On July 31, 2008, Geoffrey Arbuthnott drove from his home in Hertfordshire to an upmarket restaurant at The Hoste Arms in the small town of Burnham Market in Norfolk. He arrived early and waited in his car for his former colleague Edward Cox, chairman of the legendarily low-profile Charterhouse Capital Partners, to arrive.

Arbuthnott had worked at the firm for over 20 years and had retired earlier that year but still held 8.9% of the shares in Charterhouse Capital Limited.