You Gotta Fast Eddie: Edward Davenport

Money (or the appearance of it) attracts money. Lord Edward Ormus Sharrington Davenport knew this and capitalized on it. With posh mansions, lavish parties, and celebrity pals, Edward Davenport used the appearance of wealth to gain actual wealth by amassing other people's money. Welcome to the lifestyles of the rich and famous...and felonious.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Ridiculous Crime is a production of iHeartRadio Zaren Elizabeth.

Speaker 2 (00:05):
Check it out. Yeah, you know it's ridiculous.

Speaker 3 (00:07):
Oh my god, girl, Yes, mosquitoes.

Speaker 2 (00:10):
They're so I hate mosquitoes.

Speaker 3 (00:12):
I know someone actually likes enjoys mosquito bites. Okay, they
like how they get the feeling, the annoyance anyway, that
they're weird. But my point is, mosquitoes, I just found
out recently, are attracted to all my favorite foods.

Speaker 2 (00:26):
Huh.

Speaker 3 (00:26):
Yeah, they're attracted to bananas. Okay, they're attracted to dried
fruit beer. I mean, this is my diet. What am
I supposed to do?

Speaker 2 (00:36):
They love me? I am so sweet for them. Oh really,
I'm delicious to mosquitoes.

Speaker 3 (00:40):
What type of blood do you have?

Speaker 2 (00:41):
Red?

Speaker 3 (00:42):
No? What like ab oh? You know d do you
know what? Honestly, do you know what?

Speaker 2 (00:49):
Whole blood?

Speaker 3 (00:49):
Because mosquitoes are attracted to oh blood way more than
any of the.

Speaker 2 (00:53):
Other No, I think I'm like ABCD.

Speaker 3 (00:56):
If you have type oh blood, you're eighty three percent
more likely to attract mosquito. Really, yes, I've been over
here just investigating mosquito trying to find out how I
can get around them. Yeah, right, I'm just gonna wear
all sleeves, dude.

Speaker 2 (01:06):
I've been I've been like covered in mosquito bites once,
really like painfully. In fact, one time I got mosquito
bites so badly all over my bare legs. And then
I had to fly out and go to someone's wedding
and I had a dress I don't usually wear dress.
I had a dress that like went to my knees.
Oh no. And you know friend of the show, Sarah

(01:27):
TACIONI Golden, she spent like two hours trying to use concealers.
Do I have I not heard of stockings? I planned
to wear these open toe shoes op to heels, and
I didn't want to do that open toe with stockings.

(01:47):
And then someone was at the wedding with open toe
and stockings, and all of us were pointing and laughing.
So better to just go with like totally disgusting palkmark legs.

Speaker 3 (01:57):
You know what that is ridiculous? That's ridiculous.

Speaker 2 (02:00):
Yes, Do you want to know what else is ridiculous?

Speaker 3 (02:03):
Dude? That's why I showed up orgies.

Speaker 2 (02:05):
What this is ridiculous? Crime a podcast about absurd and

(02:30):
outrageous capers, heists and cons it's always ninety nine percent
murder free and one hundred percent ridiculous.

Speaker 3 (02:37):
I know, you heard that.

Speaker 2 (02:39):
British eighties and nineties tabloid culture.

Speaker 3 (02:43):
Oh my god, it was a thing. Yeah, it was.
It was vicious.

Speaker 2 (02:46):
It was a lifestyle choice.

Speaker 3 (02:48):
You know.

Speaker 2 (02:48):
There's all the gossip that they had about.

Speaker 3 (02:50):
Like the Royal page six stuff. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (02:53):
Yeah, it was like the Bazoom bagals.

Speaker 3 (02:55):
Or Yakini that's in the paper. Yeah, Charles and Die.

Speaker 2 (03:00):
Remember Tatler magazine still there. They would spill the goods
on like the upper class.

Speaker 3 (03:05):
They hated Fergie, that redheaded, unfortunate poor dear.

Speaker 2 (03:09):
And then they were like the Sloane Rangers. Are you do?
You know that what they're called.

Speaker 3 (03:15):
IM familiar with the term.

Speaker 2 (03:17):
So a Sloane ranger is like an upper middle class,
upper class woman who dresses and acts and vacations and
plays like just like her peer group. It's sort of
like an early influencer. So they have this look. It's
super uniform and preppy.

Speaker 3 (03:33):
Yeah that's what I remember.

Speaker 2 (03:35):
Yeah, I think of like a crisp white shirt and like.

Speaker 3 (03:37):
Blazers and definitely blazer.

Speaker 2 (03:41):
Blonde hair in a low pony which like there's a
comedian who does this thing about how like when you
see low pony on like a celebrity or model, it
looks so cool and you do it, you put it on,
you look like one of the founding fathers. That's me.
That's the problem I have. But like classic styles for
the Sloane Rangers, like an air scarf and like whatever.

(04:02):
In the US the look is called preppy. In France,
it's called Bonjean. Princess Di was nipuzl.

Speaker 3 (04:11):
I've never heard that one before.

Speaker 2 (04:12):
Yeah, she was the peak the panicle. Princess Die a
boy Sloan was called a raw for who raw Harry.
He's a real who raw Harry r r a h.

Speaker 3 (04:24):
Oh like Okay.

Speaker 2 (04:27):
So the name Sloane Ranger comes from Sloane Square in Chelsea.
That's where the rich folks living around, and so the
name the name was created in nineteen seventy five in
an article in Harper's and Queen magazine. And in the
eighties it was the look.

Speaker 3 (04:44):
That was it familiar.

Speaker 2 (04:45):
And in the eighties there were lots of parties and
fabulous places that catered to the Sloane Rangers. One empresario
who showed them a good time. Was a man named
Edward Ormus Sherrington Davenport.

Speaker 3 (05:00):
That's a serious name.

Speaker 2 (05:01):
Edward Ormas Sherrington Davenport. Wow, Lord Edward Davenport A ka
fast Eddie Fast, Eddy Fast. So who's this fast Eddie?

Speaker 3 (05:11):
Right?

Speaker 2 (05:12):
Let me give you a breakdown. He was born in
nineteen sixty six in Kensington, London. So he went to
something called a crammer. I'm loving this. Where do you go?
I go to a crammer? There are private prep schools
that specialize in prepping students for entrance exams to college

(05:36):
kuman like a college prep cramming like studying and they're
just going to c in there. So it was a
posh school and he's surrounded by posh kids. It wasn't poor,
but he wasn't at their level. So the first gig
he had, the first job he ever came up with
for himself, is he would like go walking on down
Tutelan to the local shops. He'd buy a bunch of

(05:59):
can and and then he'd toolon back to the school
and sell it to all the rich kids at a
major markup because they were too lazy to hoof it
down to the shops and pick up like an arrow bar.

