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Original poster

Puddytats - A summary of the last 18 months of hell (this will be long and i hope will answer akll questions)

364 replies

puddytats · 24/09/2006 20:29

Dear all

I have decided to start a new thread on this and run thro everything from the beginning, if you get to the end then thankyou for reading and well done. If you have any questions please ask, i will answer as fully as I am able considering i do not, and will never know the full facts.

Here goes...

On the 12 May 2005 DD was born. On the 13th June DH returned to work after paternity leave. He got to work as usual at 9.30ish and was met in the lobby by head of HR and immediatly taken into the boardroom. He was told that discrepancies had appearded on a firm he was working on but this was not a disiplinary, simply a meeting to establish facts. DH was shocked and stunned. He was asked variuos questions including whether he knew what was going on. He said he had no idea. He was then suspended on full pay while further investigations took place. He returned home and we tried to piece together what had happened.
Records at work show that a ficticious member was made up on a real client and that DH did work on this client, including the issuing of a cheque. His computer initials were over everything. Work decided that DH was at fault at dismissed his.
As this was taking place the police also knocked on our door. DH was arrested and all paperwork relating to financial records were taken away - including all the work we had done ourselves. It transpired that 3 cheques 'passed' thrioough our bank account - one in joint bank and 2 in dh sole account. DH was adviced to no comment throughout the interview, which he did. Because of this and because one of the cheques was in joint account the police arrested me.
Names on the cheques had been changed after they were signed by the partners at DH work, we know this because there are photocopiers of the cheques before signiture and from the bank after cashing. They had been changed to either our current surname or my maiden name. The police handwriting expert said it was likely to be DH handwriting. A certified copy of our marriage certificate was also provided with the one in my maiden name.
A little of the money was moved round our variuos accounts and the rest was taken out one way or another. It would seem that everything other than the initial paying in and one cheque withdrawel was done over the internet. That money as yet has not been traced.
DH and i were cept on police bail for over a year while they completed their investigations. During this time we were powerless to do anything, I attempted to committ suicide due to the stress and we have reached lows you can not imagine.
After a hellish year i was released without charge. DH was charged on 10 counts. 3 of obtaining property by deception, 3 of fraud (can't remember exact terminology) and 1 of forgery (a letter apparently)
We have already paid over £20,000 in legal fees and if we had decided to fight the case would be looking at at leat £100,000 more including solicitors, Queens counsel, computer experts, forensic accountants, private investigators etc. At the moment DH mother in paying for us to survive - although i have now got a job, and DH father in paying legal fees. We cannot live off others forever.
If we fight it we could lose everything. We have 2 children and a need to keep a roof over their heads, they have been through so much in their very young lives that keeping a familiar home is vitsl to their stability.
We could fight it to the bitter end and have the full support of friends and family who believe us and know we have been set up. Our morals say fight but we have learnt over the past year that justice is not fair, about who is guilty or innocent but who can prove what and who can afford to prove what.
We do not want the children to remember daddy being away, we do not want to be apart at all so are trying to limit damage. We know dh is innocent and now have to ignore justice and look to what affect a lengthy trail could have on the family, the stress, tension cost etc has had to be weighed up against what could be gained or lost. We will win in the end because we have eachother.

If you have got this far then well done and thankyou

OP posts:
wannaBe1974 · 09/10/2006 16:07

maybe her dh confessed all given that they were both going to solicitors and in light of posts on this thread saying how things couldn't be the way he said they were and she doesn't feel she can come on here?

maggiesmama · 09/10/2006 16:09

tis a worry

hope she doesnt feel she cant post in the light of recent dramas

zippitippitoes · 09/10/2006 16:12

I think she only has intermittent use of pc/internet, but if there is another reason then I think she should feel that she can post regardless

curlysmum · 09/10/2006 20:32

Puddytats I hope you are ok

2ndtime · 09/10/2006 23:04

Here Puddy,Puddy! Worried whats happened.

mumblechum · 10/10/2006 11:14

bump

wannaBe1974 · 10/10/2006 15:09

have we been had?

zippitippitoes · 10/10/2006 15:16

I guess the answer is he is going to plead guilty, perhaps PT will post after the sentencing.

