On March 21, 1996, the residents of a south London council estate were startled to see police cars outside the home of an elderly resident. Speaking later to the newspapers, tactful neighbours reported that Anthony Sawoniuk had always been a bit of a loner; blunter types declared he was “rude and a prat”. Either way it was hard to imagine why Scotland Yard had chosen to descend with a search warrant on the tatty one-bedroom flat where the 75-year-old had lived for 21 years. Was it something to do with the fact that “Tony the Pole” had spent his working life at British Rail, mostly as a ticket collector at London Bridge? Perhaps he had been on the fiddle all along.

In this brilliantly gripping… continue reading