DIY Cruise Missile Designer Turns Freelance

js7a writes "Bruce Simpson of New Zealand, the designer of a homebrew cruise missile as reported here, has been left destitute by hastily-imposed restrictions of his national authorities, and is now offering his services to any non-terrorist willing to provide room, board, travel, expenses, and a negotiated rate. There is no question that cruise missile, UAV, bio-warfare, chemical weapons technology, and probably nuclear technologies will all continue to fall in cost significantly for the foreseeable future."

Comments

Buh Bye

[mfh]

In other news, a New Zealand man, possibly Bruce Simpson, was found dead by neighbours this afternoon. Officials present stated that Mr. Simpson died from an apparent tooth brushing incident, rendering his neck severed due to an accidental slip/fall, caused when a shampoo bottle fell over and mixed with some dripped shower water on the floor. Sadly, Mr. Simpson's efforts to provide cruise missiles to Iran and North Korea are all but a distant memory. New Zealand investigating officials have ruled out any foul play, and have ruled it an accidental death. Iranian and North Korean officials had no comment.

Re:Buh Bye

[jabberjaw]

There is more truth to that than you know.

Re:Buh Bye

[Scrameustache]

In other news, a New Zealand man, possibly Bruce Simpson, was found dead by neighbours this afternoon.

There was this canadian in the 80's who had this obsession with building a giant cannon to cheaply launch satellites in orbit. It would obviously not do for humans because the initial acceleration would kill them, but for hardware, all you have to do is make sure everything is screwed tight. The economy on launch would be much greater than the extra cost in solidity. The added bonus is that you wouldn't have to launch from the tropics, it could work from as high up as canada, eh.

Well, he had the design, and some funding from the canadian military, he was building it. Then, the united states objected, and told its submissive neighbour to the north to stop it with the revolutionary launch technology: if canada wants to put stuff in orbit, all it has to do is ask and the states will let them hitch a ride from florida.

So the canadian military cut the guy's funding. He then fought like a madman trying to gain back the funds he needed to make his dream come true, but try as he may, nothing was enough. Until a certain wealthy dictator from the middle east agreed to fund his research. So our canadian swallowed his pride (and his ethic, he wanted to launch satellites, not make weapons) and headed off to Iraq to build his giant cannon. And build it he did.
he made a couple prototype, one of which was conspicuously pointed in the general direction of Israel. It wasn't working properly yet, when you make this go BOOM with this much force, it tends to take a bit of trial and error before nothing breaks when you do, but it was progressing.

Long story short, the guy was found dead in front of his hotel room, the keys in the lock, the very clean gun next to the body, with a single bullet in the back of the head.

The moral of the story: When the united state's military says you are not to build a giant cannon, you do not build a giant canon, be it by lack of funds or surplus of lead.

The end.

Re:Buh Bye

[timeOday]

The moral of the story: When the united state's military says you are not to build a giant cannon, you do not build a giant canon, be it by lack of funds or surplus of lead.

(Emphacis mine) Are you sure that wasn't Mossad?

Re:Buh Bye

[Rei]

Good idea mentioning Bull, but a really, really bad description of his life.

Gerald Bull was a revolutionary ballistics designer; he was insturmental in pioneering such fields as sabot-launched projectiles (including the use of such projectiles for to replace hypersonic wind tunnel testing of objects). He also developed the concept of "base bleed" - in general,using a small rocket motor on the back of a projectile, not to provide thrust, but to fill the vaccum created as the projectile moves.

His first job after graduation was with CARDE, a Canadian research institution funded mostly by government projects. He worked on a few projects there, and due to his somewhat tactless nature (such as publicly questioning the intelligence of his funders at times), created his first enemies (in what was to become a long string of them).

While working at McGill University after CARDE, he got Pentagon and Canadian funding for the infamous HARP (High Altitude Research Project) (read Astronautix.com's summary of it - it's a very interesting read). HARP developed guns both in Barbados and Canada, with the Canadian guns used for testing, and the Barbados guns used for launches to take advantage of the Earth's rotation. The net goal of HARP was to get a projectile into orbit. Their main gun was a huge smoothbore made from two welded 16' naval guns, burning ungodly amounts of cordite; its fireball when it went off was huge ;) The cost of the project was tiny compared to most rocket programs, and they almost succeeded. Fascinating program, really.

