I believe I am single-handedly responsible for the changes to the way in which Mortgage Interest payments by the DSS are paid to the unemployed. Many of whom will have been repossessed as a result. 
Good man! 
Not my finest moment. A Mail on Sunday journalist (who else?) phoned my office pretending to be a manager of one of our branches, claiming the system was down (not unusual in those days) and "could I just confirm the details" of a rather high profile account. He even supplied the account numbers. Being younger and far too trusting, I told him all he asked. This was on the Friday - on the Sunday, everything I had told him as in the MoS
verbatimhttp://business.guardian.co.uk/story/0,,306825,00.html"But in 1991 Mr Deaves fell out with the Cornhill group, and left his £400,000 a year job with MI. Unemployed, he was back in the news in 1993 when it emerged social security was paying £1,833 a week to cover the mortgage on his mansion in Haslemere, Surrey."
I believe it was his appearance on GMTV shortly after this that caused the government to change the way things were done.
