There has been another twist in the story of Alan Lane and Katrina Smith, the middle class couple “forced” to live in Heathrow Airport, as reported by the Daily Mail. If you haven’t actually read this story (where have you been!) you can catch up here To briefly summarise the story, this couple lost their 500k home, made a series of extremely poor financial decisions and ended up apparently sleeping rough in Heathrow Airport.

Quite why they are forced to live in an airport, and indeed whether they are actually living in the airport has been the subject of fierce debate this week. It has been revealed that the couple have an income of £1400 a month, spend around £400 a month on bed and breakfast and £350 to keep their belongings in storage. As a great many people have pointed out, they have more than enough money to rent a flat, albeit not in the expensive Sandbanks or Canford Cliffs area of Poole as they are used to, but certainly enough for a modest flat in the general Poole area.

Nevertheless a lady called Natalie Longford sympathised with this couple enough to set up a Go Fund Me Page to raise £2000 - enough for a decent deposit on a flat to help these “needy pensioners”. Natalie says she has never met the couple, nor has she corresponded directly with them in any way. Within hours the total had reached nearly £10,000 before Natalie bowed to the pressure of those who wanted the fund stopped as they smelt a rat with the couples story.

There are indeed a number of points that need clarification, and answers were far from forthcoming. Firstly Alan Lane is a media specialist and consultant who specialises in how to make a story go viral. The Daily Mail have been surprisingly quiet on updates to the story other to say that Alan and Katrina are overwhelmed by the generousity of the general public and the offers of accommodation that have flooded in. However they would be spending a little more time at the guest house as it was “prepaid”. Here are just some of the holes that people have pointed out in the story.

1. £1400 a month income is significantly more than many people have to live on and certainly enough to rent a small flat.
2. Katrina Smith has not worked for many years and qualifies for Job Seekers Allowance yet has not claimed it. She cites difficulties in getting to interviews at the Job Centre as the reason she has not done this. Why has she not claimed and what are these difficulties?
3. The couple claim to have contacted various charities and organisations for help. However Heathrow Airport has a dedicated team of social workers who specialise in homelessness and they have not been contacted for help.
4. The mysterious B&B. Why pay £100 a week (equivalent to rent in many areas) to stay at a B&B when this would cover rent on your own home.
5. Several GoFundMe posters pointed out that there was a B&B close to Heathrow which was run by a couple called Katrina and Alan. Some people even claimed there was a photo of the couple on Trip Advisor which was removed but no evidence has been put forward to back up this theory. The B&B appears to be run by a different couple yet they have been very silent on the matter, not even putting forth a statement which, if this were my business I would be disassociating myself from this story most vehemently.
6. Alan is associated with many businesses and one of which is registered to a very expensive flat in the Poole area which is currently up for sale. What is Alan’s association with this flat and does he own it?
7. It appears that the couple made many financial mistakes including taking on additional financial commitments ie a mortgage quite late in life. At one point they had released enough equity from the sale of one of their properties to comfortably buy a small property outright yet they chose to mortgage again putting themselves in further difficulties.
8. Alans name has been variously reported as Lane or Page - which is it? Why the confusion?
9. How did the Daily Mail photographer claim copyright on both the picture of the couple at the airport and the one of them taken in happier times?
10. Do they not have friends or family who can help. The paper reports Mr Lane’s daughters living in Canada but do they not have relatives in this country?
11. If Natalie has never met the couple how did she intend to turn over the money to them?
12. Why was their scheduled appearance on Loose Women cancelled?
13. Why are the couple now apparently in hiding and not talking to the media? If someone raised such a large sum for me I would be extremely happy to participate in publicity to thank those who donated.

After many of these points were raised on Go Fund Me requests for refunds started to pour in.

The latest twist in the tale is that overnight the GoFundMe Page disappeared completely overnight. The page now says the campaign cannot be found and no mention is given of the funds that have been donated already. Curiouser and curiouser.

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