Speaker 3 (06:10):
I did the exact same thing. So what got me
kicked out of the boy Scouts.

Speaker 2 (06:16):
So he started to see that he could make money
and it wasn't too hard.

Speaker 3 (06:20):
But laziness is a great way to make money.

Speaker 2 (06:22):
Other people's laziness a perfect that's most of like what
you see the product.

Speaker 3 (06:26):
A lot of services are based on them.

Speaker 2 (06:27):
Yeah. So he starts selling cheap jeans at the Portobello
Road Market port Road. It's fantastic, I love it. Anyway.
He wanted to make the bed moms.

Speaker 3 (06:37):
And brunsticks that has that song Portobello Road, I think
it is.

Speaker 2 (06:40):
Anyway, they're famous for their mushrooms. So he he wanted
to make money. He wanted to have a good time
making money. I mean, isn't that the goal?

Speaker 3 (06:50):
She loves Don't be here for a long time, but
for a good time.

Speaker 2 (06:53):
That's me man. Yeah. So he wanted to surround himself
with the swells. He wanted to be one of the swell.

Speaker 3 (07:00):
Sure, So one.

Speaker 2 (07:01):
Year in his late teens, he threw himself a birthday party.
Was massive, extravagant. Everyone loved it, and the rich kids
begged him to throw another one please. It was so fun.
But the party. It costs serious money to put on
big parties.

Speaker 3 (07:17):
Oh I, especially if you're trying to impress the word.

Speaker 2 (07:19):
Well, that's the problem. Like when you throw a good
party and then everyone's like, oh, we should do that again,
And like you throw a good dinner party and suddenly
everyone wants to have the dinner party at your house
and you're like, a hi, guys, it's gonna be a
pot look, and they're like, that's not the kind of
way you party. I'm like, I know, so okay, I'll
just eat the cost. He thought about it. He's like,
it costs a lot of money, but I could actually

(07:39):
make money on this. I'm going to charge admission.

Speaker 3 (07:42):
Oh.

Speaker 2 (07:43):
So, in nineteen eighty three, he's nineteen years old, fast Eddie,
he co founded a party company with a pal of
his name, Jeremy Taylor. They gave it a great name.
They called it gate Crasher Limited.

Speaker 3 (07:55):
Oh I thought it was gonna be Lord and Taylor.

Speaker 2 (07:58):
Oh wow, good one. So they put together all these
amazing bucchanalias.

Speaker 3 (08:05):
Nice I love Balia.

Speaker 2 (08:07):
They did invite boys from the boys' school. Okay, girls
from the girls.

Speaker 3 (08:11):
That does work out well.

Speaker 2 (08:12):
Yeah, I went to a girls school. I know, you know,
you just short circuit when you see a boy's. Like,
we used to have like exchange days where all the
Catholic schools would kind of you'd send students around as
like your representatives to like show that you're logical, good people.

Speaker 3 (08:30):
Do you guys have we did the thing where we
would exchange basically like we had a really good big
pool at Jesuit, so the girls school didn't have a
big pool, so they would come over and do their
swim practice at our school and let me tell you,
the stands were full of people rooting for the women's team.

Speaker 2 (08:44):
Francis, I never got sent out to another school. They
were just like, no, that's not a good We don't
want them to know this is what we're like. And
so they'd like, you know, exemplary Catholic youth would be
sent to other schools, and then exemplary Catholic youth show
up at our school. And when the boys, yes from
the boys school or one of the co ed schools.
Bishop of Dowd is a Poe at school, they'd show up.
It was just like we would literally like our brain's

(09:05):
short circuit. Its smoke came out of our ears, and
we're just like, I can't function. There's a there's a.

Speaker 3 (09:11):
Boy here like them are coloring hall.

Speaker 2 (09:14):
We're just like everyone's like they can't focus.

Speaker 3 (09:16):
I feel like I'm too many clothes. I take up
some of these clothes.

Speaker 2 (09:18):
The nuns are on their like last nerve. They can't
take it with us, and they're just like whatever. We're
just you know, you're you're you're old enough to do work,
but here's a coloring book. I can't with you today.
So anyway, So that's what he's doing. He's organizing this.
It's not exemplary Catholic Keith, I got you just yeah,
rich kids. So boys' school, girls school booze great music

(09:41):
and so they're not like parties that someone's flat or
like a local parish hall. He has them at country
homes with names like long Lead and Weston Park. Wow,
like Biggins, Yeah, like Lord's Manners, like some Downton Abbey kid.

Speaker 3 (09:55):
Yeah exactly, I seen the show, know what you made?

Speaker 2 (09:57):
Sure? I don't watch TV. So, uh, there're they weren't
small affairs because these are big places. Some of them
had ten thousand people there.

Speaker 3 (10:05):
Oh wow, there's small villages parties exactly.

Speaker 2 (10:09):
So with crowds that big, you know he's making money.

Speaker 3 (10:12):
Oh God, I hope.

Speaker 2 (10:12):
So try two hundred and fifty thousand pounds per year
on for size Sarah. Wow. Yeah, and at its peak
hundred tons. Yes, it is peak. There's just pounds of
like blubber. At its peak the company made one million
pounds a year on these things. Pounds sterling Ah, Peter York.

(10:34):
You don't know him, but.

Speaker 3 (10:36):
He's don't know who I know social.

Speaker 2 (10:37):
Maybe it is. He a person friend, a social commentator,
and he's the co author of the Sloane Ranger's handbook
So Good. He described the scene quote, they were an
instant rave for Sloane Rangers, but with a real kind
of car dealers feel to them. It's a good money spinner,
a way to make a fast buck. It's having all
the technology and ideology of rays. But each time you

(11:01):
read about it it's presented as a posh ball sending
a signal to certain types of parents and their children.
It just goes to show that the aspirations of the
Sloane Ranger days are not dead. There are still kids
who want to be with their own kind.

Speaker 3 (11:14):
Oh I caught that last line.

Speaker 2 (11:16):
Yeah, and of course this wasn't just happy times in
a strobelt.

Speaker 3 (11:19):
Yeah, mansion, no No.

