Vincent Drury arrived at the Metropolitan Constabulary headquarters on Foundry Row at half past nine on Wednesday morning, accompanied by his solicitor Elise Braddock of Doncaster & Braddock, and carrying a leather document case.

He left three hours and fifteen minutes later without it.

Senior Inspector Callum Frye, who is leading the widening investigation into falsified fire safety certificates across the Docklands, conducted the interview in the presence of two constables and a fire safety specialist seconded from the Fire Marshal’s Office.

Drury is the sole listed director of Greystone Shipping & Haulage, the registered owner of the Old Harbour Road warehouse where a fire certificate bearing the forged signature of retired inspector Raymond Duxbury was discovered last week. It is the third such forgery uncovered during the ongoing Docklands safety audit, following similar discoveries at warehouses on Chandler’s Row and Pilot’s Alley.

”A Compliance Consultancy”

Sources close to the investigation said Drury’s account of how the certificates came to bear forged signatures was, as one put it, “not entirely satisfying.”

Drury reportedly told investigators that all fire safety documentation for the Old Harbour Road warehouse was handled by an external compliance consultancy. When pressed for the name of the firm, Drury said he could not immediately recall it but would locate the relevant correspondence in his files and provide it to the Constabulary within 48 hours.

This correspondent understands that Frye’s team found the explanation difficult to credit. A fire safety certificate is a legal document whose provenance a property owner is expected to verify. Drury appeared to be suggesting he had outsourced that verification to a firm whose name he cannot remember.

Braddock, speaking briefly outside the building, said her client had “cooperated fully and voluntarily” and looked forward to providing additional documentation. She declined to answer further questions.

The Registered Address

Separately, this newspaper has reviewed Companies Registry filings for Greystone Shipping & Haulage, which was incorporated in 2019. Its initial registered address was listed as Suite 4, Harbourfront Parade — the same address used during 2020 and early 2021 by Ashcroft Maritime Holdings Ltd, a subsidiary of the Ashcroft Property Group.

The two firms are listed under different directors and different company secretaries. There is no formal corporate link in the current filings. But shared registered addresses — particularly at what appears to be a serviced office suite rather than a dedicated premises — are, at minimum, suggestive of a professional connection.

When this was put to Edmond Crayle, solicitor for Gerald Ashcroft, his response was unequivocal. “Harbourfront Parade is a business services address used by dozens of firms. My client has no involvement with, no interest in, and no knowledge of Greystone Shipping & Haulage.”

Crayle added that the suggestion of any connection was “the kind of innuendo that substitutes for evidence.”

The Wider Pattern

Drury’s interview comes as the Docklands safety audit, now in its sixth day, has assessed 48 of 72 vacant commercial properties on the waterfront. The audit has so far identified four buildings with falsified fire certificates, six with lapsed certificates, three with no safety documentation whatsoever, and four with evidence of unauthorised habitation.

A handwriting analysis commissioned by the Constabulary and completed last week found “consistent structural characteristics” across all three forged certificates examined — strongly suggesting they were produced by the same hand. Whether that hand belongs to Drury, to an associate, or to the mystery compliance consultancy he described, remains to be established.

Frye’s team has also begun examining the two other falsified certificates — at Chandler’s Row and Pilot’s Alley — for any corporate links to Greystone Shipping or to Ashcroft’s property portfolio.

Drury was not arrested or charged. He was asked to remain available for further interviews and, according to sources, to surrender his passport — a request Braddock neither confirmed nor denied.

The investigation continues.