In 1971 Edward Heath, the Conservative PM, had lunch with his friend Alastair Hetherington, the editor of The Guardian newspaper. There had been some publicity about the security of information held by various government departments, such as the Inland Revenue. Heath had told Parliament this was not an issue, and the security of such information was beyond question. Hetherington was not so sure, and the two men made a friendly bet.
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After the meeting, Hetherington contacted Ian Withers and invited him to The Guardian office. He gave Withers four names and asked if could find as much information as possible. He assured him the men had done no wrong and knew all about it – it was completely above board.
Ian Withers and his brother Stuart ran Nationwide Investigations, a private investigation company. In 1971 they had moved their office from Carshalton in South London to 3 Quex Road, on the corner of Kilburn High Road. Their office manager was from Kilburn and had found the local site.
For many years this building which wrapped around the corner, was Nos.128 and 130 Kilburn High Road. It had been a branch of Sainsbury’s, which closed after their large supermarket opened on the current site at 88-92 Kilburn High Road.
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Ian accepted the job, and he and his firm collected information and presented a report to Alistair Hetherington.
On 11 May 1971, The Guardian published the story on the front page as, ‘Personal information in the hands of government departments is not safe’. It said the four men were employees of the paper and the information had been obtained from banks, police criminal records and other sources, but Withers and the company were not named.
That day Heath faced hostile questions about the article in Parliament and he was furious. He immediately contacted the Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police and demanded an inquiry.
The Met told Detective Chief Superintendent John Hensley (known as Ginger from his red hair and famously wearing a bow tie), to find out who had obtained the information. With a team of 28 officers, and lots of publicity, he first raided The Guardian office but found nothing useful. Next, they worked their way through all the private investigators in London.
In July they looked at Ian’s company. Ian was going on holiday to Switzerland with his girlfriend and later wife Phyllis, when he received an anonymous phone call probably from another PI, that Ginger and DS Bernie Davies were coming, and he should make sure ‘his house was clean’. Stuart told Ian to go ahead with the trip, and he would deal with the police.
Ginger with about 20 officers and two dog units arrived at Ian’s empty flat in Sussex and smashed their way in with a sledgehammer for the search. Then they went downstairs to Stuart’s flat and woke him and his girlfriend Helen. The police showed them a warrant about searching for explosives which they knew would get a magistrate’s agreement. Carpets were ripped up, cupboard doors were smashed, and everything was thrown on the floor. Stuart and Helen were arrested and questioned about obtaining information from banks, building societies and police records, and threatened with years in prison if they did not speak up.
Then Stuart was driven to the office in Kilburn which was searched thoroughly. But the police did not know about a room on the second floor, accessed from a separate front door, where all the recent files were kept. Ginger asked Bernie if he had found anything in the main office. At this point Bernie reached into a cupboard and the room was suddenly filled with an acrid peppery tear gas. Bernie called out to Ginger, ‘It’s a gas gun Sir!’ and held up what looked like a fountain pen. It was a fit-up, there had never been a gas gun in the Kilburn office, but Ian had surrendered one like it, which he had been given as a present from a client, to the police at their previous office in south London.
When Ian arrived back in Newhaven on 12 July he was arrested and driven to Kensington Police Station where he was questioned by DCS Hensley who said:
‘You and I, Mr Withers have many things in common. We’re both investigators, professional investigators, and we are both liars, professional liars. In fact, the only difference between you and I, is that you are a prisoner, and I am a Detective Chief Superintendent in charge of the Murder Squad at New Scotland Yard’.
Ian thought Hensley was nuts but kept quiet and asked to see his solicitor. Despite all the threats, they were bailed the next day. They went back to the office in Kilburn and found all the files from the main office had gone. Tentatively, they made their way to the second office and found it had not been touched – the police had missed it completely.
Ian, Stuart, Phyl and Helen were later charged with having ‘conspired to affect a public mischief’. After appearing at a magistrate’s court, they found themselves at the Old Bailey on 22 January 1973.
DCS Hensley gave evidence and said Withers had obtained information by phoning Scotland Yard on numbers which were secret and not for public use. The prosecution produced a book, which Ginger gravely told a silent court was found in the Kilburn office. Ian’s QC Jeremy Hutchinson asked if this was true, and Ian said it was the ‘Police Almanac’. Hutchinson cross examined Hensley and asked him if the numbers in the book were confidential and known only to the police. Ginger said this was the case. At which point Hutchinson dramatically produced the ‘Police Almanac’ and said they had bought it this lunchtime for £10 from WH Smith, making a nonsense that it was confidential information. Ginger blustered, and said he had ‘no idea’ it was on general sale.
The judge said this could not be a criminal offence, and he was also not interested in the gas gun supposedly found in the office. But the conspiracy charge dragged on for two weeks and Ian and Stuart ran out of money as they did not have legal aid. When the jury came back and found them guilty of conspiracy, Ian and Stuart were stunned.
On 10 February Ian was given 12 months imprisonment and Stuart nine. Phyl and Helen received six months, but as a suspended sentence and were released. Jeremy Hutchinson said he would apply immediately for bail, pending appeal.
He said Ian and Stuart would spend the weekend on remand in Brixton but should be out on Monday. That day Ian phoned their solicitor who said the application would be heard by Mr Justice Mars Jones, known as Mars Bars. He was a stickler for detail and said he would not make a decision until he saw the whole of the Old Bailey transcript. Their solicitor estimated it would take a week to type up, but it actually took a month, during which time the Withers brothers remained in their shared prison cell.
Then they were told a hearing would take place on 8 March. Ian and Stuart were excited that morning and looking forward to their release. But in the afternoon they were aware something had happened in central London. News spread, the IRA had exploded two bombs in Whitehall and outside the Old Bailey. Their solicitor phoned Ian and said obviously the hearing was off, and not only that, but the office at the Old Bailey containing the transcript had been destroyed by the car bomb. Back to square one.
Several weeks passed as a new transcript was typed up. But the new judge decided he did not need to see the transcript; the issue was of public interest and the brothers should be released immediately to fight the case. So, after several months in Brixton Ian and Stuart were released on 31 March 1973.
They had to work hard to build the business back up. To get away from the Met Police, who bluntly told them they were not welcome in the area, in 1973 they opened an office in Brighton, leaving just a manager in Kilburn. They kept the North London office for about four or five years, as well as one in South London.
On 5 June 1974 their appeal was heard in the House of Lords. On the 20 November the seven law lords gave their judgement, which said; ‘There is no such offense known in English law as a conspiracy to affect public mischief’, and ‘On no occasion should such a prosecution be made again’.
Their convictions were quashed. Ian and Stuart had spent months in jail, used up all their money, and lost their business. The £15,000 they were awarded did not even cover their legal fees. But they had won the hard-fought case to clear their names.
In this story I have just looked at their time in Kilburn. The Withers brothers went on to have long and very successful careers, and Ian has written about his many fascinating cases in the book ‘Dangerous Escapades’, published by Maurice Wylie Media (2024).
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I would like to thank Ian Withers for his help with this incredible story.
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