garages, where it was alleged that early morning calls were being made.
There were four of us - Charlie T who later I believe became Chief Super. CID, Harry G with whom I had been at school, who also became a Chief Super., both of these were Det. Con. Another P.C. and myself made up the team.
We were secluded in a tin garage, the only available point to keep a view of the garages. Every move we made echoed around our ears. Eventually the mystery delivery vehicle arrived.
When we made our presence known the driver was quite shocked, for he was only the deliverer for a well known wholesale suppliers, who had rented the garage to store goods in until it could be redistributed during the day.
Harold Taylor West Sussex, 2001
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