Bunhill: Public eye

STAND back for some more fireworks as a well-known amateur sleuth turns professional next month.

Michael Murrin, the former fish and chip shop owner from Preston who led a relentless campaign against local politicians and tycoon Owen Oyston, is going full-time.

His efforts prompted a host of TV programmes about the socialist millionaire and succeeded in making his life a misery. Libel actions resulting from the affair are still wending their way through the courts. Murrin also took the precaution of recording his conversations with politicians and businessmen who backed his cause. Now he is forming his own agency, Alpha Investigations.

'My amateur work in the field of politics and big business has left me absolutely penniless,' he confesses.

'I spent 10 years investigating politics in Lancashire and Derbyshire. It wiped out my savings and two of my businesses. It almost destroyed my health and my marriage. My possessions were sold at public auction.'

He hopes clients will be attracted to his record. 'I think it can be taken as proved that I know how to make a nuisance of myself.'