A lot of stuff happened. Partly because of political differences over the Vietnam war, and partly because Bull had made several influential people in the Canadian government mad, funding got pulled. Their last dash to get a projectile into orbit failed, and the gun has been sitting idle ever since.

Bull took all of the tech that he could and founded his own company. While he wanted to keep pursuing what HARP was working on, he basically had little choice but to make artillery pieces if he wanted to stay afloat. Using base bleed, he created some of the world's longest range and most accurate artillery pieces of the time. The US allowed (some say encouraged) him to sell weapons to South Africa, which were funnelled into Angola. However, an (overzealous?) customs agent brought charges against him; he served a short term in prison, and was released, bitter.

He moved to Brussels and agreed to sell weapons to the highest bidder, anyone except the USSR. He sold several systems to countries such as China, before finding a sponsor in Saddam Hussein. However, to be allowed to implement the ballistic-launch concept, he agreed to work on several other projects, most notably the al-Hussein missiles (enhanced SCUDs).

The gun he worked on - often called the Babylon Supergun - wasn't much of a threat to anyone. It used the concept of slow combustion - basically, having your explosives move along the barrel with the projectile, limiting the force on the barrel at any given point. A smaller version was completed, and the larger version was under construction.

What got him into trouble, however, was the al-Hussein project. While some try and cast it into doubt, there is generally little doubt that his assasination was carried out by the Mossad. His family reported that several times, he had his apartment broken into, and furniture randomly rearranged as a warning. In the end, he was found dead outside his room, five bullets in the back of his neck.

Bull wasn't a well organized person, and both of his projects fell apart without him there. Sanctions against Iraq further led to the confiscation of parts to build the gun (which he had tried to disguise as pipe components). The supergun was finally destroyed after the Gulf War.

The real moral of the story is, if you're a ballistics expert, A) don't tick off your funders, B) don't tick off Israel, and C) learn to take a hint.

Re:Buh Bye

[identity0]

Nah, it'd go something like this, depending on what country did it:

Israel: "A local man was found dead this afternoon of an apparent shooting accident. Police speculate that Bruce Simpson was playing with his .22 pistol when he accidentally placed it at the back of his skull and shot himself."

CIA: "The U.S. Airforce has promised an inquiry into the recent incident where local resident Bruce Simpson was accidentally bombed in his house and killed. Officials believe the air force may have been ordered to "send Simpson one of thier new cruise missles for review" when a technician misinterpreted the orders and fired at the coordinates instead."

MI6: "A recent high-speed chase involving local police and a Aston-Martin fitted with rockets, machine guns and oil slicks ended in tragedy when Mr. Bruce Simpson of New Zealand was lasered in half by the driver, a man police say was dressed very well and ordered a martini shaken, not stirreed at a local club before going on the rampage."

New Zealand: "The New Zealand intelligence service has admitted to bludgeoning Mr. Bruce Simpson to death with sticks. New Zealanders have expressed shock that their country actually posseses an intelligence service."

Re:Buh Bye

[Saeger]

And in related news, a statistically "interesting" number of top scientists are ending up dead or missing in recent years.

--

Re:Buh Bye

[chimpo13]

Starting with your first paragraph: do you seriously not care that he was building a cannon for saddam hussein, a man who has used chemical weapons against his own citizens, launched wars at the drop of a hat and sworn to eliminate several of his neighbors?

The CIA has said that Saddam didn't gas the Kurds. It was done with blood agent chemicals (cyanide-based gas) that he didn't have. It was probably the Iranians.

Swearing to eliminate your neighbors happens all the friggin' time. How often do people whine about Canucks and the French? Even on something as technical and intelligent as slashdot, people are always saying crap like that. That's certainly helping our reputation world-wide.

Hell, the US is trying to overthrow the Venezuala government, and they're pretty much our neighbor. Cuba is 90 miles away from Florida and we aren't inviting them over for milk and cookies. And the US Army gave citizens, servicemen, and prisoners crap like malaria & syphilis, and sprayed them with mustard gas and biological weapons (thinking of San Francisco here) without telling them. So basically, your first sentence might as well be applied to the Good Ol' USA. The chemical agents American soldiers were exposed to in the first Gulf War were made in the USA.

The real moral is, don't do weapons research. Although I think that'll be mighty hard to apply world-wide. Maybe if we all agree to just disagree the world will be a better place. And weasels will shoot out of my ass.

travel?

