Knifed to death - the man who owed too much to too many

Key quote

"This guy had history. He'll have been known in Cumbernauld even if he'd been away for a few years." - POLICE SOURCE

Story in full EVEN when travelling through its anonymous backroads, Andrew Morgan Best was a man who stood a higher chance than most of confronting enmity and malice in the Lanarkshire town where he grew up.

As he lay in a pool of his own blood by a secluded access road, his throat covered in wounds inflicted by a heavy bladed weapon, not even the benevolence of a stranger could stop his life ebbing away.

It was around 8:10pm on Monday when a motorist in a blue Mercedes, approaching the Auld Inns roundabout in Cumbernauld, noticed Mr Best lying by his white company Transit van on the narrow, single track off Eastfield Road, leading to Dobbies Garden Centre. The driver attempted to stem the blood. Mr Best's wounds, however, were too severe, and blood seeped through his brown hooded top down on to his blue knee-length shorts. As an ambulance took the 44-year-old businessman to Monklands Hospital in Airdrie, he lost consciousness. Soon, he would die from his injuries.

Rumours that he had whispered his killer's name on his deathbed were last night denied by police, who said Mr Best was already beyond speaking when he was brought into hospital.

Although he was a married father of a 15-year-old boy, it is indicative of Mr Best's past, and a starting point for Strathclyde Police's investigation into his murder, that not everyone in Cumbernauld will share the grief being felt by his family.

He was a businessman who, for most of the past decade, presided over a portfolio of businesses specialising in painting services and home improvement. While unassuming in their scale, the firms fell successively like dominoes into liquidation, leaving clients and investors considerably worse off.

Some have suggested Mr Best was killed in a road rage incident.

But one police source said that a man whose enterprises resulted in scores of people from one town being owed up to tens of thousands of pounds apiece should meet his end in the same place is unlikely to be coincidence. "This guy had history," the officer added. "He'll have been known in Cumbernauld even if he'd been away for a few years."

Mr Best was known to police, having an assault conviction for breaking a fireman's jaw in 1997. He was, furthermore, the victim of a stabbing the same year outside his former home in Cumbernauld's Main Street.

The view of Mr Best as a dishonest and violent man, however, is not universal. His mother told The Scotsman that, as far as she knew, her son was not involved in any untoward practices or criminal activity. Even she, though, believed he "went to meet someone" before being killed.

From her home in Cumbernauld, Mabel Best said: "He probably went to meet someone. But he was a very, very kind person, and I don't believe any of the allegations about his business [problems]. It's rubbish that's been written. The police have told me I've not to listen to anything about Drew, and that's what I'm doing."

For Strathclyde Police, it may take the help of scores, if not hundreds, of individuals to fill in the blanks, such were the extent of Mr Best's business connections, many of whom are to this day owed money.

Dom Sullivan, the former Celtic footballer, was one of several investors to lose thousands of pounds in Mr Best's first business, Bestex Coatings, an industrial painting firm that went into compulsory liquidation a decade ago, giving Mr Best his first - but not last - experience of bankruptcy.

"The money just went down the tubes," recalled Mr Sullivan, who now runs the Railway Hotel in Denny, Stirlingshire. "It disappeared. It was all no good. I got in because I knew his father who was a good friend of mine, but lots of investors lost money, too."

What followed the liquidation of Bestex Coatings was a trend that would soon become familiar. Similarly named companies were registered, called Bestex Scotland and Bestvax Scotland. They, too, would, flounder after a few years, allegedly with similar outstanding debts. Among other individuals believed to be owed money by Mr Best are Ken Buchanan, the former boxing champion.

In Cumbernauld, Mr Best is remembered, too, as the man who promised to create hundreds of jobs with another firm, the Best Group, believed to have ran up debts of tens of thousands of pounds. In 2001, its director was declared bankrupt a second time.

Numerous other instances of Mr Best's erratic business management can be found at Companies House, the administrative body which keeps records of all firms and directors registered in the UK.