Speaker 2 (11:21):
Reporter Alexander Reynolds said, quote, I finally met him. He's
talking about fast Eddie In nineteen eighty seven, when I
was working as a teenage correspondent for Punch magazine, where
full disclosure, my dad was the arts editor. I saw
him walking along King's Road one sunny day. He was thin,
very thin, light gray, double breasted suit, gel back hair,

(11:42):
smile like a Halloween skull. I knew the guy he
was with and homed in for an introduction. He gave
me a part time job taking photos at the gate
Crasher Balls at age seventeen. I thought the gig would
be one big, long Gatsby Mansion romance, where simplicity of
heart would be its own ticket of admission. Boy was
I wrong. So I must say that the first time

(12:05):
I read the quote, I read smile like a Halloween
skull as smells like a Halloween skull.

Speaker 3 (12:10):
Oh, and I spent.

Speaker 2 (12:12):
Perhaps too much time wondering what that would smell like.

Speaker 3 (12:15):
And why Nirvana rejected it as a song title.

Speaker 2 (12:18):
And then I reread the sentence and I felt really stupid,
so I thought I'd tell everyone about this too.

Speaker 3 (12:23):
I am I like that this is pre like any
Heath Ledger movie as a joker. So you didn't say
joker smile.

Speaker 2 (12:29):
Now you Yeah, exactly, And so Reynolds he says he
was wrong to think that it was a big long
Gatsby mansion romance. Nope, this is a business.

Speaker 3 (12:39):
Oh yeah.

Speaker 2 (12:39):
And while it was businessing very well, order of the sloan, right, Sorry,
it's it's businessing very well, but it's not businessing very well.

Speaker 3 (12:53):
Oh. There was a distinction.

Speaker 2 (12:56):
Custom is an excisee audit, and it was not a
clean one. It revealed that fast Eddie had underpaid his
VAT bill. Oh value added tax. Yeah, so it's assessed incrementally,
and it's levied on the price of a product or
a service whatever, at each stage of production, distribution and
then or sale to the end customer. So at fast

(13:20):
Eddie Davenport, he understated his tax returns by you know,
almost twenty five thousand pounds. And he also lied and
said that only three pounds fifty of the fourteen pound
entry fee for the gate crashers ball was liable for VAT. Oh.

Speaker 3 (13:35):
Okay.

Speaker 2 (13:36):
According to him, the other ten pounds fifty was for
raffle tickets, a magazine subscription and posted.

Speaker 3 (13:42):
So it was non tax, was what he saying.

Speaker 2 (13:44):
That's what he's saying. But the crowd, the Crown prosecutor
was like, yes, in the Crown prosecutor legal business, we
call that cheating. So November nineteen ninety, Davenport he gets
convicted of tax evasion and he's sentenced to nine months
in jail.

Speaker 3 (14:00):
So the end of the eighties for him.

Speaker 2 (14:01):
Yeah. However, the sentence was reduced on appeal to a
nine month suspended sentence for tax fraud and he served
only two weeks. Two weeks. Two weeks.

Speaker 1 (14:11):
So.

Speaker 2 (14:12):
In a two thousand and six interview with Tatler magazine,
Davenport was asked how he coped with those two weeks.

Speaker 3 (14:17):
Oh, yes, please tell us. How did you manage? How
many tattoos did you get?

Speaker 2 (14:22):
Quote boring, There aren't many parties there. I learned nothing
from my experience in there. Anything you do you have
to make sure is within the law. You can do
things within the law and make money. Now, we are
very careful to make sure that we are playing by
the rules.

Speaker 3 (14:39):
Someone should ask him what he thought of toilet wine
a little pruno.

Speaker 2 (14:42):
Then he said, quote basically, gate Crasher was bloody good fun.
I enjoyed every moment of it and was incredibly naive
about things like that. When you're nineteen and making money,
you don't think about tax This is true, That's very true.
So the conviction wasn't the only problem that gate Crasher limited.
At the time, the tabloids started running pictures of the parties.

(15:03):
So there's little Birdie Sharpington Millworks, cocks with their knockers,
hanging out, dancing with Clancy Wilkes, Pemberton Masters. The families
were not pleased, Saren, and thus died the gate Crash. No,
no worries, bro Fast Eddie Davenport is full of ideas.

(15:24):
So he started a luxury pawnbrokering business, which is kind
of genius, right.

Speaker 3 (15:28):
So he travels those.

Speaker 2 (15:30):
Circles and so he could be there for those who
needed like quick Buck. You know, it's the people whose
parents like you know, didn't didn't know about all these
you know, debts, or like the people who live in
big rambling estates that have little or no cash flow.

Speaker 3 (15:43):
Sure, but they've got nice old silver Yeah, so.

Speaker 2 (15:45):
He handled mostly jewelry and he did cars. So like Emeralds, pearls, BMW's.

Speaker 3 (15:50):
I get it. Yeah, like you got Ben's or whatever,
a Bentley and you need to move it right.

Speaker 2 (15:54):
So this is what he said about it. Quote, I'm
opening a new office to deal with loans of twenty
five thousand pounds above. This is an ideal service. If
people need cash in a hurry, I give it to them.
There are no questions asked. All they have to do
is leave something of worth and we're happy. At any
one time, I will have about sixty cars in storage.
You know, Monte Carlo would be a fantastic place to

(16:15):
set up shop. All those casinos. The potential for lending
is massive. You should really go one day. So the
clients who wanted to be able to reclaim their belongings,
they had like a minimum of five percent interest a
month on the loan.

Speaker 3 (16:31):
That's actually not as bad as I thought it was
going to be. Yeah, being basically the veig on this.

Speaker 2 (16:37):
So he's doing well and he wanted to add to that.
So he went out and he got a memorial title
of the village of Gifford in Shropshire, and that allowed
him to call himself Lord Edward.

Speaker 3 (16:50):
Okay, there he's landed.

Speaker 2 (16:51):
Now, Yeah, he's not a member of the peerage. Yeah,
so he's fast Eddie, he's Lord Eddie. He's shady Eddie.
In nineteen ninety six he moves on to another venture.
He'd take out leases on bars, pubs, nightclubs in London
and then he'd turn around and rent them out. So
he's like basically sublettingh god for tenants that didn't know

(17:14):
they were subletting, and he'd you know, get a tidy
profit because he's jacking the price. He said himself, quote,
now I've returned to London to do what I do best,
buying leases on loss making properties, returning them to a
profit and then selling them. My new company bought Bar
Circa from Allied Dominique when it was losing one hundred
thousand pounds a year, and we already have made it profitable.

Speaker 3 (17:35):
Come. He sees value that others don't see, and then
he goes to the people who don't see the value
and goes, you want to buy this.