[mabu]

I won't charge you millions of dollars like the big-boys might. I won't question your politics or religious beliefs. I simply ask that you provide me with travel to your location plus safe, warm, comfortable accommodation for the duration of the project, and employ me at an agreed rate for my services.

Somehow I suspect this guy might have some trouble travelling anywhere now....unless he can ride on his cruise missile.

If this guy has trouble finding accommodations, maybe he can share rooms with all the agents that will be tailing him.

Cost efficiency

[amliebsch]

Rather than having CIA pay a bunch of intelligence officers to monitor this guy, maybe the DoD should just hire him first.

Where's the big boys?

[goatstuffer]

Surely this guy should be swimming in offers from the aerospace industry, or any related field. If he can hammer out a homegrown cruise missile, there must be some talent there.

Perhaps he doesn't want to work in such an environment and wants to go solo. Fair enough.

Any Non-Terrorists....?

[sTalking_Goat]

So what? When he's goes to the Job interview do they show him their UN approved IANAT certificate?

Personally if I could design and build cruise missles I wouldn't want it well known. I don't need to give Al Qaeda reason to kidnap me my strap electrodes to my balls and lock me in an underground machine shop in the middle of the Tora Bora.

zerg

[Lord Omlette]

Awesome, so I'll see this guy on this list real soon now, right?

Re:Sounds like he has lots of options to me

[traskjd]

I live in NZ and the short answer is No.

We don't build anything like that - heck, it was a massive national debate because we brought 3 second hand frigates! The guy really does need more international exposure to get a job but I think if he didn't get the offers he wanted when it was on the news he ain't going to get them now.

no career choices?

[mabu]

Let me see if I can get this straight...

This guy can homebrew cruise missiles, embedded electronic guidances systems, program firmware, craft things out of blocks of wood and other materials, work with fiberglass, understands chemistry, electronics, metal fabrication and various other skills, and he's claiming that unless he can build MISSILES he can't provide for his family?

Re:GO BRUCE!

[traskjd]

Also as a Kiwi I have to say I love that photo of himself - very kiwi ("just built me a cruise missle in the backyard, yep" the overalls and gravel driveway really are a nice touch.

I agree though - go bruce! :D

Re:Non terrorist users of criuse missiles?

[Flamingcheeze]

Isn't it possible for a country to NOT be an ally on the US and ALSO NOT be a terrorist country? Is that now the definition of a terrorist... "not an ally of the us?"

Re:Non terrorist users of criuse missiles?

[flamingnight]

Isn't it possible for a country to NOT be an ally on the US and ALSO NOT be a terrorist country? Is that now the definition of a terrorist... "not an ally of the us?"

Nope. Bush said it himself: "You are either with us or against us in the fight against terror."

Re:Old News, Old Technology...

[Billy the Mountain]

Cruise missile technology is hardly new

Old != Useless as you seem to imply. Bruce's original stated goal was to alert the global community of the threat of cheaply built jet-powered missiles capable of traveling 400-500 M.P.H. Such a device would be very challenging to guard against. And let's not forget the incidents where Mathiast Rust landed a Cessna 172 in Moscow's Red Square or the other guy that landed the Cessna on the Whitehouse lawn.

Personally, I don't like Bruce. He's an asshole with a lot of gaul and he scammed me out of $45 U.S., but he's got a valid point.

BTM

Uses of cruise missiles?

[menscher]

Maybe I'm just not creative enough, but what would a non-terrorist organization want with a cruise missile?

Re:Uses of cruise missiles?

[akb]

Depends on what you mean by non-terrorist organization, do you count countries? Countries always want to have what the other big kids have, ala India, China, France, Russia, etc.

Only stupid people would want to do it

[radtea]

There's a novel by Donald Kingsbury, The Moon Goddess and the Son (IIRC) from the mid 80's that describes the construction of a DIY cruise missile. It was plausible then (albiet by renegade MIT students) and even moreso now.

The only curious thing is that no one has yet done it. The only reasonable conclusion is that everyone who can do it, except for this clown in New Zealand, has the good sense not to want to.

--Tom

How fast..

[segfault_0]

The fact of the matter is more likely that most people wouldnt want such a loose cannon working for their respectable firm. If you were an aerospace firm would you want the guy who just pissed the government off working for you, ensuring that you lose contracts etc.? Not likely. Perhaps he should of thought twice before he did something that would obviously piss off the powers that be (aka biting the hand that fed him), regardless of how right or wrong it may be (in the utopian fantasia where it doesnt matter if everyone can build a cruise missle).