Original poster
puddytats · 11/10/2006 12:33

He is going to plead guilty.
Will post more next week
thankyou for the continued support
xxx

OP posts:
Megglevache · 11/10/2006 12:34

Message withdrawn

Megglevache · 11/10/2006 12:35

Message withdrawn

curlysmum · 11/10/2006 13:27

so sorry you are stuck in the middle of this,
take care

slartibartfast · 11/10/2006 16:16

I have read all the threads 'live' from the one posted last year on the day of the confrontation at work to now: I've not changed my perception of it during all that time - batters sums it up (Monday2October0952:11) in option 2.

I've no extra evidence for that view than that discussed in the many threads, of course. I have seen people at work who were otherwise sober sane and sensible do some easily-traceable and illegal things to get their hands (temporarily) on relatively small (four noughts) amounts of money.

We may be wrong. However damning the evidence at this stage, the innocent person just has to deny it: it doesn't need fancy forensics or a fancy barrister. Just give the evidence to the court in the same way as having given evidence to the family. A jury may not believe the story: the judge may pass a longer sentence: the whole sentence may have to be served because the parole board dislike letting out prisoners who fail to accept their guilt: but those who are innocent can look their children in the eye and say 'I didn't do it and I never told anyone that I did'.

fwiw.

shimmy21 · 11/10/2006 16:26

I feel that whatever the doubts are in anyone's minds about Puddytat's dh (and there is most likely never going to be a definitive answer to that one) Puddytats herself is the Mumsnetter. She is a mother of small children who has turned to MN for support at an unbelievably hard time. I don't feel she has really received the best of MN so far

zippitippitoes · 11/10/2006 18:20

Well the best to hope for then is a generous judge and an easy prison billet local to you if he is imprisoned.

Chin up.

pleasedontdoit · 11/10/2006 18:45

I have a bad feeling about this. Pt are you safe?

Previously pt has given info re meetings with solicitors etc, has gone into details about everything that has and hasn't been available to solicitors, has always insisted that her dh was innocent and that he was only pleading guilty for the sake of his family. And although many posts on here have been very judgmental, a lot have also been very supportive of the op, even to the extent people have posted to see how she's doing. So for me a one liner of "he's pleading guilty, will post more next week", has set huge alarm bells ringing that there is more to this than meets the eye. That one sentence sounded like someone who was scared to say any more, I wonder if she's been threatened?

zippitippitoes · 11/10/2006 18:47

I read it as, "you will be disappointed to know that he is still pleading guilty nothing more I can say really but will let you know what happens re sentencing"

Original poster
puddytats · 12/10/2006 08:44

Please rest assured i have not been threatened, but thank you so much for your concern. Just under a huge amount of emotional strain at the moment and while i appreciate people are entitled to their views, will find it very difficult to cope with critisizm or judgements right now. As yes i know the path we have taken means i need to get used to it but i need to get my head clear first and then i can be strong again.
Thank you to all who have given such fantastic support, it has meant more than you could possibly know.

OP posts:
MadameMorticiaMills · 12/10/2006 08:52

Oh puddytats, just wishing you strength for the coming few days/weeks/months, years even.

Please, please use mumsnet through these times, most people here will give you as much support as is possible, and you do have a lot of people thinking about you and your family.

ScreamandYellowFeathers · 12/10/2006 08:56

Puddytats.

Wishing you lots of luck and wishes for you all.

pleasedontdoit · 12/10/2006 21:48

well here are tomorrow's

listings

for chichester Crown court. I didn't see the name that was posted here before so I don't know whether it's on those listings, but there's nothing that looks anything like the kind of hearing here - it wouldn't be considered a sentencing as mr pt has not entered a plea yet.

So I think the game's up...

curlysmum · 12/10/2006 22:03

I think although I did'nt see the surname when she posted it before but do recall it from another thread, but I think if I am right I see that name in Winchester tommorrow under a plea hearing,I don't believe Puddytats has made this up,

theunknownrebelbang · 12/10/2006 22:12

Passing absolutely no comment on the thread itself, cases are often pulled out of (and put in to) crown court lists at very short notice.

pleasedontdoit · 12/10/2006 22:13

but posts below make reference to Chichester not Winchester.

TheBlonde · 12/10/2006 22:16

It is listed where PT said it would be

Best of luck tomorrow PT