Gambling - Of Course It Does Not destroy Lives

Considering just how much we are bombarded on TV with adverts for gambling, whether it is for bingo, bookmakers, online casinos, it makes me wonder how many people get sucked into the promises made by them.  Then before they know it, they owe thousands and despair at how they are going to be out of debt.  As Cliff Brumby said in "Get Carter" " People put money in(his gaming machines) I take it out"  Just about sums it up.  But there are those who will murder in order to get money to pay off their debts.  These are usually regarded as gambling addicts.  I prefer to think of  them as degenerate gamblers. (Joe Pesci in Casino)  Two examples of these degenerate gamblers resorting to killing to rob, are Garry Harding, who murdered Annie Eels and Samantha Tapper, and Rakesh Bhayani who murdered Carole Waugh.  His partner in crime, Nicholas Kutner, was cleared of murder but found guilty of perverting justice.

    Harding committed his double murder in a Shrewsbury massage parlour, covered in an earlier post, but Bhayani & Kutner's`efforts enabled them to ruthlessly plunder the bank accounts of Miss Waugh, displaying how greed can consume somebody.  A person is murdered and two men go out on lavish spending sprees with the victims money!  They truly displayed what Miss Waugh meant to them.  The body of Miss Waugh was eventually discovered in a lock up garage, in New Malden, South West London.  She was in the boot of a VW Golf.  A Pathologist had to use dental records to identify her as she was very badly decomposed.  Miss Waugh had been stabbed.  Over the course of the investigation, a number of men and women were in Police custody.  The women had been paid to impersonate Miss Waugh, and Police accepted that they never knew she had been murdered.  Bhayani & Kutner went on trial at the Old Bailey on 11th October 2013, for murder, fraud and perverting justice.

   Both men were professional con-men, and these type of people are constantly lying, as Bhayani proved in court.  He claimed that Miss Waugh, a wealthy single woman, agreed to help him in an insurance and bank scam that would net them hundreds of thousands of pounds.  Why would she do this?  She was not desperate for money, unlike the two accused.  By Bhayani`s account, Miss Waugh and Kutner were alone in her flat when she died, implying that Kutner was responsible.  He admitted concealing her body, cramming it into a large holdall bag.  Then they went out and plundered her bank accounts, assets, even renting out her expensive flat to unsuspecting clients.  Convicted of murder, Bhayani received a minimum of 27 years.  Kutner was cleared of murder but guilty of perverting justice, receiving 13 years.

    Bhayani had a very long career of fraud and deception, even remortgaging family members homes without their knowledge.  He would rob and destroy anybody just so he get money to gamble.  His criminal record stretched to 14 court appearances, charged with nearly one hundred offences.  Kutner was a silver spoon child, adopted by a very wealthy family, so no doubt believed he deserved a high flying lifestyle at anybody`s cost.  He was involved in scams buying and selling expensive wines, in a career consisting of 13 court appearances, also for nearly one hundred offences.  Their counsels argued that they were conmen, not violent men.  Yet Miss Waugh was violently murdered, and she stood in the way of what they wanted; money.

    So what of Carole Waugh?  She was 49 years old, single, daughter of a colliery electrician in County Durham, worked as a civil servant, worked for an oil company in Libya.  Family believed she made her money as a successful businesswoman, even her former boss said he did not believe she was involved in anything sordid.  Yet she bought a two bedroomed flat in the Marylebone area of London, an exclusive area, for £650,000!  Police did uncover evidence that she advertised herself as an escort on the Internet, possibly even as a high class prostitute, although this was never proven.  It would certainly explain the wealth and assets she had, acquired by working at this for a good few years, but the truly sad part of this story is that Carole Waugh was a desperately lonely woman, and using the Internet to meet people can be dangerous, as some cases have shown.  She met two conmen whose only passion was for money at any cost.  Sad.