22/04/2026
Evesham Micros Limited. I just heard that my dishonest, thieving and embezzling business partner, Richard Austin, has died. Whilst I get no pleasure from this, I am also not in the slightest way troubled by the news.
A business with a partner requires a certain amount of trust, imagine how disappointed I was when the Inland Revenue approached me to let me know large amounts of cash had been taken from the business without my knowledge, documented theft of at least £160k.
No police action, as I was able to invoke a shareholder agreement he signed the first time I uncovered irregularities. Price Waterhouse took over the day to day running of the business until all my 50% had been paid back in 1994.
Austin was often credited with establishing the company, this was not true, he was under investigation for unpaid VAT when I started Waltone Limited, later to be renamed Evesham Micros Limited. Because of this, my founding partner was Austin's wife, Maureen.
Together we made a very profitable company in spite of his dislike of mail order "Who is going to send money in the post for computers? he famously said to me. We rose to be the 11th largest supplier of PCs in the UK according to The Daily Telegraph.
My betrayal by the "light fingered" Austin on several occasions, can now be put into the annals of history. I will sleep soundly tonight. That's me, founder Robert Hitchcock, on the picture.
