Why, when and how Finch came to the canals I have never been able to ascertain. Public information about his past is almost non-existent, other than that he was born in Lowestoft in 1941. Rumours have it that he was once in either the French Foreign Legion or the Spanish Foreign Legion, or both – he allegedly speaks some French and is fluent in Spanish – or in the SAS, or again the Parachute Regiment. He must have been in one of these cadres to have learnt his survival skills for living rough and evading his captors. He is said to have been married and even had a child, but if either existed, he has long ceased contact with them.

Somewhere in his life he took to the bottle, which was his undoing. He became a vagrant and a total recluse, losing all ties with his family and anyone he had ever known. The canals provided him with all he needed to survive – by breaking into poorly secured boats in order to steal drink, food, clean clothing and bedding. If money was there, he seldom touched it, as he never went near a pub or shop. His only saving grace was that he was never violent – even though he was once convicted for possessing a firearm.

His 19 previous court convictions, beginning in 1968, reveal an extraordinary pattern to his life, which ranges in a swathe between London and Lancashire, but of late mainly focused on Oxfordshire and Northamptonshire:

1968 – Bolton Magistrates Court – petty burglary – fined.

1972 – West London Magistrates Court – petty thefts over the period 1971/2 – probation

1972 – Preston Crown Court – two counts of burglary – 3 months jail sentence

On release and for the next three years or so he is alleged to have joined the Spanish Foreign Legion.

1976 – Bedford Crown Court – theft – 9 months jail sentence

1980 – Northampton Crown Court – house breaking plus various canal-boat breaks-ins – 2 years jail sentence

1982 – Bicester Magistrates Court (near Oxford) – 6 canal-boat break-ins with 15 further offences taken into consideration – 3 months jail sentence

1984 – Knutsford Court – Cheshire – 2 crimes (details not available) – 2 years jail sentence

1985 – Oxford Crown Court – crimes (details not available) – 2 years jail sentence

1986 – Shrewsbury County Court – 3 crimes including possession of a firearm – 18 months jail sentence

1989 – Warwick Crown Court – crimes (details not available) – 21 months jail sentence

1990 – Chorley Court (Lancashire) – "Burglary with intention to steal – 'non-dwellings" (i.e. canal-boats) – 18 months probation order

1990 – Congleton (Cheshire) – 2 counts of theft – 2 year probation order
1992 – South Warwickshire Magistrates Court – 3 counts of theft including theft to dwelling – 3 months jail sentence suspended for 2 years

1993 – South Warwickshire Magistrates Court – 4 counts of theft. 3 months jail from above plus 6 months new.

1994 – Daventry Magistrates Court – 12 counts of theft. Probation order.

1995 – South Cheshire Magistrates Court – 3 counts of theft. Conditional discharge.

1995 – Reading Crown Court – House breaking. 65 break-ins to canal boats taken into consideration. (The police were at last getting wise to confronting him with other canal-boat crimes.) – 2 years jail sentence

1998 – Warwickshire Crown Court – 2 counts of 'burglary and theft to non-dwellings' i.e. canal-boats at Calcutt Marina. 130 other offences taken into consideration – 3 years jail sentence.

2001 – Northampton Crown Court – 1 count of house breaking and 2 break-ins to narrowboats. 100 other offences taken into consideration – 2 years jail sentence.

My first awareness of the gentleman's existence was in the summer of 1988. I was then in the process of buying Braunston Marina, which was in receivership and in a bad state of decay. The departure of disillusioned moorers following the appointment of the Receiver, had been hastened by a spate of break-ins to boats which had Finch's hallmark. It was cold-comfort to Braunston Marina, that when those same boats moved to other marinas, they were broken into again – because once Finch knew how to get into a particular boat and what was in it, he would come back time and time again – regardless of where it was moored. Despite the alcoholic consumption, his memory remained elephantine.
Once I had acquired the marina, for some odd reason, Finch seemed to leave the Braunston area alone. There were reports of him down on the southern Oxford, the Grand Union towards Warwick. Then in the bitterly cold snap of January 1989 – when the canal was frozen hard he gave himself in, and not for the first time. And herein lay the root of his problem with the powers that be, whose task was to make punishment to fit the crime. (Pace Gilbert & Sullivan.) Here was a man confessing to numerous offences to 'non-dwellings' – even though many of his victims lived on their boats – because he wanted what was supposed to be punishment – a warm bed, hot showers and regular food. And because he had given himself in and not been arrested, and confessed to every crime he had committed, his sentence would be substantially reduced. Warwick Crown Court sentenced him to 21 months in jail, but he was out by the end of that year.

Once free, he moved north to the Cheshire area, where he occupied himself for the next year or two. Whenever the police finally caught up with him, the judges set him free with probation orders, which he took no notice of.

However, by the summer of 1992 he was back to his old game in our territory and with a vengeance. This time his patch was the seventy mile canal corridor that stretched from north of Oxford to Market Harborough. His mobility was astonishing – sometimes ten or fifteen miles would be covered in a night – as evidenced by what the police termed 'incidents'. When caught that year he was given a three month sentence suspended for two years, and was back in business within days.

The winter of 1992 / 3 was the worst for us, with break-ins to boats in the marina almost a weekly occurrence. As Braunston lay about mid-way along his patch, and for a quarter of a mile the canal towpath was fenced against the marina, making this an ideal place in which to trap him, the police tried on a number of occasions to do so, in which we fully co-operated. But Finch must have possessed a sixth sense of danger. One of our moorers, whose narrowboat had been broken into three times and lay close to the canal, allowed the police to fit a special alarm that would ring at the Daventry police station if the boat was broken into again. But this never happened. A boat was moored outside on the canal as a tempting target, on board which the police lay in wait for two nights – but he did not come by. On several occasions our own staff stayed up all night on a strategically placed boat, waiting for him, with the police alerted to come immediately they were called. But nothing happened. Instead evidence was later found that he had worked out a detour route using the abandoned railway line running some 200 yards to the south, where he also used an old culvert under it for shelter and to hide by day.

This spate of mayhem continued until about the spring of 1993, when the police finally caught him and he received a nine month jail sentence of which he served a mere four – and then he was at it again, with a smack wrist probation order from Daventry Magistrate Court when arrested in 1994.

The only real relief we had was in 1995 when he received a two year jail sentence at Reading Crown Court. He was out in the year and there then followed his longest spell on the run. For two and a half years he was at it. It was like dealing with the Scarlet Pimpernel – he was sought here, there and everywhere. The police resorted to helicopter searches on several occasions following sightings. There were narrow escapes, with him once jumping into the canal and getting away on the other bank. He seemed unstoppable.

Then he was caught by chance. A farmer discovered him sleeping off the effects of alcohol in his barn close to the Grand Union Canal, near Long Itchington, in Warwickshire. The farmer had the sense to call the police without arousing Finch. The police were there in no time – they knew by the description who he was. Surprised and still very much the worse for wear, Finch came quietly.