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John uncovers real kitchen sink drama
Detective work by local policeman and author
Regular viewers of BBC TV's consumer watchdog programme, Rogue Traders, will have seen last week's show that featured kitchen guru Vance Miller.
The programme showed presenters Matt Allwright and Dan Penteado confronting Mr Miller with accusations of sharp practice, shoddy service and faulty goods.
Most viewers were probably left with the conviction that Mr Miller is indeed a man not to be trusted. He has been the subject of several similar investigations and has been locked up in six different countries for various crimes in the past.
But, he has never been convicted of fraud in connection with his kitchen business and a new book by Leighton author and broadcaster John Newton looks in detail at the man in the spotlight and asks is he really a Kitchen Gangster? - or the unfortunate victim of a vindictive campaign by the Office of Fair Trading.
Mr Newton, who lives in Taylor's Ride with his "lovely wife" Pam, spent over 40 hours talking to Mr Miller is a series of frank interviews that he said grew quite heated at times.
The author is a former soldier and officer in the Kenyan police force, however, and no stranger to dealing with people who might jib at probing questions or object to some content in the resulting book that took two years to pen.
It is written about 98 per cent from the spoken word of people Mr Newton interviewed.
He said: "The only changes are where spoken word translates awkwardly to written word.
"So in some places I modified speech sequence or added or subtracted a few words to ease the flow of diction.
"Nowhere is sense or meaning of a word or phrase changed to distort a point and all interviews are available for anyone who wishes to check.
"I have also cut out most of the swearing that Vance uses as speech punctuation since, while it detracted nothing from the story, is also added nothing and would certainly have been offensive to many in written form."
Mr Newton, 75, does not sit in judgement and from chapter one - Tough Guy - to the Epilogue sits firmly on the fence, avoiding any suggestion of support for either side or offering any opinion on what was said in interview.
He said: "All and any opinions in the book are those of the person being interviewed and not mine.
"Since every person in the book is real I see no need for the usual weasel-word disclaimer that all characters are my invention.
"They are all a product of their own imagination and require no embellishment from me."
Kitchen Gangster? - Or serial entrepreneur whose strength of character and resilience have seen Vance Miller become a global success story against all the odds?
It's up to the reader to decide.
In September 2009, Mr Miller was tried for fraud.
The outcome of that trial is revealed in a sealed envelope inside the back cover of the book with the instruction that it is only to be opened after you have finished reading.
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Weather for Leighton Buzzard
Tuesday 07 February 2012
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