A worker at the Media Business Centre, an industrial park used by small construction firms, where Mr Best maintained a home improvement company called Spraymore Contracts between August 2000 and June 2002, said he would not be surprised if someone had wanted to take "revenge" on Mr Best.

"Trading standards were heavily involved with him," said the man, who did not want to be named. "I'd heard about his company's cashflow problems and there were a few visits from officials. He seemed to have upset a lot of people and owed a lot of money."

He said Mr Best was known to have operated similar concerns in the town's Wardpark East industrial estate, which, like those before it, was dissolved after a few years.

Stephen Mabbott, of Stephen Mabbott Associates, a Glasgow-based company registration agency that helped form many of Mr Best's companies, said he did not know him personally, but noted his firms were regularly dissolved. "At times clients set up different ventures for different reasons," he said.

At the behest of disgruntled clients, North Lanarkshire Council's trading standards department has twice carried out investigations into Mr Best's business practices since the turn of the decade. The authority first became involved six years ago, when Spraymore Contracts incurred sizeable debts, leaving scores of people out of pocket.

David Roderick, the council's trading standards manager, said: "North Lanarkshire Council did begin investigating one of Mr Best's businesses in 2001, but since the company went into liquidation very shortly afterwards, our involvement with that case was effectively ended."

Three years later, the local authority again received complaints from customers, this time about another home improvement operation, Cleanseal.

"In 2004 we received a number of complaints against another company run by Mr Best," Mr Roderick added. "He signed an undertaking, which legally bound him to proper business conduct in all that company's future dealings. Our records show no further complaints against Mr Best or any of the companies with which he was involved since."

Mr Best's most recent firm, Caledonian Coatings, is based in Bonnybridge. While police said it was his concern, Mr Best's name does not appear on the firm's records at Companies House. No one from the firm returned The Scotsman's calls yesterday. Ironically, given his reputation, the website for the painting and cladding business boasts numerous testimonials.

What can be ruled out from the police investigation are reports that Mr Best was until recently resident in Majorca, running a similar business for ex-pats. Mabel Best confirmed to The Scotsman that he and his wife had only holidayed there two years ago, but lived permanently in Stirling.

His profile had been low lately, compared to the 1990s, and little is known of his life outside work, bar a message he left five years ago on the Friends Reunited website for the 1981 leaving class of Greenfaulds High in Cumbernauld. "Living life to the full," it states. "Hope all my old mates are doing the same. All the best."

Police appeal to motorists to help track last journey

THE final journey taken by Andrew Best will prove integral to finding those responsible for his murder, police said yesterday.

Key to the Strathclyde Police inquiry is the 40-minute period during which Mr Best left his Stirling home and travelled to Cumbernauld.

It is not known which route he took. Police are appealing for motorists in the area on Monday between 7:30pm and 8:10pm to come forward.

Detective Chief Inspector Louise Raphael suggested that Mr Best had told his wife, Angela, he was going out at some time around 7:30pm on Monday.

Mr Best travelled in a white Ford Transit van, bearing the blue livery of his firm, Caledonian Coating Ltd.

He was wearing a brown hooded top, blue Bermuda-style shorts and sandals.

Strathclyde Police said Mr Best was killed with a heavy-bladed weapon after leaving his home and turning up for what is thought to have been a pre-arranged meeting.

Detective Superintendent Jim Mc-Kechnie said: "We would urge anyone who saw the van in the Stirling or Cumbernauld areas to get in touch."

Detectives have yet to establish a motive for the killing, but Det Supt McKechnie said: "We think he had a reason for going to that location.

"There is nothing to suggest that he happened to be in that location by chance when he was murdered."

Mr Best was found in an access lane leading to Dobbies Garden Centre off Eastfield Road at around 8pm.

The married father of one, who was known as Drew, was taken to Monklands hospital in Airdrie but later died of his injuries.

Mr McKechnie added: "If any member of the public did see anything suspicious at all, any vehicles, any people, we would like them to come forward."

Police declined to say whether documents or money were found at the scene. No murder weapon has been recovered as yet.

An incident room has been set up at Motherwell police station.

Anyone with any information is urged to call 01698 483014, or Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111, where they can remain anonymous.