Speaker 2 (17:40):
Yeah, precisely, and so's it's just that his company wasn't
buying and so like sniffing a story BBC gets in
on it. You'd come to find out he was increasing
the rents with sometimes no more than two weeks notice,
and he'd come up with new terms and then threatened
to evict the club if he didn't. So it isn't

(18:01):
like if you're living in a crappy apartment you can
just move out if the landlord's terrible.

Speaker 3 (18:05):
It's a business. Yeah, you're tying.

Speaker 2 (18:07):
Can't just move it at your livelihood. So he played
it even closer to the bone and started like failing
to pay his own rent to the actual owners. Oh no,
he just pocketed the rent from the club or bar,
and then the real landlord comes calling.

Speaker 3 (18:21):
I had this happen with the landlord. I live with
a guy who was giving him the rent and he
wasn't giving it to the landlord. One day, the landlord
showed up and said, you're all evicted.

Speaker 2 (18:28):
I was like, what right, Okay, so that's what Eddie's doing. Yes,
I feel Davenport he denies the claims. He said, quote
it was a very far fetched piece. It was really
really irrelevant programming talking about the BBC investigation investigators with
the Department of Trade and Industry as well as the cops.
They got together and they raided fast Eddie's house in

(18:49):
two thousand and six, and that was in connection with
two property companies that went under still owing millions of pounds.
Action was taken against an audit firm. But Davenport of
did any legal proceedings. Why why he did everything through
an intermediary. His name was never on anything. He never
spoke directly to anybody.

Speaker 3 (19:09):
He's going to real British gangster.

Speaker 2 (19:11):
Yes, completely. So nineteen ninety eight, he along with two
others they posed as aristocrats and they ran up an
eighteen thousand pounds bill at glenn Egels, you know glenn
Egels luxury resort in Scotland. YA five day New Year's
Eve party. Then they skip out on the bill and
he was facing charges for that, but everything gets dropped
when he just failed to show up in court.

Speaker 3 (19:32):
Does guy Richie know this story? Oh my god.

Speaker 2 (19:35):
So his lawyers deliver a doctor's note that said he
was experiencing renal failure and was on kidney dialysis.

Speaker 3 (19:42):
Okay, things that old move. But he wasn't lying, Oh
he really was.

Speaker 2 (19:46):
Yeah. Now I'm not sure how that excuse is not
paying for a five day party. But you know you
do you?

Speaker 3 (19:50):
Okay, whatever, let's take a break.

Speaker 2 (19:51):
Okay, when we come back, Sierra Leone will enter the chat.

Speaker 3 (19:55):
What zaren, Elizabeth?

Speaker 2 (20:17):
I was telling you about fast Eddie, Ormis, Sherrington Davenport.

Speaker 3 (20:21):
Oh yes, Lord Davenport's.

Speaker 2 (20:23):
Party Empire, and then I mentioned Sierra Leone.

Speaker 3 (20:27):
You did, I remember wrote help with that?

Speaker 2 (20:29):
With that?

Speaker 3 (20:30):
Why that mountain Lion.

Speaker 2 (20:31):
Let me tell you. In the nineties, Sierra Leone was
in the middle of a terrible civil war.

Speaker 3 (20:37):
Horrendous, yeah, child soldiers, the whole band, oh god.

Speaker 2 (20:40):
Yeah. Things were about to get worse than an already
terrible situation when in nineteen ninety seven there was a
coup to overthrow the president and then the UN and
British forces came in to help squash it. Did you
know that this made UK Prime Minister Tony Blair a
sort of hero to the people of Sierra Leone.

Speaker 3 (20:57):
I did not, I noticed. I do know that Tony
Blair is hero to some people. That will surprise you.

Speaker 2 (21:01):
Uh huh, yeah, exactly interesting times we live in. But
let's go back a tiny bit to nineteen ninety six.
So the civil wars, raging government finances are thinning somehow,
fast Eddie Davenport, Oh No, gets approached by the cash
strapped government of Sierra Leone. What so he meets with
the Foreign Minister and High Commissioner of Sierra Leone, Professor

(21:24):
Cyril Foray, fore laid out his problem the High commission building. Basically,
the Embassy sure was a wreck. It was a huge
mansion at thirty three Portland Place, built in seventeen seventy five.
In its glory, it was an unbelievable building. But it
had been neglected.

Speaker 3 (21:43):
And the Government of America and fallen down.

Speaker 2 (21:46):
But Sierra Leone government couldn't They can't afford to fix it.
And it wasn't just fixing it up. They couldn't make
their rent.

Speaker 3 (21:53):
Oh they didn't. They didn't even own it, no renovation,
but they.

Speaker 2 (21:57):
Still had twenty years on the lease. I don't know.
So they couldn't just walk away from it, right, So
what are they going to do?

Speaker 3 (22:05):
They need fast Eddie Okay.

Speaker 2 (22:07):
Nineteen ninety seven rolls around, The coup takes place and
then it's put down. Sierra Leone government is trying to
get UN peacekeepers to come and assist the British who
were just holding everything down. In nineteen ninety nine, Davenport
makes a deal with the Sierra Leone government. He said
he would rehab the building with the condition that he
would provide alternative offices for the High Commission. And then

(22:30):
a clause in the contract allowed Sierra Leone to buy
back the property for one point five million pounds the
next year.

Speaker 3 (22:37):
Oh no, yeah, oh no, I hear it. So that
next year, I hear that, right, you said, buy back, Okay,
go on.

Speaker 2 (22:43):
Next year came and went, and it wasn't like they're
just sitting on their thumbs in West Africa, like between
nineteen ninety one and two thousand and one, yes, fifty
thousand people were killed in this civil war and hundreds
of thousands of people were forced to leave their homes
and become refugees. They went to Liberia in two thousand

(23:04):
and one. The government was busy seron. So the UN
forces they arrive, they're taking rebel held areas and disarming
the rebel soldiers. Meanwhile, they've got thirty three Portland Place.
That's the least of their worries, a building they couldn't
even afford to buy back. They're not thinking about this.
So since the government hadn't paid him the one point

(23:24):
five million to take control of the building. Davenport says,
it's his mine, it's not mine, and he made it
his base in London. He made it his private residence.

Speaker 3 (23:35):
Oh yeah wow.

Speaker 2 (23:37):
So the government of Sierra Leone, they took legal action
against him. They accused him of exploiting the chaos in
their country in order to cheat him out of the
twenty four bedroom, five story mansions. Five damn, it's huge.
And they also said that he conspired with the then
High Commissioner to get the property on the cheap.

