shark hunter he employed started to have doubts and left. Ehrenreich's unrealistic demands for more expensive equipment also unsettled investors. Kerr had disagreements with him and returned to England, where he discovered that his remunerations as a director of Marine Products had been disputed. He took the company to court to recover what he believed he was rightfully owed, but lost the case; to make matters worse a counter claim went against him leaving him in a poor financial situation. In 1928 winding-up procedures were instigated against Dawbarn Trust and in 1932 against Marine Products in an attempt to recover some money. The yacht Istar had been standing idle in the East India Dock, London for about a year after conversion to a factory ship. It was leased to a French company but ran aground in Madagascar, refloated and towed to South Africa. It was hoped to start commercial shark processing there, but investors withdrew after adverse publicity. Istar was eventually scuttled off the coast of Durban. Blackmail accusations Shortly after leaving the navy, Kerr lost about £2800 in a business venture. The person he considered responsible for this was later found guilty of fraudulent conversion and sent to jail for six months. Some years later Kerr read in a newspaper that this person was a parliamentary candidate in a forthcoming general election. Believing that he was now in possession of some wealth, Kerr approached him and demanded he be repaid the money he was owed (about £1500) or he would reveal his past misconducts. The man went to the police, who eavesdropped on a telephone conversation between him and Kerr. On the strength of this, Kerr was arrested and sent for trial at the Central Criminal Courts, London, on a charge of blackmail. The name of the man was never revealed; he was always referred to at the trial as “Mr Y”. Kerr was able to provide documentary evidence showing that "Mr Y" owed him the money; character witnesses such as Jameson Adams, Admiral Mark Kerr and Sir Herbert Matthews spoke of Kerr's war record, honesty and integrity. The judge told the jury that if they considered Kerr had used the threat of publishing of "Mr Y's" past in order to wring money out of him he was guilty, but they may consider him not guilty if he had use a somewhat heated and unwise method of persuasion in