The Story of JayKay (not that one) - Part I

The Story of JayKay (no, not that one)

Part I - Jobless in Monaco

The realm of creating fictitious employees is not reserved exclusively for the President of the French Republic..... it happens in other cases too.  Even in Monaco.

JayKay Keraudren had been actively employed by a maritime management company, called Transocean, in the Principality of Monaco for many years. Having been through a purple patch things weren't going as well as they had been and it seemed too that JayKay was not enjoying a totally frictionless relationship with the wife of the the company's No.1. Something had to give.

One way or another JayKay eventually ended up parting company with his longtime employer, but thing weren't going to be too easy to pick up from there. JayKay was not exactly a 'spring chicken' and job opportunities in the region few and far between. Starting up on your own was rather difficult - in the Principality there were lots of stringent requirements to meet and a rather prohibitive minimum capital requirement.

Time was passing and nothing materialised for JayKay......all these months unemployed.......and no contributions were being made to his pension plan.... this was getting serious. But JayKay had a plan.

A friend of JayKay's – Peter Coleridge – had his own business and fully registered company in the Principality of Monaco - Transat Maritime SAM. Unfortunately Mr Coleridge did have not have any requirement for JayKay's skill set but what if it was made to look as if JayKay had a job in Mr Coleridge's office? He could reimburse Mr Coleridge each month from his savings but it would mean that his pension fund would still be receiving 'legitimate' contributions, and that there would be no problem with claiming reimbursement of medical expenses from the local social security. Not to mention the fact that there wouldn't be a gaping whole in JayKay's CV.

So how was this to work? If JayKay was to be shown as as office employee he would need to be assigned a desk; a computer; etc etc. The solution, of course, was to make him a travelling salesman. No desk needed. No need to come into the office. No need to be 'seen' by the rest of the staff. Just spend the time 'apparently' travelling all over Europe and beyond in the search for clients, making those pitches, and closing those contracts.

Only problem - Anyone fulfilling this task in real life would have had his work cut out making 'expense claims' for reimbursement of all the expenses he incurred on a daily basis; airline tickets, fuel bills, hotels bills, train and bus fares, refreshments while on the road, telephone calls – hundreds of them, entertaining expenses – feting the clients to close that all important contract. He would need a company mobile phone.

It wasn't going to be easy.

And was Mr Coleridge going to keep this to himself and not tell his Co Director and wife, Sandra Coleridge?  Or was he going to 'let her in' on his arrangement with one of his best friends ?