Arthur Selby arrived at Metropolitan Constabulary headquarters on Foundry Row at 10:15 on Tuesday morning, wearing a brown overcoat and carrying nothing. He was accompanied by a solicitor — not Elise Braddock, who represents Vincent Drury, and not Edmond Crayle, who represents Gerald Ashcroft, but a man not previously connected to the investigation, later identified as Harold Pembridge of Pembridge & Cole, a small Thornhill practice.

He entered through the front door. He left, approximately three hours later, through the same door. He was not charged. He spoke to no one on the pavement.

Senior Inspector Callum Frye, who has led the day-to-day Greystone Wharf investigation since the three-alarm fire on 13 February, described the interview as “useful and cooperative” — a phrase that, in the measured vocabulary of Constabulary spokesmen, suggests Selby answered questions rather than declining them.

What Selby said remains confidential. But what investigators have established about his past is now a matter of record, and it draws a line — thin but unmistakable — between the ghost compliance firm, a defunct shipping supply company, and the property group that owned the warehouse that burned.

The Ashcroft Thread

Arthur Selby, 51, worked for eleven years as an accounts clerk at Whitaker & Sons, a Docklands shipping supply firm that sold rope, rigging, and marine hardware to warehouse operators along the waterfront. The firm closed in March 2022. Six days later — on 14 March 2022 — Selby incorporated Southgate Safety Consultants Ltd, registering himself as sole director at a single-room office above Canford & Sons printers on Mercer Street.

The Times reported yesterday that Whitaker & Sons had supplied Ashcroft Property Group among other Docklands operators between 2019 and 2021. What has now emerged, from sources familiar with the investigation, is that Selby was not merely employed at Whitaker & Sons during this period — he personally handled the Ashcroft account.

This means that Selby managed invoicing, despatch records, and commercial correspondence for Ashcroft Property Group as part of his duties at the shipping supply firm. He would have known the company’s Docklands properties, their operational status, and — crucially — the names and contact details of Ashcroft personnel responsible for building maintenance and compliance.

It does not prove that Selby produced the falsified fire certificates that have been found at three Docklands warehouses. But it establishes that the sole director of the firm named as their source had a pre-existing commercial relationship with the property company that benefited from them.

Elise Braddock, solicitor for Vincent Drury of Greystone Shipping & Haulage, declined to comment. Edmond Crayle, solicitor for Gerald Ashcroft, did not respond to a request for comment by press time.

The Audit Continues

The Docklands safety audit, now in its eleventh day, has assessed 56 of 72 identified vacant commercial properties. The running tally: 11 properties with irregularities of varying severity, including the three with falsified fire certificates. Two additional properties were found this week with lapsed insurance documentation — buildings technically uninsured against fire, flood, or structural failure.

Fire Marshal Edwin Hale, who is coordinating the audit with the Constabulary and the Revenue Office, confirmed that the Wednesday stockpile audit for the spice crisis will not affect his team’s capacity. “Different buildings, different inspectors,” he said.

The Ashcroft Property Group’s 2.4-million-florin tax demand — the outstanding vacant building levy issued by the Municipal Revenue Office on 21 February — carries a payment deadline of approximately 7 March. Crayle has disputed the calculation and the classification of several properties as vacant. The Revenue Office has not commented on whether an extension has been requested or granted.

A Small Man in a Large Story

What remains unclear is the degree of Arthur Selby’s culpability — and the degree of his autonomy. Was Southgate Safety Consultants his enterprise, or was he a name on a registration form directed by others? His solicitor’s presence suggests he is taking the matter seriously. The choice of a small Thornhill practice rather than a firm connected to Drury or Ashcroft suggests he is, for now, standing apart from the other figures in the investigation.

Selby is not in custody. He has not been charged. He returned to his home in Thornhill on Tuesday afternoon, where he was observed drawing the front curtains.

The investigation continues. The audit continues. And the line between a bookkeeper’s ledger and a warehouse fire grows shorter with each day.