Re:Non terrorist users of criuse missiles?

[Sergeant Beavis]

Not every government (friend of foe) wants to spend $600,000 per missle for a Tomahawk. That price doesn't include the launch system for a Tomahawk. The other US built cruise missle is the Air Launched Cruise Missle (ALCM) that the Airforce launches off of B-52s and B-1Bs. That missle isn't used by any other country because they don't have a good bomber to use as a weapons platform. I'm not even sure if we even offer the ALCM for export. So far, the only other user of the Tomohawk is the British Royal Navy.

The Russians have cruise missles (both sea and air launched) and I'm sure they are cheaper but their accuracy is an unknown quantity. The French also have their Air-Sol Moyenne Portee (ASMP) cruise missile.

The point this guy makes is that he can make one that is reasonably accurate and MUCH cheaper.

Hypothetically, it wouldn't be a bad idea for a nation like Taiwan, who has a limited defense budget but a much larger adversary right across the straight, to come up with a medium range and cheap cruise missle that they could produce in large numbers. If they had a couple thousand of these, Bejing might think a second or two longer before coming after them.

A word from Bruce Simpson

[NewtonsLaw]

I'm Bruce Simpson, the subject of this discussion and I'd like to address some of the comments and points that have been raised here.

Question: If I'm so damned clever, why don't I have a job?
Answer:
Well, I'm 50 years old, which (even here in NZ) is past the age when it becomes difficult to just walk into a any job because, regardless of your qualifications there's always someone younger who's standing in line ahead of you.

What's more, although I have a lot of experience in a wide number of a synergistic (from a missile building persective) nature, there are plenty of people around who know more and are better at these individual fields than I am.

If an employer is looking for a good programmer, a good electronics design engineer, a good airframe designer, or a good engineer, there are plenty better than me.

My strength is that I have sufficient depth of knowledge and skill in each area to bring a very broad perspective to bear on the particular problems associated with the job of designing and building a cheap cruise missile (or UAV). In effect, I can do the job of four or five people with more efficiency and insight than such a team might.

When I have an idea, I can bring all my different areas of competence to bear on it and produce a result in a fraction the time it takes for a team of several individuals to do the same.

The problem is, there are no companies in NZ looking for this synergy of skills.

Unfortunately, this country has little or no interest in things military -- hell, the first thing the current government did when it gained power was to pretty much gut our air force by disbanding its air-defense capabilies.

This saw all our best avionics engineers, Air Force pilots and maintenance people disappear to greener pastures.

In fact, our Air Force is so run down that even its transport aircraft now break down with regular monotony. Any government that believes that an air capability is an unimportant part of defense is crazy.

As a result of this "head in the sand" attitide, Australia and the USA are both pretty pissed off with New Zealand because it can no longer pull its full weight in ANZUS, the alliance between the three parties.

But back to jobs. The town I live in is a small rural center which is largely supported by a timber mill. In recent times there have been a number of lay-offs at that mill and unemployment levels are quite high here. The reality is that not only are their *no* jobs for hi-tech workers but I couldn't even get a job flipping burgers at McDonalds due to the queue of applicants ahead of me.

Question: why not move to a bigger city?
Answer:
Well that's pretty hard to do when you're living hand-to-mouth without any money to spare. Moving is an *expensive* operation and rents in the big cities are typically three or four times that of the smaller centers. It simply wouldn't be possible for me to move without having several thousand dollars in my pocket to cover the move, rent and other costs until that first pay check came in (assuming that I could even then find a job).

I could support myself however, if I were allowed to remain self-employed -- but that's not possible due to the restrictions placed on my activities by the government.

Question: won't I be killed by Mossad/CIA/whatever?
Answer:
I doubt it -- but if I am, at least my wife gets to claim on my life-insurance policy :-)

In the past few weeks, everything that could go wrong has gone wrong so there have been times when I have to admit that I simply wouldn't care if I became the target of some hitman -- yeah, it's really been that bad!

But seriously, I don't think anyone will try to rub me out (even though a couple of alleged Mossad members were arrested here in NZ for trying to fraudulently obtain an NZ passport).

Question: why don't I get a job with a big aerospace company?
Answer:

Re:A word from Bruce Simpson

[NewtonsLaw]

No, I didn't say that Israel was a terrorist nation, I simply said I wouldn't accept offers from that country.

