Romesh Sengupta

Shauna explains what the deal with Romesh is.[1]

Romesh Sengupta is a former thief and now antiques dealer from Tackleford.

We first get to know Romesh in Bad Machinery in The Case of the Missing Piece, as the friend of Darren Wickle.[2] In order to help out his mate concerning the debt he has to pay to a very dangerous man named Si Dixon [3], Romesh assists him in burglarizing the Bric-A-Brac antiques store.[4] Darren screws up in stealing anything of value though, so Romesh kindly helps him out by giving him his own part of the loot. It turns out that Romesh has special "divvy powers" that enabled him in this case to recognize that some ugly pots were actually very valuable.[5] Upon deducing the perpetrators of this robbery, Shauna Wickle gives Romesh the choice of either her revealing his criminal endeavors to his mum, or him using his special powers for good from now on, by becoming the employee of Amy Beckwith-Chilton, the owner of the Bric-A-Brac[6] who formerly had such powers herself, but they had faded out (causing the scarcity of valuable items in her store at the time of the burglary). Romesh choses the latter[7], and continues this lucrative employment after the closing down of the Bric-A-Brac in Amy's new store Chilton Antiquities.[8]

Trivia

Aside from his mother, the only other known family member is his sister Sunita Sengupta. It is not known where his family originally immigrated from, though their surname and appearance seem to point to a South Asian heritage.

Though Romesh was primarily hired for his antiques detecting divvy powers, Amy (jokingly?) claims that his "immaculate deltoids" were also a factor.[9]

In a quite ironic incident, the former burglar Romesh once successfully protected Amy's property from wannabe burglars.[10]