Curiously, I do give him the benefit of the doubt, John, yes. This was clearly a planned sale as you can't just dump 184,666 shares on the market. There has to be a buyer lined up otherwise the share price will crash - and it didn't.
Secondly, the second half of this deal, the Share Incentive Scheme RNS will be out end Jan and that will explain how many shares these guys would be able to buy. Problem being at that point the directors will be in a close period so couldn't trade. So they are raising the money now and buying the shares in Jan.
But yes, a few of the opposite sex have been known to tell the odd untruth to me, so I can understand your cynicism!