Published: 04 April 2012
by DAVID ST GEORGE

THE wife and daughter of a popular bookie who disappeared have been found guilty of his murder.

Following a month-long trial at the Old Bailey, Don Banfield’s wife Shirley, and daughter Lynette, a former Camden Council housing officer, heard jurors pronounce the guilty verdicts on Tuesday after 14 hours of deliberation. Neither showed any emotion.

Mr Banfield ran a branch of William Hill in Hampstead High Street, where he was known as the punters’ pal by pop stars, actors, authors, poets, members of parliament, lawyers, and the “ordinary man” who liked a flutter.

Mrs Banfield, 63, a former tax inspector, and Lynette, 40, take with them the secret of how they killed the victim, a known womaniser and heavy gambler, and how they disposed of his body.

Detectives now hope to find out what happened to Mr Banfield and give his remaining relatives, in the US and Trinidad, some relief from the heartache of not knowing the truth.

Shirley and Lynette Banfield, who were living in Canterbury when they were arrested in the spring of 2010, maintain that Mr Banfield walked out of the family home, then in Locket Road, Whetstone, on a Sunday morning in May 2001, taking with him his passport and vanished.

They denied killing him but confessed to milking his work and state pension using forged documents.

Prosecutors Crispin Aylett QC and Louis Mably said father-of-four Mr Banfield had not been seen or heard of since 2001 – and there was no indication that he had ever left the house alive.

He had reported to police that he was concerned about his own safety and feared that his wife and daughter had been trying to harm him.

Mr Banfield, a qualified accountant, came to the UK in 1960 and had been married previously, before he wed Shirley.

The prosecution team told the court that he lost the gamble of his life when he decided to return to the house after a spell of domestic strife, knowing that his wife and daughter were trying to get rid of him.

He “signed his own death warrant” when he put his name to the documents for the sale of the house, giving the pair free access to his funds.

Passing sentence, Judge Peter Beaumont QC, Recorder of London, ordered Shirley Banfield serve a minimum of 18 years and Lynette a minimum of 16 years.