Private investigators who tracked Mr Tony Taylor to a detatched house on a quiet, middle-class cul-de-sac in Eastbourne, Sussex, recently kept him under "discreet surveillance". "All the time we were there he was in his house," said Mr Bill Withers, a private detective with Priority Investigations, the company which carried out the surveillance for an unidentified client.
"He rarely went out, and when he did it was not for long. We didn't see much of Mrs Taylor either. Sometimes we'd see her at the window."
The private detectives had to be careful trying to conduct discreet surveillance in a quiet cul-de-sac where strangers were likely to be noticed quickly by residents. Mr Withers says the detectives wanted to get pictures of Mr Taylor which they could convey to their client who could then make a positive identification.
In October 1998, their efforts to locate the missing broker had led them to the Eastbourne area, where they had reason to believe Mr Taylor might be living and using the name Andrew Taylor.
However, the trail got confused. They established that Andrew Taylor was a member of a local golf club and from there traced him to where he worked. It then emerged that this Mr Taylor was English. They had the wrong man.
Their return to Eastbourne came about following a newspaper article featuring Mr Taylor as Ireland's "Most wanted man". Copies of the article were conveyed to members of Mr Taylor's family and then communications from these family members monitored. What exactly this entailed is not clear. Sources say that US agents of Priority conducted some surveillance on Paul Taylor, a son of Mr Tony Taylor's who moved to Washington D.C. in the past year and works for a stockbroking firm there.
Whatever occurred the private detective agency returned to Eastbourne and zeroed in on the house at 9 Wrestwood Avenue. The detectives established that the Taylors had a two-year lease on the house and a lease on a green Vauxhall Astra. Mr Taylor had bought a computer and had had it installed in his new home. There was no sign of any significant assets.
Mr Taylor's whereabouts had remained a mystery since he left his offices on Clyde Road, Ballsbridge, on a Friday evening in August 1996. He had left his dog with members of his staff, informing them he and his wife, Shirley, would be away for a few days. It subsequently emerged they had sold their top-of-the-range Mercedes. The couple had disappeared.
Within days Mr Taylor's companies were put into liquidation. It was discovered that Mr Taylor had been running some investment accounts in his home and outside the books of the companies which formed the Taylor Asset Management group. When these accounts were included by the liquidator in the group's accounts, the group was insolvent. Some investor funds were missing.
Priority Investigations was employed to search for Mr Taylor in October, 1997. The private detective agency says it was engaged through a solicitor and does not know the identity of the person or persons who hired it. The agency believes the client is one of the investors who made a complaint to the Garda Bureau of Fraud Investigation following Mr Taylor's disappearance. The Garda is not so sure and suspects that the client or clients may be investors who lost money but who have not reported the matter to the Garda for reasons of their own. The Garda also believes these persons may have been hoping to get some of their money back from Mr Taylor.
Whatever is the case, private detectives - from Priority's office in Brighton - were watching the house when the British police, acting on information conveyed to them by the Garda Fraud Bureau, arrived to place the Taylor's Eastbourne home under discreet surveillance about 11 days ago. The police quickly noticed the private detectives "in situ" and asked them to leave. This they did.
The arrival of the British police outside Mr Taylor's home was the result of a very complex and exhaustive investigation headed by Det Supt Willie McGee of the Garda Bureau of Fraud Investigation.
After Mr Taylor's disappearance in 1996 and following the making of official complaints to the bureau by investors who had lost money to Mr Taylor, the Garda had initiated its investigation.
In order to prepare a case which would convince the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions, a large amount of difficult paperwork had to be put in place, at the centre of which had to be a "money trail" showing the path taken by the investors' missing funds. This exercise involved approaches to the authorities in Jersey, the Isle of Man and Luxembourg, all three of which have special confidentiality laws covering their financial sectors. Through these approaches to the authorities the Garda secured access to financial transactions linked to Mr Taylor and completed the trail left by the investors' funds.
The Garda team then gathered this material together with statements from aggrieved investors and other documents, and prepared and sent the file to the DPP. It was only when it had received word back from the DPP that the bureau then switched its focus to bringing Mr Taylor home.
The bureau traced Mr Taylor's whereabouts through the use of electronic surveillance, information received, and detective work, according to sources. However, what exactly that means is not clear. As far back as nine months ago the Garda had reason to believe Mr Taylor was in Sussex, according to sources, and more recently traced him to Eastbourne. About 11 days ago the Garda established that Mr Taylor was using the name Andrew and living at 9 Wrestwood Avenue, Eastbourne. The British police were contacted and they kept the Taylors' home under discreet surveillance while back in Dublin the Garda organised extradition warrants.
On Wednesday morning, the day of the eclipse, Det Supt McGee flew to London and from there made his way to Eastbourne. At 3.30 p.m. a British detective constable arrested Mr Taylor at his home on Wrestwood Avenue. Mr Taylor, looking more thin and more grey-haired than when he disappeared three years ago, admitted he was the Tony Taylor mentioned in the warrants. Other than that, he had little to say.
Documents found in Mr Taylor's house indicated he may have been trading in stock market shares over the Internet. Both the Garda and the private detectives seem to be aware that Mr Taylor was making a lot of calls through an Internet Service Provider. It is not clear whether he was making investments on his own behalf or on behalf of others. There is speculation that he may have been involved in day-trading in US stocks. This practice involves persons buying and selling stocks on the same day over the Internet, hoping to make instant profits.
Investors who lost up to £1.7 million (€2.16 million) made complaints to the liquidator appointed to Mr Taylor's companies. However, it is generally believed that other investors who gave money to Mr Taylor have not come forward. How much money or other assets Mr Taylor has in his possession is not known. The Garda suspects that establishing Mr Taylor's wealth might have been something the private investigators would have been asked to establish once the broker's whereabouts had been identified.
Mr Taylor spent Wednesday night in Brighton police station and last night in a British prison. The 15 extradition warrants served on him cover complaints involving approximately £620,000 in missing investors' funds. If he is returned to this jurisdiction to face trial he will be charged with a number of offences including one which carries penalties of fines of up to £1 million, or up to 10 years in prison, or both. There was no answer to telephone calls to 9 Wrestwood Avenue last night.
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