Officers of the Metropolitan Constabulary executed a search warrant on the Midtown headquarters of the Ashcroft Property Group shortly after eight o’clock on Monday morning, seizing financial records, correspondence, and what one source described as “several crates of material” from the firm’s offices on Harker Street.

The search, which lasted approximately four hours and involved more than a dozen officers, marks a significant escalation in the investigation into the arson that destroyed the Mercer & Holt warehouse at Greystone Wharf on the night of 13 February. Fire Marshal Edwin Hale’s preliminary report, released Saturday, identified traces of a petroleum-based accelerant at three points within the structure.

Gerald Ashcroft, the firm’s managing director, was not present at the offices during the search. His solicitor, Edmond Crayle of Crayle, Whitford & Associates — one of Bobington’s most prominent legal firms — released a statement calling the warrant “premature, disproportionate, and calculated to create an impression of guilt where none exists.”

“Mr. Ashcroft has cooperated fully with every request made by the fire marshal’s office and the Constabulary,” Crayle said. “He has not been arrested or charged with any offence. The execution of a search warrant under these circumstances is a heavy-handed tactic that we will be challenging through the proper legal channels.”

Night Watchman’s Testimony

The Bobington Times has learned that the Constabulary’s application for the warrant was supported in part by testimony from a former night watchman at the Greystone Wharf warehouse, who has provided investigators with information about activity at the property in the weeks preceding the fire.

The watchman, whom the Times is not identifying at the request of the Constabulary, was employed by Ashcroft Property Group until approximately six weeks before the blaze. Sources familiar with his account say he told investigators that he had been instructed to stop making nightly rounds of the building in early January, and that his position was eliminated shortly thereafter.

“He was told the company was cutting costs on vacant properties,” said a source close to the investigation. “But the timing, taken alongside the insurance policy and the tax dispute, is obviously something investigators want to understand.”

Ashcroft Property Group had been locked in a dispute with the Municipal Revenue Office over a 2.4-million-florin vacant building levy on the warehouse. The firm had also renewed and substantially increased the building’s insurance policy — to 3.8 million florins, well above the city’s assessed value — just four months before the fire.

Docklands Safety Audit

Separately, Councilwoman Ida Pryce announced on Monday that she has formally requested an emergency safety audit of all vacant commercial properties in the Docklands district.

“The Greystone Wharf fire has revealed a pattern of neglect that extends well beyond a single building,” Pryce said in a statement. “I have asked the Municipal Building Inspectorate to provide the Council with a full accounting of every vacant structure in the Docklands within thirty days, including its ownership, condition, and compliance with fire safety regulations.”

Pryce noted that at least fourteen commercial properties in the Docklands have been vacant for more than twelve months, many of them former warehouses and chandleries dating from the district’s heyday as a major shipping centre. Several are listed on the Bobington Historical Preservation Society’s register of heritage structures.

“We owe it to the firefighters who risked their lives at Greystone Wharf, and to the people who live and work in these neighbourhoods, to ensure that no other building is allowed to become a tinderbox through wilful neglect,” Pryce said.

Investigation Continues

The Metropolitan Constabulary declined to comment on the specifics of the search or the night watchman’s testimony, saying only that “the investigation is proceeding and we are pursuing all available lines of inquiry.”

Fire Marshal Hale is expected to deliver his full report to the Constabulary later this week. Sources indicated that the report will include a detailed analysis of the type and distribution of accelerant used, as well as a reconstruction of the fire’s progression through the building.

The four firefighters injured in battling the blaze have all been released from St. Dunstan’s Hospital. Battalion Chief Cora Whitmore confirmed that two remain on medical leave and are not expected to return to active duty for several weeks.

Anyone with information about the Greystone Wharf fire is urged to contact the Docklands precinct of the Metropolitan Constabulary.