Speaker 3 (23:59):
Oh.

Speaker 2 (24:00):
Instead of fighting, sorry, and the guy doesn't fight the accusation,
he just resigns.

Speaker 3 (24:05):
For mister forre Oh. Look African corruption.

Speaker 2 (24:07):
Because see Davenport, he got possession of it from Sierra
Leone for fifty thousand pounds. Oh, He's like, I'll give
you fifty thousand pounds for it. It's worth five million
pounds at the time.

Speaker 3 (24:18):
He's like, you know why people have traditionally exploited your people.

Speaker 2 (24:20):
Any traditions going going come on for old times sake.
Lawyers for Sierra Leone they issued a writ in London
that said Davenport had masked the true value of the property.
But remember the place was run down, and so an
independent appraiser comes commissioned by the Sierra Leone government. He said,
the government's interest in the building was like pretty much
worthless because Davenport had renovated the place completely, doing more

(24:45):
than one point three million in repairs. So he poured.
Davenport pours all his money and do it to fix
it up. And they're like, Sierra Leone, you couldn't make
the rent, you couldn't pay him the one point.

Speaker 3 (24:54):
Five You're out of this.

Speaker 2 (24:57):
This is what Davenport said about it quote, it is
been a frightening experience the government of Sierra Leone.

Speaker 3 (25:03):
Him.

Speaker 2 (25:03):
Yeah, the government of Sierra Leone approached me to help
them out, and I did. They had no money and
needed to sell the house, which was in a very
bad state of repair. Not many people would have taken
the risk of dealing with the Sierra Leone government. Obviously,
as a property developer, I wanted to make a profit
on the house, and I still think I can, but
there's no guarantee. It is a few years off before

(25:23):
I can say whether it will be a bargain. In
the meantime, I won't be going on holiday in Sierra Leone.

Speaker 3 (25:30):
Talking to the press. Does this man no favors?

Speaker 2 (25:32):
Never? Okay?

Speaker 3 (25:33):
So he sounds every time he's host Well, there are.

Speaker 2 (25:36):
Ways of doing business that are within the law technically,
but those ways are always pretty much low. You know,
this was low. This was a low thing to do.
The government was struggling. He took advantage of it, and
I know that's the nature of the game.

Speaker 3 (25:51):
And yeah, but it's low and fear.

Speaker 2 (25:54):
Yes, And that's the thing about this guy, Like a
lot of times he's within the law, but he just
lacks integrity and empathy, like he feels nothing legal.

Speaker 3 (26:02):
Don't make it just so it wasn't enough that.

Speaker 2 (26:05):
He got one over on an entire nation. He decided
to celebrate this. He threw a I won in court
party in Monaco, his second home, and it was like
a who's who of late nineties, early two thousand.

Speaker 3 (26:17):
Blisters okay, pink, oh wow, Macy.

Speaker 2 (26:20):
Gray, Oh, Jean Claude.

Speaker 3 (26:23):
Van Dam, Macy Gray with the funny voice, Macy Yeah.

Speaker 2 (26:25):
And like think about the timing of it. It's like
she's a little bit cuckoo, so, which you know, God
bless So they're all there in describing the party, this
is how he said, quote it all got a bit
out of hand. We all started smashing plates and throwing
chairs in the fire. What I'm expanding into private equities.
Any parties I throw now will be private ones. I'm

(26:45):
discovering my serious side.

Speaker 3 (26:47):
I think my joker origin story would be attending one
of his parties. I think I would lose it.

Speaker 4 (26:53):
Well.

Speaker 2 (26:53):
The lawyer representing the Sierra Leone government quote, the fraud
element has been dropped and it is part of the
But as far as we're concern the case is very
much alive. It is premature for him to be blowing
his trumpet about it.

Speaker 3 (27:06):
Oh yeah.

Speaker 2 (27:08):
They claimed breach a contract against him, and this was
because he didn't find suitable alternative accommodations for the High Commission,
like he said, an so without thirty three Portland Place,
they relocated to an office above a really busy tube
station and it was just, you know, horrible. He settled
out of court with the government for an undisclosed sum,

(27:31):
and the British government offered to buy a new building
for Sierra Leone's High Commission. Davenport gets left with the
remainder of the lease and he acquired the whole thing
in two thousand and five. So yeah, and he made
the most of it.

Speaker 3 (27:45):
Right.

Speaker 2 (27:46):
He's got thirty three Portland place. He throws parties there,
He hosts fashion shoots and he would lend it out
for filming. The parties there were legendary. Boy George had
his fortieth birthday party there in two thousand and one. Okay,
the Rothschild family rented it out for a soire attended
by Princess William and Harry. In two thousand and five.

Speaker 3 (28:07):
Some of my favorite people.

Speaker 2 (28:09):
Celebrities flocked to the place. Friend of the Show, Paris Hilton.
Oh yes, chare Naomi Campbell, Hugh Grant.

Speaker 3 (28:16):
We got to do a Naomi Campbell story.

Speaker 2 (28:18):
Yea, we really do. King Boss, Ronnie Wood, Vivian Westwood, Cure, Knightley. Huh.
He also rented out the space.

Speaker 3 (28:25):
Oh Rod Stewart would imagine, I'm just.

Speaker 2 (28:27):
Kicking soccer balls all over the place. He would. He
rented the space out for pole dancing lessons.

Speaker 3 (28:33):
The pink this is the pink effect.

Speaker 2 (28:34):
That's the total pink effect. They're all doing like that
scarf work on the fabric.

Speaker 3 (28:39):
You're dropping down out of the sky.

Speaker 2 (28:40):
On a rope amy winehouse. Yeah, she shot her rehab
video at the property.

Speaker 3 (28:45):
Oh amy, oh Amy, no no no.

Speaker 2 (28:50):
It was used as Lionel Log's clinic in the movie
The King Speech.

Speaker 3 (28:54):
Ah.

Speaker 2 (28:55):
And then there was the steamy stuff. I promised you
a lot of porn was filled.

Speaker 3 (29:00):
Them there, of course.

Speaker 2 (29:01):
Yeah. And then he threw these VIP masked orgies there.

Speaker 3 (29:05):
Oh god, it.

Speaker 2 (29:06):
Cost you ninety quid to get in. And apparently these
were really popular with like celebs and royals because everyone
had to be masked up and not in like a
COVID stop the spread, k kN ninety five totally eyes
wide shut, freaky business. I was I'm kind of hoping
that some of them wore the scarier Venetian masks, the
plague doctors, or some of them, like just the regular

(29:28):
when you're in Venice and you see him like that's
that's really disturbing the one day.

