Tom Hartley: The Dealmaker

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The problem,” he explains, “is that, as a brand, it simply isn’t on the same level as Porsche or Ferrari. Selling a million-pound-plus Lotus isn’t going to be an easy job.” In 2021, Hartley won the Lifetime Achievement Award at our Used Car Awards for his 50 years in business. A rather more affordable Ferrari is a mint-condition 458 Spider. “These are interesting,” notes Hartley, “because they’re worth more than the 488, as people prefer the naturally aspirated engine.” As with his book on the City Cemetery, Hartley has uncovered some remarkable individuals this time around. "Graves always manage to upend your expectations," he says.

It took me a long time to get my head around the church as an organisation against the individual conscience." I have often asked myself why in my youth did I not have that curiosity, the determination to find out and to understand. I don't know," he confesses.

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A spokeswoman for the SFO told Car Dealer today: ‘On November 9, 2023, the SFO confirmed it would no longer be proceeding with its prosecution of Mr Hartley for failure to comply with an SFO investigation. Though not a fervently religious person himself, Hartley – who is now 73 – admits having been long fascinated by the subject. The sexton stepped in and prevented the funeral. I don't know what the reasons were but there were always tensions between the denominations and it was a Church of Ireland burial ground. Now the best part of all of this is when you just cannot find a certain piece of information and then suddenly you come across it and it makes everything else fall into place. That is so gratifying." To put that in context, the city cemetery had something like 57,000 graves so Balmoral was a small cemetery by comparison. And there are graves there which I can't really find."

By his own admission, Hartley isn’t a petrolhead, even though his knowledge is certainly prodigious. For a chat with a proper enthusiast, you need to buttonhole Carl. They’ve started taking the piss out of customers,” he rails, “with cars like the 488 Pista, which it charges a fortune for but which isn’t really that different [from the regular 488 GTB]. Thousands of investors lost their savings after the company is alleged to have used their money to lease cars to people with low credit scores. It was an Eureka moment," Hartley tells me. "All these years I had been wondering why I was so contrary and argumentative and then I discover I have Presbyterianism in my DNA!"This is what makes him so interesting: his deep knowledge and, because his business isn’t a franchise, his willingness to speak his mind. Witness his views on McLaren. He’s not shy about Ferrari, either. The grave of Henry Cooke, one of the founders of Balmoral Cemetery in south Belfast. Picture by Mal McCann

That was probably Drumbo Church of Ireland and I don't know who it was they were burying," Hartley, who represented the Falls area on Belfast City Council for many years, says.I now need the time and space to reflect on matters before deciding which direction I wish to take in seeking justice for the suffering heaped on me.’ Another grave belongs to John Creery Ferguson who was the first doctor in Ireland to access a stethoscope –"he would have been the first doctor here to hear the beating heart of a child in the womb"– and there are many others.

Even as a child growing up on the Falls I wondered to myself what was the difference between subscribing and non-subscribing Presbyterianism and so on. Then when I started my research I found out that basically they represented different tensions within Presbyterianism that had to do with interpretations around the central idea of the Reformation, the right of the individual to interpret scripture, and the idea of an organised church. Hartley is a keen cyclist and still conducts regular tours of Belfast's old cemeteries. Although this is book number three in his graveyard series, there may yet be more, he hints. I hope he won't mind my saying so but [the Rev] John Dunlop and I have now been arguing with each other for years," he says.Nelson (1873- 1961) who joined the Royal Artillery regiment of the British army in 1894, is buried in Milltown Cemetery in Belfast, which Hartley researched for his last book, published five years ago. Tom Hartley in Balmoral Cemetery –'You will always find what you are not looking for'. Picture by Mal McCann There was a tremendous emphasis on the importance of education," he says. The fact chimes deeply with Hartley, who left school at 15 without qualifications to take up a job as a messenger and who for a long time felt a gap in his own education. Raedex, which owned companies including Buy2Let Cars, PayGo Cars, Wheels4Sure and Rent2Own Cars, has been under investigation since 2021 after it went into administration. I don’t doubt it. Hartley’s combination of self-belief, experience and sound business acumen should get him through even this steadily tumultuous economic storm.