I don't like the way Israel (or Palestians) have conducted themselves in that part of the world and would therefore not like to be party to that type of eye-for-an-eye kind of stupidity.

Re:A word from Bruce Simpson

[NewtonsLaw]

You say you are all that patriotic but you are bankrupt because you did not pay your taxes!

That is actually wrong.

I paid every cent of the tax I owed (in fact I over-paid). I was bankrupted over a huge sum of penalties and interest that (under NZ law, and as verified by an Ernst Young tax expert), should have been waived.

However, I was repaying even these penalties (I paid a lump sum of $20,000 just weeks before the bankruptcy) and if (like most other taxpayer) I'd been alowed to continue with these repayments, the debt would have been cleared completely within 9-12 months.

In effect, the government/tax-ma refusedto let me pay those interests and penalties -- why would they do that?

DO you realize that your work is going to kill thousands of innocent people

Where's your support for that argument?

And you seem to have a very short memory (or didn't attend history classes at school).

Just think back to August 6 and 9 of 1945.

As I said, there is probably no country on the face of the planet which hasn't engaged in some form of terrorism (defined as the killing of innocent men, women and children in the name of a cause).

As I've stated -- I'd much rather focus on civilian applications for RPV/UAV technologies and there are plenty of them. I'm hoping that if someone does want my services, this is what they'll be concentrating on.

Re:A word from Bruce Simpson

[NewtonsLaw]

If you're 50 years old, then you're old enough that you should have known better than to pull a stunt like this in the first place

Well excuse me for trying to bring a quite real threat to the public's attention.

I initially attempted to do this with this article but, although I received some feedback, it clearly wasn't reaching a large audience.

That article also produced a lot of people who claimed it couldn't be done and that I was full of hot air -- so the only way to prove my case and to properly inform the public of this threat was to go ahead and do what I said any terror group could do.

You call it a "stunt", I call it proving my case.

Read into this; now that you've pissed off the USA, which is providing a big chunk of your nation's security

But why are they pissed off?

Before I started the project I emailed the FBI and DARAP to tell them what I was planning and why. I also invited them to make any comments they might have and offered them full access to the results of my work.

What did I get in return -- an automated reply from the FBI thanking me for my email and nothing at all from DARPA.

Based on that response, it's pretty natural to think that those organizations in the US charged with the security of the nation didn't have a problem with my project. Surely they'd be smart enough to simply say "we'd really rather you didn't do this" -- but no such response was forthcoming.

Then, when the project serves its goal of raising public awareness, they get all snotty -- is that my fault?

Perhaps they're simply embarrassed now that it's clear they have no answer to such a threat -- which was the entire point of my argument. The only weapon against an LCCM is public awareness.

I hate to say this, but it sounds as if you really did this to yourself

Maybe I did -- but I'm not completely stupid and I have leared lessons from this:

1. Do not take a patriotic stance and contact the Secret Service when information possibly from a sponsor of terror comes into your possession.

2. Do not actively cooperate with the secret service and help them to obtain more information.

3. If the government gives you clearance to sell technology with a military application to a nation deemed to be a sponsor of terror, do not question this -- simply go ahead with the transanction.

4. Do not put the interests of your country (overseas investment, new jobs, export earnings, a valuable foothold in an explosive new industry) ahead of your own. Think only of your own bank balance in all transactions.

5. Do not turn down offers of money from the government as they will not thank you or even consider that by not accepting that money you are in effect in credit to that amount.

6. Do not trust the government to act ethically, moraly or even legally when they wish to achieve some end.

7. Do not work your ass off and sell your house to pay a tax debt while being fooled into believing that regular and reliable servicing such a debt to the point where it is almost completely repaid will stop the taxman from bankrupting you for no apparent reason.

Unfortunately I feel very sad that these are the lessons I have learned.

Sure, I'm not without fault -- I should have filed my returns and paid all my tax right on time.

But the overal lesson here is that it's pointless trying to remedy such a transgression -- if you ever find yourself behind in your taxes (and you've got a missile in your garage) simply sell all your assets, take a really good holiday then come back and file for bankruptcy.

oh, just brilliant

[ZorbaTHut]

"Boss, we've found a guy who's able to build a cruise missile out of parts he found in his backyard. What'll we do?"

"Tricky one. I say we throw him out of his house and force him into bankruptcy."