Speaker 3 (29:32):
Some of them look like not like the like the
opera glass where you're holding the stick that keeps the
mask by your eyes, and I mean those, but some
of the black ones, it's like leather and the slits.

Speaker 2 (29:42):
Terrifying.

Speaker 3 (29:42):
Are you here to kill me?

Speaker 2 (29:43):
I just hope that that's what they wore to the orgies.
You like that freaks and so anyway, or you know
what they could wear is my old man latex mask.

Speaker 3 (29:53):
That would be good and I told.

Speaker 2 (29:55):
You about it. It looks so real and it would be
amazing in an orgy, he said, wear am at. Yeah,
maybe maybe the sloths dancers can wear, but like I
may wear it next time we record. Here's the problem.
It smells like bad chemicals.

Speaker 3 (30:09):
Trying to wear chemicals.

Speaker 2 (30:12):
It's like three years four years old and is still
off gassing anyway, orgies. So the general manager of the property,
Frederick Porter, he said, when he's talking about filming the
King's speech quote, everyone in the film industry knows what
goes on in there. Everybody would like to be at
one of those parties. They're all very well run events.
The people who are invited are all like minded. There

(30:34):
were no sex parties while filming was going on. Of course,
when he's talking about King Speed, an anonymous local said, quote,
the room where Colin Firth has all his elocution lessons
is exactly the same room where sex parties and porn
discos have been held. For such a royal film. It
certainly isn't a very regal setting.

Speaker 3 (30:56):
I need to tell them about Hollywood.

Speaker 2 (30:57):
Business Thorn discos.

Speaker 3 (30:58):
Did do you also know about the royals?

Speaker 2 (31:01):
Because you're the ones there? It's it is a very
regal setting.

Speaker 3 (31:05):
Yes, probably the most regal setting there could be.

Speaker 2 (31:08):
So Davenport, he puts it this way. Quote you can
call me flamboyant and an opportunist, and I suppose I
am a bit flash, but I'm trying to create an
image of someone who can deliver on an international scale.
People in Hong Kong and China are going to expect
you to have some kind of presence. So when they
go to my website and they see my title and

(31:29):
the pictures of all the celebrities who have genuinely been
to my house and said hi to me, they're going
to take me seriously.

Speaker 3 (31:36):
Said hi to me. These other people take me seriously.

Speaker 2 (31:39):
I want to be taken seriously because I saw tyn
Daily in person at a distance that thank you Westminster
City Council. They fought him over and over about noise
violations and disturbing the peace at thirty three Portland Place.

Speaker 3 (31:55):
The mons getting too loud.

Speaker 2 (31:56):
Oh God. At one point they took him to High
Court from me using the property. Why well, thank you
for asking. Well, planning officers showed up at the mansion
on December ninth, two thousand and nine, and you know what,
let's go there with them. Okay, Zarin, close eyes. I
want you to picture it. You are a Westminster City

(32:20):
Council planning officer. You're a proper fellow, shine shoes, crisp shirt.
You take yourself and your job and your duties seriously.
Right here, you've been dispatched to thirty three Portland Place.
It's a notorious address in your office. So many complaints
have been filed. The place is a headache. But it's
also notorious because you've heard all about the celebrities and

(32:44):
the orgies, and you've always kind of hoped to be
sent out to the location someday. That day is today's erin.
You and two other officers stand at the front door
of thirty three Portland Place. It's a brick, sandstone affair.
You can hear the thumping of club music, laughter and
the occasional drunken whoop and scream of delight coming from inside.

(33:04):
You knock on the front door, hoping someone will hear it.
You peer down over the iron railings into the basement
entrance area below. You expect to see discarded panties or something,
but its neat as a pin. You knock on the
glossy black door again, this time opening and slamming the
mail slot, and hopes that's louder than your pounding fist. Finally,
a man opens the door. Because it opens the party,

(33:27):
noise becomes a little bit clearer, but you can still
tell that it's coming from one of the lower floors.
This place has five stories. He's holding a stack of
what looks like flyers. Ticket, he says in a drawl ticket.
You respond, yeah, you got a ticket? Uh no, You
tell him you get one online six quick fifty. He

(33:47):
hands you a flyer. You pull out your council officer
ID and tell him that's your ticket. The other officers
follow suit. You all feel so poor now. The man
steps aside, and you see people milling about all manner
of designer duds. This is a commercial endeavor, not a
private party and a private residence. You're positive this is
exactly what the neighbors and the council are trying to

(34:08):
put an end to. You and the other officers head downstairs.
Following the music, you push through the crowd to get
to what looks like the main attraction. There's a swimming
pool the length of a long room. Along one wall
are a series of alcoves containing conversation pits, low sectionals
surrounding low coffee tables. The lights are low too, but

(34:29):
you can see everything, and you can see the pool
water is a dark amber. That's a lot of pea.
Surely this is a health code violation. You push past
a camera crew and you see someone dunk a glass
into the pool water and take a long sipo. You
can smell the waves of alcohol coming off the pool.
That's not pe The pool is filled with cavasia. What

(34:52):
it's filled with one thousand liters of kooniak. You've seen enough.
You and the other officers push back out through the
party and step out into the cool air of Portland Place.
You have to put a stop to this, so the
council they got an enforcement notice on Davenport. He was
found to have breached it in two thousand and six
and as a result, the High Court judge issued a

(35:15):
permanent ban on the use of the house for non
residential purposes. In March of twenty eleven, Davenport asked a
court of appeal to overturn the ruling, and the next
month he lost that appeal. Oh so with that in mind,
let's take a break and listen to the dulcet tones
of a seemingly endless series of ads. And when we
come back, I'll let you in on fast Eddie's big

(35:37):
con right, Yo, Edward ormis sharing to Davenport, Edward Davenport,

(36:03):
steady Lord d Lord Edward Lord Eddie. He threw parties,
he cheated the country of Sierra Leona out of their embassy,
and then he went straight up con classic con. So
from two thousand and seven to two thousand and nine
he ran a fake finance company called Gresham Gresham. You
know there's a legitimate wealth management advisory firm called Gresham Financial.

Speaker 3 (36:24):
I was wondering, like, that's not familiar.

Speaker 2 (36:26):
It sounds good. Well, that's what that was his goal.
He was going, it's not the same thing. He purposely
wanted that confusion. So he said that they'd been trading
since nineteen fifty eight, but it was just a shell
company that he bought and renamed in two thousand and.

