UK UK - Suzy Lamplugh, 25, Fulham, 28 Jul 1986 #7

[Kasparthecat1]

Lets look at the £3000 bonus SJL has talked about ...worth around £9000 today

was this ever mentioned or investigated?

Just supposing SJL was running a little sideline - sourcing properties and finding sellers for buyers / investors - its popular today - a finders fee or commission can be massive (we own a property management company) ...if you worked in an agency you could for example have generated your own private list of clients (investors) looking for properties , lets just say SJL was doing the odd side deal - she would get the commission in a private deal rather than the estate agent getting that commission - she would keep her list of clients private and do private viewings that her agent didn't know about .....
The perp could have posed as a private investor as she could have agreed to privately show him properties.........it's a thought

I agree that activities of this nature is entirely possible. Back then there was a lot of money to be made in property, especially in London, and there was little or no regulation in the house buying process. Dodgy dealing must've been a real temptation, and estate agents were notorious. I'm not saying of course that sjl was necessarily involved in anything dodgy herself, but I don't think it's beyond the realms of possibility.

 

[Kasparthecat1]

Agree, absolutely cannot fathom that as i cannot think of any job where you would walk out and no one would know where you are going for how long and when would be back with no clock in the office this just seems so off.

Whilst things were very different then - no cctv, no mobile phones, no tracking - I kind of agree with you that being out of the office ' especially a small office - without raising any concern about someone's whereabouts until several hours later is quite strange. How long would a normal viewing appointment take? Less than an hour certainly, if local.
If I were MG, and sjl was not there when I got back from lunch, I'd be tamping.

 

[Kasparthecat1]

Agree, absolutely cannot fathom that as i cannot think of any job where you would walk out and no one would know where you are going for how long and when would be back with no clock in the office this just seems so off.

Whilst things were very different then - no cctv, no mobile phones, no tracking - I kind of agree with you that being out of the office ' especially a small office - without raising any concern about someone's whereabouts until several hours later is quite strange. How long would a normal viewing appointment take? Less than an hour certainly, if local.
If I were MG, and sjl was not there when I got back from lunch, I'd be tamping

 

[Kasparthecat1]

Whilst things were very different then - no cctv, no mobile phones, no tracking - I kind of agree with you that being out of the office ' especially a small office - without raising any concern about someone's whereabouts until several hours later is quite strange. How long would a normal viewing appointment take? Less than an hour certainly, if local.
If I were MG, and sjl was not there when I got back from lunch, I'd be tamping

Dunno why that posted twice!

 

[tes1984]

Agree, absolutely cannot fathom that as i cannot think of any job where you would walk out and no one would know where you are going for how long and when would be back with no clock in the office this just seems so off.

I don't think it would be that unusual for estate agents to have some leeway with time. Would an estate agent refuse an unscheduled lunch or drinks offer if they thought a big sale was on the cards?

 

[WestLondoner]

The £3000 commission was probably just what she was owed from the last few houses she'd sold. It was nearly the end of the month, so she'd be about to get that in her payslip.

You can even work back and calculate out what value of houses she'd sold to generate £3000. A mate of mine was an estate agent from 1990ish (when times were worse) and he got 15% of the sale fee, then usually 2% of the agreed price. I have seen suggestions that in the 1980s, the agent might have got 30% of the sale fee.

So we can set a bound: if her £3000 is 30% of the sale fee, the agent's total commission was £10,000 which is 2% of £500,000. So to earn £3000 in one month's payslip she'd need to have had a hand in selling ~4 properties like 37SR value wise (it was on at £128k) that month. This seems entirely plausible to me. If the rate paid to her was 15%, then she'd sold 8 properties like that, or a smaller number of more valuable properties.

Sales are uneven in property, so it's quite plausible that if she was expected to sell 1 a week, she might sell none one month and 8 in the next.

 

[WestLondoner]

No CCTV back in 1986 ....so the investigation is reliant on credible witnesses.

The police should have been all over the sandwiches with the stool samples IMO.

They really needed to bottom this one out.

Should have been their Number Two priority.

 

[Eastend Eagle]

So. That could be the 2 people seen by the neighbour then so we can assume sjl never was there and went to 123 or the pow

Or as DV claimed turned right out of Sturgis, and never went to Whittingstall Road JMO

 

[WestLondoner]

Not sure what can be read into where SJL turned on leaving the office. If the car's on the left but the cashpoint's on the right she's probably gone there, her purse having been found with cash in it.

 

[Ljh21]

Di

I agree that activities of this nature is entirely possible. Back then there was a lot of money to be made in property, especially in London, and there was little or no regulation in the house buying process. Dodgy dealing must've been a real temptation, and estate agents were notorious. I'm not saying of course that sjl was necessarily involved in anything dodgy herself, but I don't think it's beyond the realms of possibility.

