The Phone Job

Vat Fraud was nothing new to Edward Dant s, Ed to his mates. He got caught up in almost by accident on his part; it was by careful design on another's. It had landed him in extreme difficulty for several years. Her Majesty's Customs & Excise had nicked him and then hashed together a case for two brutal super trials. Something had certainly gone on. Not what the revenue men had said, not even close. They'd missed the real extent of the stuff Ed had gotten himself mixed up in. Some was legitimate and some certainly wasn't. Whatever Ed was doing he was trying his best to make his own way in the world. Ed had beaten the trials, in the process he got an understanding of how the organisation he referred to as the Church, C & E operated. He knew the lengths they would go to, how little respect they had for the truth and the law. He saw just how far they were prepared to go; he thought. So he'd gone straight, for a bit. That wouldn't last, he had the flavour for fast money. The travel, the excitement, the living on the edge would always pull him back, once the storm had passed. Breaking Banus and the clouting Credit Swiss had been good. He'd got away with both moves. He had money again and needed more to get his life sorted, where he wanted it. He knew when Hans walked through the door and laid the waffle on him. Trading in mobile phones. The grey market got getting slung up as being the new thing. It probably existed, but too much of what Hans said stunk of the Gold and Platinum moves, his moves from the early nineties. Ed knew how the Church operated. He knew they'd get on it soon enough. It had been a long while since they'd kicked his door in. Six years, almost to the day and just maybe he knew how to stay one step ahead of them. He was on their radar, when his name came up, as it surely would. It would be they knew, he knew, they knew he was in it. Ed gets started, he sets out his stall, ready for the day of reckoning from the very start. All the window dressing and all the roles needed to be played, to beat the trial. That's all that mattered. The new kids on the block were flat out. They think they invented the job, they think the Church aren't to be taken seriously, it's all just fun, they were so so wrong. Berni is brought in, Ed has his head up and eyes open. They pull in old school help in Italy. The gang is operating from Switzerland. Millions of pounds of high value mobile phones are coming to the UK and leaving on the same day. The stock moves through the companies in one direction. Millions of pounds are flowing through the banks in the opposite direction. The carousel is running. It's growing. It becomes the single largest threat to the British economy and in a few short year morphs into a web of international crime and money laundering. Ed stays at the heart of it for six years. This is the first book of the carousel trilogy. And of course the old gang are going to rob a few players in the old fashioned way. Especially the flash ones that ask for it. It's almost patriotic the way the targets get selected.