Speaker 3 (36:40):
Five that had been opened in nineteen fifty eight or something.

Speaker 2 (36:43):
Oh, he he pulled that out of you know, all
sorts of stuff.

Speaker 3 (36:47):
I thought it was one of the things where you
bought an old company and said we've been doing this
since nineteen.

Speaker 2 (36:51):
So he pulled it out of his tutor. Yes, so
they had like fake account information brochures. He put ads
in the Financial Times and other newspapers to give it
credibility question and then he he used it using an alias.
He never put his name.

Speaker 3 (37:09):
Oh once again. Yeah, of course.

Speaker 2 (37:10):
So Gresham said that they would provide financing for projects
that like traditional banks weren't willing to back mavericks, risk
takers care for you. Yeah, so if a real bank
is like you're a little bit shape, come on this way.
So the investment requests they come rolling in. Davenport and

(37:31):
his co conspirators, Borge Anderson and Peter Riley. They said,
we are pledging billions in funds for all these projects.
Your projects are fantastic unders you deserve all the money.
So it's they got a bunch of people a million
for you, ten million for you pledged. Problem is, the
loans were never advanced because there weren't the billions.

Speaker 3 (37:54):
But they were pledged.

Speaker 2 (37:56):
I made a pledge, I made a solid promise. They
made their money because here they have no money to
give out, or are they making money because these people
are begging for money. They charged the businesses quote unquote
deposits and fees for quote verification, and fees for a
loan guarantee, and then another due diligence.

Speaker 3 (38:17):
Cause classic fraud. I want to give you money, but
I just need to do a.

Speaker 2 (38:20):
Couple of tests. Tens of thousands here, maybe fifty thousands there.
The businesses, these are victims. They they paid the deposits
and the advance fees, the due diligences of business, and
then Davenport and his little minions they kept it all
with nothing in return. So Gresham, the business is about
to be exposed. So Davenport closes up shop, starts another

(38:44):
fake finance company, and this one he calls cutting in company,
as in what he does right, cutting and running the
serious fraud off Cutting and SFO like the airport, but
not an airport serious fraud. Okay, they're like, you know,
buddies with the flying squad. I almost said the flying then.

Speaker 3 (39:07):
Flying.

Speaker 2 (39:08):
So the SFO they're looking into ten cases of people
who were offered billions in loans by Gresham, just the
tip of the iceberg. So it's just we're taking the
top ten of these. That's a costly tip, the ten biggest.
These ten were promised loans totaling five hundred million pounds,
and then Davenport and the co conspirators they promised to
finance more than fifty commercial loans. A lot of the

(39:32):
victims went bankrupt. I imagine they had their professional reputations
absolutely destroyed.

Speaker 3 (39:37):
Totally no jobs. I imagine there were some divorces of
the some.

Speaker 2 (39:40):
People had full breakdown. Yeah, they ruined lives. Elizabeth Emanuel
a fifty eight year old fashion designer. She is the
one who created Princess Die's wedding dress, that big flush.

Speaker 3 (39:54):
I pretend like I know you're.

Speaker 2 (39:55):
Talking at Remember it was like huge ruffles.

Speaker 3 (39:57):
I don't story book. I know that she has she's
got like the big shoulders. I don't know that princess style.

Speaker 2 (40:03):
She was one of Gresham's victims. Oh no, she needed
a million pound investment for her company and all she
had left was five thousand pounds to her name, some total.
So she puts up sixty five percent of her company
in exchange for the loan. You know, that's my collateral.
Gresham was like, but you know what, I need the

(40:25):
due diligence money on this, and it's going to cost
you twenty thousand pounds before we can carry out.

Speaker 3 (40:30):
Has five?

Speaker 2 (40:31):
Yeah, she only has five. She had lost the right
to trade under her own name because she had a
falling out with her business partner, and so if she
could get the funding, she could keep the company, keep
her livelihood, keep the legacy of Diana's wedding dress. So
she handed over the last five thousand pounds to her name,

(40:51):
hoping that that would be enough due diligence.

Speaker 3 (40:53):
Money of the twenty thousand he's waiting for uh huh ok.

Speaker 2 (40:56):
So he strings her along. Ye, I'm going to and
then he pulls out of the deal and he kept
the five. Oh yeah yeah, But SFO was watching and
building a case, and he was arrested and.

Speaker 3 (41:08):
Charged with fraud. Oh.

Speaker 2 (41:10):
Prosecutor Simon Mayo said to the court, quote to outward appearances,
it was long established, wealthy and prestigious. That image, however,
deliberately cultivated by these defendants, was entirely false. In truth,
it was a company which had only been set up
by Edward Davenport in late two thousand and five. It
was essentially worthless. Its only business was fraud. Davenport was

(41:33):
Gresham's ring master and guiding light. He avoided, wherever possible,
dirtying his hands through direct engagement with victims, and even
resorted to using a false name, James Stewart, to keep
his real name secret.

Speaker 3 (41:45):
James Stewart doesn't like the King, the bonny King, or
Jimmy Yeah, or Jimmy Steart. Oh yeah, there's that too.

Speaker 2 (41:50):
So on October fifth, twenty eleven, he's convicted for conspiracy
to defraud and sentenced to seven years eight months in jail.
Peter Riley, He's guilty the same charges, same sentence. Borge Anderson,
He's convicted on conspiracy charges. And so the woman Emmanuel
the dress.

Speaker 3 (42:09):
Base suggested Diana's dressmaker quote.

Speaker 2 (42:12):
It caused a lot of problems for me in my business,
not just the money, but keeping me hanging on when
I could have been looking for other investors.

Speaker 3 (42:19):
Exactly, I was just a little.

Speaker 2 (42:20):
Struggling company, and to drag away my last five thousand
pounds is only something a very mean and horrible person
would do. I'm thrilled he has gone down.

Speaker 3 (42:30):
Yeah. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (42:32):
So January eleventh, twenty fourteen, forty seven year old fast
Eddy gave an interview too.

Speaker 3 (42:39):
Daily Mail.

Speaker 2 (42:40):
There it is from his bed at Saint George's Hospital
in South London, which, by the way, look at us
like we have so much serendipity in our weeks lately,
like compendiums and now British.

Speaker 3 (42:51):
Anyway, that's interesting, so Daily Mail.

