In late March 1998, after my second visit to Dubai earlier in March, coming out of retirement once more my father called me at work and said he'd set up a business meeting for me in London the next day; I was in the far north of England at the time on a planned sales trip. He told me the customer was a Mr Jones of Printo Wrappings was a friend of his who wanted to sign a contract for the purchase of a £40,000 machine. They - my father and Mr Jones - wanted me to drive to London and hand the contract to him personally the next morning. I pushed my father for more information but he wouldn’t disclose any further details about Printo Wrappings other than they made packaging for the ‘Swizzels’ sweet brand. He refused to tell me how he knew Mr Jones or how this sale had come about.
An image of my original Printo Wrappings data base entry is linked here.
That summons from my retired father was very unusual in itself, as was the meeting with Mr. Jones the next day. He had no interest in discussing the machine he was buying but he did try to ask me about my extensive travels.
I recall I was abrupt in my answers because my role as an international field service technician had been ended by my accountant uncle (Mike Heaford) and I’d been forced to accept a role as a sticky tape salesman in Britain. It ended up being a very short meeting but I had got a signed contract for the machine sale and I thought little more of this unusual meeting until very recently. I now suspect Mr Jones was my father’s Secret Intelligence Service handler or intermediary, wanting to know more about my meetings and conversations in 1997 Yemen and Dubai, and then Jakarta, Manila and Dubai again in 1998.