"But won't that just leave him willing to take a job from anyone, even our enemies?"

"BANKRUPTCY!"

"But wouldn't it be better if *we* hired -"

"BANKRUPTCY!"

"But how do we know he won't get hired by, say, Iraq -"

"BANKRUPTCY!"

"Okay, okay, bankruptcy it is."

"Glad you see it my way! You'll go far in this government."

"There's also this story about a little girl and her kitten -"

"BANKRUPTCY!"

----

With intelligence agencies like these, who needs enemies?

Re:Interesting yes, amazing, no

[NewtonsLaw]

From the looks of it, he's building a modern V-1, an dteh tech used is not vastly different from that used in model aircraft. larger scale perhaps, but even taht is questionable when you look at some of the large scale a/c (sucha sthe B-52) modellers have built

This is exactly the point I was trying to make when I embarked on the DIY Cruise Missile project.

It's not rocket science and almost anyone could do it if the set their minds to it.

Besides, why build a cruise missile, which requires you stayin in one place and buying a bunch of stuff taht may arouse the interest of teh authorities when you could steal a biz jet, deliver a larger payload, and do the planning in dispersed locations?

Actually, my other point was that you could build one of these things *without* attrating a lot of attention or rousing the interest of the authorities. There's nothing involved in the construction of an LCCM that would ring alarm bells anywhere.

And your chances of using a hijacked or hired business jet to deliver a payload would seem to be pretty limited if this story is any indicator.

With a flight time of less than 10 minutes to its target and a small radar signature, an LCCM would have a much higher probability of success without the need for martyrdom.

Not particularly.

[SvnLyrBrto]

> do you seriously not care that he was building a cannon for
> saddam hussein

Look up the name "Wernher Von Braun" sometime. Probably more than anyone else except JFK, he is responsible for man going to the moon, and much of the space program we take for granted. In fact, the US space program didn't really start to go south, until after we quit relying on Von Braun's rockets, and went with that air-force-addled clusterfuck that is the space shuttle.

Now, for the final Jeopardy answer:

Wernher Von Braun worked for him before moving to America.

cya,
john

Re:News/Curerent-affairs item on this

[NewtonsLaw]

Dude, this will kill you before it kills your server. So dont worry. And no one is interested in mirroring your acts of terrorism, leading to the future deaths of many innocent people so that you can become famous rich bastard

Clearly you didn't watch the video. Which of my actions do you consider would lead ot the deaths of many innocent people?

1. Contacting the SIS (secret service) with information about suspicious offers made to me?

2. Not taking an offer worth US$100K to sell information to a state considered to be a sponsor of terrorism -- even though the NZ government gave me the okay to do so?

And if my goal was to become a "rich bastard", why did I turn down far more lucrative offers to strike a deal that meant far less money in my pocket but more jobs and export earnings for NZ?

By the way, the most frightening thing about your threats is the fact you can't even spell New Zealand properly :-)

Re:Less Principles More Common Sense

[NewtonsLaw]

Sorry to reply to my own post but exactly how long were you behind in taxes

In my case the IRD appear to have thrown their own rule book out the door so they felt happy to pile on enormous penalties and refuse to waive them even though they were in breach of the law.

When an Ernst Young tax accountant challenged them on this and requested a meeting as my appointed representitive, they refused to talk with him.

What's more, although I was punished for my own tardy record-keeping, the IRD directly ignored the order of the courts on a number of separate occasions when directed to fix errors in their records.

How bad were their errors?

Well they even got my name wrong and, despite being advised of this and ordered to correct it on THREE separate occasions, by two district court judges and one high-court judge, they still hadn't done so when they applied to bankrupt me.

In fact, the bankruptcy was issued in the wrong name! Yet, in an unprecedented move, the judgement of the High Court was apparently ammended by a clerk who simply changed the name after the event.

On an earlier occasion, the IRD were also harshly berated by the court for not properly accounting for a very large (over)payment I had been made but which not credited to my account.

In fact, their whole approach to this case was unprofessional and, even when I'd gotten all my filing up to date (a year before they filed the bankruptcy move) and paid all but a small amount of the money I was supposed to have owed, their records were still in a shambles.

It seems that nobody, not even the deputy PM or the Minister for Revenue cared about this minor fact -- which again leaves me believing that this was nothing to do with debt recovery and all about scuttling an embarrassing crusise missile project.