How a small mistake can lead to major problems
Not far from the British city of Ashburn, Derbyshire, 61-year-old Alan Yeomans lived modestly, without getting attention in any way. Everyone knew that back in 2002, the former millionaire declared himself bankrupt and informed the authorities that he lived in a barn on the territory of his mother’s house. All his property included only furniture and watches, with a total value of only 330 pounds. According to the court ruling, he owed the state a considerable amount of money for tax evasion. And indeed, at first glance, everything confirmed the fact that the former millionaire, now bankrupt, modestly huddles in a barn and leads a very poor and inconspicuous life. It seemed so to everyone, including the neighbors, who saw only a huge cowshed.
And probably everything would have been fine for the former millionaire, if not for one mistake that he made. Alan was given an official request, according to which he had to appear at the city administration to give explanations, a common formality that he passed many times. But for some reason he didn’t go.
A few days later, the police went to the specified address of the residence of the beggar – the bankrupt pensioner – to find out the reason for his absence. Approaching the place, at first glance it seemed that the poor man really had very modest living conditions. But it seemed so only at first glance. Driving closer, the police were surprised to see that only a few walls of the building look like a shed. In fact, under a clever disguise, there was a house with six huge bedrooms, an impressive library, a modern gym, a disco and a swimming pool, many additional rooms with modern and expensive repairs.
But that wasn’t all the police could find. Among other things, the house contained a lot of antiques, ancient oil paintings and a collection of Rolex watches. And as a cherry on the cake, a secret room with a modest plantation was found behind one of the paintings.
It’s even hard to imagine that for more than 15 years a resourceful bankrupt beggar skillfully hid all this behind the walls of an old barn. As a result, all the property was valued at two million dollars and confiscated, and the bankrupt went to jail for six and a half years.
And this story teaches that sometimes a very small mistake leads to very big and serious problems.
How do you like the idea of disguise, invented by this bankrupt millionaire?
