Firstly I should have stated that I am not Australian and have no Sydney connections I am a Scot from Glasgow a mature student researcher.

FranFran posted another newspaper version of the story by the Scotsman , which I found much in the same vein and there is yet another version in the Daily Mail which mentions something interesting about the Armstongs which seems reveal that they are as much victims in this matter as Connell.

Never mind the wealth that is irrelevant, the Daily Mail article Monday 22nd March 2010 mentions in effect that the Armstrongs should have researched the property before making the purchase. Fair comment, but not strictly true, more properly put, the Armstrong's solicitors should have uncovered any potential flaws and possible burdens during the legal conveyancing process. Nothing of real signifigance is mentioned of the sellers either, were they not aware that Connell was rearing sheep and ducks there?

I had never heard of confused.com's Armstrong before this business appeared in the papers but I had heard of Connell aka Bill Connell.

Sheep farmer he may be, retired civil servant he probably is, but you will also find him in the archives of the Scotsman newspaper quoted as a Partner in the Firm of Osborne and Connell of Dumfries in the early 1990s. Osborne and Connell were in those days private investigators in the employ of a number of Dumfries Law Firms. Their mention in the Scotsman was in connection with a major fraud perpetrated by a Scottish Solicitor Giles Davies who subsequently received a seven year jail sentence when he plead guilty to stealing 1.8 million pounds of clients money.

Davies' firm, Macormack Nicolson Symons and MacDonald were scammed by North American gangsters in a phoney Arbitrage deal so Davies could equally be described as a dishonest victim. The case was investigated by Dumfries & Galloway Constabulary who dubbed it "Operation Dollar", none of the money was ever recovered. "Operation Dollar" cost the Dumfries and Galloway tax payer's £2,000,000 !!!

Whereas I have no Sydney connections and Kate Armstrong has, it was intriguingly hinted to me (by a hack) over a pint of beer in a Glasgow pub that Connell was a friend or associate of the late Jimmy Anderson's daughter! Jimmy Anderson was also a Glasgow man better known in Sydney than in Glasgow as a member of the "Kings Cross Gang" allegedly "killed by a parrot" some years ago.

There might just be an elephant in the room. Who knows???