The police should have been all over the sandwiches with the stool samples IMO.

They really needed to bottom this one out.

Should have been their Number Two priority.

You are not getting it but i like your humour lol,mg was at a lunch meeting so why need sjl to buy sandwiches

 

[greenwoodlad]

Not sure what can be read into where SJL turned on leaving the office. If the car's on the left but the cashpoint's on the right she's probably gone there, her purse having been found with cash in it.

I was 17 in 1986 - we lived rurally.. what was a cashpoint? we always had to physically go into the bank in the town and write out a cheque to "pay self" to get cash out .....but i've just researched this and there were a thing at most banks / outside banks in London in 1986 ! so fair point raised there

 

[Kasparthecat1]

Not sure what can be read into where SJL turned on leaving the office. If the car's on the left but the cashpoint's on the right she's probably gone there, her purse having been found with cash in it.

Yes - this makes more sense than sandwiches. I wonder if it was ever established that she'd been to a cashpoint, or whether it was deemed worthy of investigation?

 

[Kasparthecat1]

The police should have been all over the sandwiches with the stool samples IMO.

They really needed to bottom this one out.

Should have been their Number Two priority.

I don't think it would be that unusual for estate agents to have some leeway with time. Would an estate agent refuse an unscheduled lunch or drinks offer if they thought a big sale was on the cards?

Some leeway, yes, and I suppose it depends on the office culture too. However if Mr Kipper was indeed a client, he's not deemed important enough to warrant a card with his details on. And sjl left without her handbag. I feel if she were expecting something big from Kipper, she would have taken it as it likely contained makeup, means to write stuff down etc. She went off with only her purse.

And if you were expecting to be away from the office for some time, wouldn't you give your colleagues the heads-up?

 

[Kasparthecat1]

I was 17 in 1986 - we lived rurally.. what was a cashpoint? we always had to physically go into the bank in the town and write out a cheque to "pay self" to get cash out .....but i've just researched this and there were a thing at most banks / outside banks in London in 1986 ! so fair point raised there

I set my first bank account up in 1978 for university. There were cashpoints all over the place even then, in urban areas at least.

 

[rls11]

Some leeway, yes, and I suppose it depends on the office culture too. However if Mr Kipper was indeed a client, he's not deemed important enough to warrant a card with his details on. And sjl left without her handbag. I feel if she were expecting something big from Kipper, she would have taken it as it likely contained makeup, means to write stuff down etc. She went off with only her purse.

And if you were expecting to be away from the office for some time, wouldn't you give your colleagues the heads-up?

I think the fact that she didn't give her colleagues any heads up (if that is indeed what happened), points more to the likelihood that she wasn't going to a work appointment and had other plans that lunchtime. No idea what they were, though!

 

[greenwoodlad]

If i was her boss and knew this i would not be too happy either.

No definitely not ......maybe he was discussing such issues in the Crocodile Tears ...who knows

 

[greenwoodlad]

The police should have been all over the sandwiches with the stool samples IMO.

They really needed to bottom this one out.

Should have been their Number Two priority.

A very amusing thought .....I'm not sure from stool samples of those involved the investigators would have been able to establish whether a sandwich or indeed a Chicken Kiev and a glass of Liebfraumilch from Crocodile Tears had been consumed the previous day sadly IMO

However an interesting thought is that if she did withdraw cash that lunchtime ..... the bank have had closed circuit TV even in 1986 .... I would presume yes -& there would be a bank closeby that she withdrew cash from ? The cash point would have been at a bank branch (as they definitely were not in shops in the 80's).....No mention of this in the public domain as far as I can see...

 

[Eastend Eagle]

Not sure what can be read into where SJL turned on leaving the office. If the car's on the left but the cashpoint's on the right she's probably gone there, her purse having been found with cash in it.

Fair point but I can't get over the fact that 2 or 3 years back in a previous thread office junior JC apparently told a fellow Sleuther that the car was parked in Radipole Road which seems extraordinary since for the previous 35 years LE stated it was parked in Whittingstall Road. Can the office junior really have forgotten where he told SL her car was parked on this infamous day? MOO

 

[greenwoodlad]

This is 660 Fulham Rd -Coyne medical (near the 20 sign to the left of the photo) . To the right of the photo was Sturgis ( on the corner)

660 Fulham Rd was Crocodile Tears , with tables out on the pavement too where MG and the boss were dining - so just turn RIGHT out of Sturgis - cross the Rd and you are there - it was 2 doors down Fulham Rd ....Suzy turned right out of the agents ....surely not a coincidence.....

 

[greenwoodlad]