Secret discovery

The new Assets Recovery Agency has caused more than a few raised eyebrows with the announcement that the location of its offices will remain secret (although it is more understandable for the Belfast branch).

After all, everyone knows where MI5 is, for example, and actually one newspaper had a picture of the ARA's building without actually naming it.

Now, in a revelation that does not bode all that well for the agency's effectiveness, its cover has been completely blown - by a firm of surveyors.

London surveying firm Ingleby Trice Kennard sends out a monthly update of who's renting and vacating what offices in the City, and this month reveals - quite innocently, we're sure - the address of the building that has 'reputedly' been put under offer on behalf of the agency.

That these offices are in the vicinity of the Crown Prosecution Service's headquarters also makes one think that the ARA's secret location would not have remained secret all that long, but it's not the most auspicious of starts.

See Feature, (Gazette [2003] 13 March, page 20)