Perfect spot for couple who wanted to `keep themselves to themselves'

Standing behind the neat rows of marigolds and rose bushes in the gardens of the middle-class avenues of Willingdon in Eastbourne, Mr Tony Taylor's neighbours are astonished.

"He and his wife kept themselves to themselves," said one of his neighbours on Wrestwood Avenue yesterday. "We only heard this afternoon that he was in court in Brighton. It's all very curious isn't it? We thought they were a bit reclusive. Never saw her very much, just a wave from him when he was going inside the house."

Mr Taylor's second wife, Shirley, his former secretary at Taylor Asset Management in Dublin, seems to be keeping a low profile at their two-storey semi-detached home. Parked in the drive is a Treg car; the black wrought iron gate to the drive is wide open and a Neighbourhood Watch sticker in the window suggests the Taylors were active members of the local community, but there is little sign of movement inside the house.

At 4 p.m. all the curtains are drawn at their house, number nine Wrestwood Avenue. The net curtains in the downstairs windows have been pulled back slightly at the edges as if someone has recently peered out the window and forgotten to fix them back in place. Ringing the doorbell proves fruitless. If there is someone at home they are not answering the door.

Tony Taylor - or Andrew as his neighbours know him - is described as a quiet, reserved man. "He kept a low profile," says another neighbour who does not want to be identified. "He and Shirley have lived next to us for about 18 months, but we just say `hello' when we see him getting out of the car. We never see his wife. We thought she was poorly because we never saw her outside the house, except a few times in the back garden."

Further along this tree-lined cul-de-sac, notable for its neatly-kept retirement bungalows and a road sign warning motorists to drive slowly, other neighbours speak about Mr Taylor's hobbies and his likeness for cars.

"Oh yes, I've seen Andrew going in and out of the house with a set of golf clubs. There are a lot of golf clubs around here so he could have gone to any of them."

Another neighbour, who lives opposite the Taylors, says she saw Mr Taylor driving an off-road vehicle, "one of those high ones, a four-wheel drive", earlier this year. It is not the same car parked in the Taylor's driveway.

"I saw him a few times getting out of the four-wheel drive with his golf clubs," she explains. "But I've not seen him in a while. I didn't really know them but they didn't look as if they were spending a lot of money. They just changed their car."

As some of the residents of Wrestwood Avenue stand in their gardens discussing Mr Taylor and his wife, one of them offers a slice of local wisdom.

If you want to be anonymous, Willingdon is the ideal location, he says. "It's full of retirement homes and quiet streets. You could certainly keep a low profile here."