Ex-Birmingham Midshires finance boss found dead in car

Barry Cameron Smail, the former finance director at Birmingham Midshires who resigned suddenly last year after just a few months with the building society, has been found dead in a fume-filled car.

His body was discovered in his car parked on Army land near his home in Farnham, Surrey. Police said his death, from carbon monoxide poisoning, was not being treated as suspicious. Mr Cameron Smail left no notes indicating that he intended to take his own life.

Keith Brown, coroners' officer in Guildford, said the dead man's widow had made a statement saying that her husband's departure followed personality clashes between her husband and and Midshires' high-profile chief executive, Michael Jackson, prior to his departure.

But this was not being treated as the cause of last week's death, Mr Brown added.

When he left his job in December, Mr Cameron Smail collected a pounds 181,000 pay-off, taking his total pay for the year to pounds 285,000, plus a pounds 10,000 pension contribution.

Birmingham Midshires, currently the UK's 10th-largest society, is regarded as one of the more aggressive in its sector. It is stalking a smaller Midlands rival, West Bromwich, and is known to favour a takeover by a bigger financial institution.

Mr Cameron Smail, 41, joined the society in early 1995 and was involved in the purchase of Hypo MSL, a large centralised mortgage lender. Birmingham Midshires yesterday denied any personality clashes between Mr Cameron Smail and its chief executive.