Arthur Dabner was an accountant at Barkers stationery firm who was the guest of honour at Derek and Mavis Wilton's soiree at The Kabin flat in March 1989 - at least, guest of honour in spirit; the point of the event was for Derek to ingratiate himself with the management and his boss DP was the original invitee, but after last-minute cancellations by DP and then his second-in-command, Derek turned to Arthur, describing him to Mavis as the firm's "chief accountant". Arthur was surprised by the invitation as he and Derek had barely spoken before, but he accepted.