West Bay: Captain Skint quizzed by police on fraud allegations (From Bridport and Lyme Regis News)

West Bay: Captain Skint quizzed by police on fraud allegations

10:18am Thursday 28th January 2010

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A SHIPWRECKED sailor believed to have fled to France leaving behind a trail of debts and angry helpers at West Bay has been arrested by police after returning to the country.

Officers from Dorset’s Marine Section had been hunting for Jonathan Orme Dawson, 61, after he disappeared in July allegedly owing more than £1,000 to the district council for mooring fees and £400 to a crane hire company for fishing his damaged yacht out of the water.

A number of Bridport residents are also understood to have been left ‘out of pocket’ after helping the lone yachtsman launch his ‘Save Our Ship’ appeal to rebuild his shattered boat.

This week police confirmed Mr Orme-Dawson was arrested in Taunton on Sunday, January 17.

It is understood he returned from across the Channel to visit relatives there.

Police said he had been interviewed ‘regarding allegations of fraud in relation to the rescue of his shipwrecked boat’.

He has been released on bail while officers make further enquiries and is due to report back to the Marine police on March 15. No charges have yet been brought.

Mr Orme-Dawson was lucky to survive when his 24ft wooden boat sank off Golden Cap in thick fog last June.

A major rescue operation involving Lyme lifeboat and the coastguard helicopter was needed to save him.

Afterwards he claimed to have been left penniless, watching in horror as his £6,000 life savings floated away in a watertight tin.

Big hearted residents at West Bay took him in.

They fed and clothed him and helped him launch an £8,000 ‘SOS’ appeal to rebuild his badly damaged vessel and moor her permanently at West Bay for community use.

The divorced father of five, a retired school teacher, said the people of West Bay had been ‘incredibly generous’.

But the yachtsman dubbed ‘Captain Skint’ then disappeared without a trace and the hunt for him switched to France where it was believed he had accommodation.

In September he contacted The News by e-mail to say: “I find it sad reading your report that I’m missing when people there knew I was going to be away for a few weeks. “As for the council wanting their fees – well, they have been obstructive since I landed and at best not understanding and not being prepared to wait. In that case they are welcome to take and sell the boat if they wish to recover the fees.”

Among the many local people who helped Mr Orme-Dawson rebuild his shattered life were Chris Deacon and his partner Vicky Morency, who run the Quarterdeck Tavern and Durbeyfield Guest House.

Mrs Morency expressed their disappointment at the way local people had been treated when he left the resort without telling them.

She said they had given him a bed for a few nights at special ‘shipwreck rates’ and later other West Bay residents put him up for free.

“I think several people around the Bay have been taken advantage of because of their goodwill and natural propensity to help others,” she said.

Brother and sister Miranda Woodgate and Mike Walden who run Print and Press on St Michael’s Trading Estate designed and printed some 300 leaflets and a promotional T-shirt and mug for his SOS appeal.

Mrs Woodgate said: “We felt sorry for him and were more than happy to do the leaflets for free.

“But then he came back and asked for more leaflets and I drew the line at that.

“It was a complete shock when he disappeared.”

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