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Alcom is a smallish company that operates along the Edgware Road. It
is controlled by a man known as Alexis Mardas. His company makes
bullet-proof cars and modifies vehicles to take armour-plating,
amongst other things. But in order to test the efficacy of its
products, the company needs to spray the cars with bullets from the
type of weapon which assailants may use. To carry out this testing, Mardas hired a specialist, Mr "X" (for legal reasons he cannot be named) who holds an arms dealer's licence. This licence permits Mr X to possess and use firearms. In December last year the Metropolitan Police indicated to him that they felt his security was not sound. Mr X removed his business to a new location. Mardas and Mr X fell out when the commissions owing to Mr X were not paid to him. Now, Mardas is a trigger-happy litigant and is frequently represented by solicitor, William Stockler, in court. Recently, Stockler fought off a creditor's petition for winding up brought by a foreign company. On the day this petition was dismissed, Mardas walked into the Paddington Green Police station and made a statement accusing Mr X of theft of weapons. Mardas is not himself licensed to hold weapons and, as he was in dispute with Mr X over commission, he will no doubt try hard to explain the ownership of property he was by law not entitled to have. Mardas was previously associated with the notorious Ian Leaf of the failed Rapport Group (Eye 529). Leaf had offered to buy a company, Armalite Action Limited, from Mardas but couldn't raise the cash. However, mysterious mortgages to banks were arranged with deeds from the Armalite Company. Stockler, the pettifogger mentioned above, sued Leaf and Mardas may not have yet been paid. Mardas, with his dodgy connections and swift recourse to the courts, may find his arms-buying clients just a little wary of doing business with a man who shops his associates to the police when things do not go his way.
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