christiang7

I found out about this over a month ago. He hasn't been suspended, he has been fired. Seems there was a lot more to it than is being reported.

I've met him numerous times (only when travelling with my Boss) and he has always been fantastic. Its a real shame to have lost him from the special services team.

They don't escort GGL members, only Prems, celebs and royalty. The department is so understaffed though that the service is extremely unreliable. So much so that my Boss now pays (an extortionate amount, but thats another story) to use the Windsor suite.

toomanybooks

Interesting that he has an 800000 GBP house and at least 75000 GBP in cars on a salary of 35000 GBP.

Wonder if Inland Revenue might be interested in that?

Tobias-UK

Presumably his wife has a job? Perhaps a professional on a significant salary?

itsmeitisss

I've come across Matt once or twice, and he was always friendly and helpful. I knew him by way of a colleague that had a premier card that I travelled with from time to time. He met me once when delayed in traffic (and GGL by this time) and said that unless I had already checked in, there was nothing he could do to get me on the flight. He did escort me into the CCR although I wasn't entitled, so that I could wait for the next flight in comfort. This was in the old days when CCR cards weren't handed out on getting to 5000TP.

If he has indeed gone, he will be a big loss...

meester69

Range Rovers start at £1k, and Tiguans at £5k.

An £800k house for a 48 year old isn't that exceptional, it would have been £200k 20 years ago, and maybe he had an inheritance.

NickB

Some people do need a reality check: the price of the average house in the UK is £282,000 and the median household income is < 25K. With very few exceptions, you don't have a house like that on that kind of income.

An £800K house may not be "exceptional for a 48 year old" among the readership of this board. At the scale of the UK population, however, it is way above where most people are.

Not that this means anything in relation to the particular individual under discussion here, though. People should avoid jumping to conclusions when they are not in possession of sufficient facts to do so.

Jagboi

The story doesn't say how old the cars are either. Range Rovers have lead balloon depreciation, so if it's an older model it would have cost a lot less.

The previous Jaguar I bought when it was 10 years old, but was immaculate and very low miles. It was the top of the range car, and I paid 12% of the new price. Looked, drove, and even smelled like a new car. It was very well looked after, but that doesn't matter much in the used market.

Sadly, it was hailed on and insurance wrote it off.

Greenpen

My cat does not like rain either!

Worcester

Which is correct, but the average house price in London is approaching 500k. My first house which is currently valued at around not a massively dissimilar amount which I purchased at 22 for a lot less, with a 95% mortgage and a £14 personal loan. If I was 22 again there is no way I could do that now.

Sam Bee

I think we need to take a break from house prices argument in this thread.

As a Londoner, I know dozens of people that own houses worth million/s in London who have everyday normal jobs - nurses, teachers etc.

Unfortunately they are the parents of friends who bought housing 30/40 years ago when it feasible. Myself, and my peers (par those who went into banking) don't stand a bloody chance. Some have got 'their inheritances and are accidentally millionaires. Let's not second guess due shoddy journalism. They are directly implying his house was paid for with bribes.

NickB

True but London is also characterised by a more unequal distribution of income compared to the rest of the country and a colossal disparity between average house prices and median house prices (circa 45%: 457K average vs 315K median in Q3 2012). In other words, a relatively small number of obscenely priced properties push the stats on average prices considerably up (if we compare average prices at both end of the spectrum in terms of boroughs, average price in K&C are 9 times average prices in Barking and Dagenham)

I dare say that your story of someone who bought their house at 22 year old and who find himself or herself with a house in the region of circa 800K is hardly going to be typical of median income earners and more reflective of people towards the top quartile of the income bracket.

J_B

Talking about the value of this guy's house in the context of this story just vindicates the journo's decision to include it. I don't understand why we're still talking about it.

The implication is that he's able to service a mortgage with a combination of a moderately above-median salary and cash backhanders. No-one would be stupid enough to bank those, so nobody with that income would get a mortgage. I think that proves the value of his house is irrelevant.

NickB

No, it does not. Please read the last para of post #21 before making such comments.

What it does is drift away from discussing sensationalist articles and making wild speculations based on an extremely flimsy factual base.

Worcester

We are not talking a palace, two up two down semi in Greenwich. I was very lucky when we purchased, it was prior to the crash when they would lend on a 95% mortgage and house prices were high but not out of reach. Back then I was earning only slightly over an average income. I just used this to illustrate that some one could quite legitimately have a 800k house.

I think house prices in London particularity are completely unsustainable, and deeply unfair on the current generating who should be getting on the housing ladder. As I said I could not have purchased that house today.

1HourPhoto

Could be any number of reasons why the guy lives in a 800K house, the reason above could well be true and is the reason why a friend of mine lives in a house worth the best part of 3/4 of a million quid, which up in my neck of the woods buys you a bloody good house, yet he has a job that pays 30k a year.

You know the press do seem obsessed with the value of people's houses, the hate mail been the worst culprits, even when reporting on the most mundane of stories.