Speaker 2 (42:53):
This is what he tells. A Daily Mail quote. I
was diagnosed with a defective kidney when I was about
fifteen and had my first transplant about fifteen years ago.
I never told anyone about it as it didn't really
fit in with my image. But over the past few
years it became apparent that the kidney was not working anymore.
I was in prison and feeling ill. I'd been on

(43:13):
the NHS donor list for another transplant for ages, and
then my name came up just before Christmas. I think
somebody had a tragic accident and lost their life. Before that,
I was traveling to Saint George's, chained up with three
prison officers three times a week for dialysis. It was
an ordeal for them and me.

Speaker 3 (43:32):
Okay, yeah, so he's trying to now get sympathy by
pretending to be or not pretending, but at least letting
it be known that he has suffered through something.

Speaker 2 (43:41):
Yeah, I'm really fascinated with him saying that it didn't
match his image. Yes, that's like, that's a good insight.

Speaker 3 (43:47):
You know in his images. Somebody who would buy one
of those kidneys that was taken out of someone against
their will and they were left in a motel tub
of ice, that's what images.

Speaker 2 (43:56):
But it wouldn't have like the right tag on it.
Although I love that he's like, I might get it.
Someone died a tragic accident. So he almost received a
transplant twice, but the operations were canceled. With these operation
cancelations and like he had a bad case of pneumonia,
he had complications involving his liver. He did eventually receive

(44:20):
another transplant, and then he needed ongoing treatment afterwards. So
with that in mind, his lawyers asked the court to
show mercy. They said his medical condition meant that he
had to serve his time in more punishing conditions than
he would otherwise have done. So the jig him released
early and he was freed May of twenty fourteen because

(44:42):
he has.

Speaker 3 (44:42):
Like immune suppressive drugs for the transplant, Like, what's the
deal when.

Speaker 2 (44:46):
He gets out. He is far from an invalid who
wanted to shy away from it.

Speaker 3 (44:50):
His image was fine.

Speaker 2 (44:51):
Oh yeah, he got involved in property deals with a
Chinese business partner. He made it known that he wanted
to go like buy a film studio.

Speaker 3 (44:58):
And one of his right what his money was.

Speaker 2 (45:01):
The government wanted it.

Speaker 3 (45:03):
I want it for them.

Speaker 2 (45:04):
They kicked off confiscation proceedings those June nineteenth, twenty thirteen.
He's still locked up when that all started. So, all told,
through all of his schemes, he made about thirty four
point five million pounds.

Speaker 3 (45:19):
Oh wow, yeah, it's not about empires.

Speaker 2 (45:20):
So he argued though that through his lawyers, because he's
in jail, that he should only have to repay eight million.
What he said, that's all he really got from it,
and then there's thirty three Portland place. Yes, so the
government was like, you got that through fraud, we want it.
By October twenty fifteen, he's out of prison and he's
fighting the SFO. He said that he had been the

(45:43):
victim of double counting by them.

Speaker 3 (45:44):
He's a constantly victim of in its.

Speaker 2 (45:46):
Confiscation and compensation order, so they said they had recovered
more than thirteen million pounds from Davenport. His lawyer said
that was way too much and went beyond the order.
He said Davenport got twelve million from fraud but had
to pay fourteen teen million. So the court eventually sides
with fast Eddie on that one. Where is he now?

Speaker 3 (46:06):
Where is he now? Elizabeth? Since he's avoided.

Speaker 2 (46:09):
Justice, He's alive. He has a website, the Davenport Trust.
It is full of photos with him posing with celebrities.

Speaker 3 (46:16):
And have they aged appropriately? Jagger?

Speaker 2 (46:19):
Well, there are not a lot of reasons. Mick Jagger,
Jean Claude Van Dam, the American Idol host, guy with
the nipples, Jerry Hall, Harry.

Speaker 3 (46:29):
Potter is one of the Gallagher brothers.

Speaker 2 (46:31):
No deed Avonte, the Osborne Mom, Captain Picard, Michael Caine,
who looks like he has no idea who this guy is.

Speaker 3 (46:38):
He probably doesn't.

Speaker 2 (46:39):
Someone with big bangs, Ronnie Woods, Naomi Campbell, a blonde
who looks like Gwyneth Paltrow and the Project Runway Lady,
but also like neither of them.

Speaker 3 (46:50):
Okay, so the Paltrow yeah, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 2 (46:54):
So the pictures they're on a scroll and I was
just like typing names as they went past. It's a
fun game. We should try.

Speaker 3 (47:00):
So.

Speaker 2 (47:00):
There's a link to a Vice documentary on his Wesbit
documentary and it called him the Wolf of the West End.
He has a link that's too cool for him. He
has a dead link to the King speech and he
has like pictures from a Kate Moss photo shoot.

Speaker 3 (47:14):
I you know, like the Underground Rat, Subway Rat.

Speaker 2 (47:20):
Of the I really want to read you his whole biography.
Please don't it, but I'm just gonna hit you.

Speaker 3 (47:25):
At the opening, Okay, hit me with the highlights.

Speaker 2 (47:27):
Edward Davenport has played host to some of the most
glamorous and best known faces in the world. A businessman
renowned for taking chances and living a life full of adventure,
he is one of Britain's most flamboyant entrepreneurs. A man
who has earned his own wealth, Davenport enjoys the rewards
his successes bring, living the high life in London, rubbing

(47:51):
shoulders with celebrity friends such as David Beckham, Naomi Campbell
and fifty cent. He has a jet, beautiful homes and
a election of sports cars which would make any man jealous.
A regular feature on the social pages and in the
rich lists of newspapers and magazines, Davenport was recently the
subject of a profile published by The London Evening Standard,

(48:14):
which describes him as quote tall, slim and draculine, with
a penchant for sharp suits and Rolex watches.

Speaker 3 (48:22):
Do you remember Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous with
Robin Leech? Yeah, remember how he was just like a
barnacle on the Weltha, Yes, that's what this guy is.
But the barnacle isn't willing to just sit there. It
wants to be the boat. I want to be the ship. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (48:34):
This bio is unhinged.

Speaker 3 (48:36):
It's ridiculous.

Speaker 2 (48:37):
And there's no mention of his time in the clink
or like his kidneys, but definitely.

Speaker 3 (48:41):
Some Naomi Campbell. And he makes sure to David Beckham.

Speaker 2 (48:43):
He's worth more than one hundred million. Yeah, so he
cheats all these people and he comes out on top.

Speaker 3 (48:49):
Oh yes, and also he's cheating them out of like
five thousand pounds to get this number million, like he's
taking like he's not taking down big targets. Huh.

Speaker 2 (48:59):
So thirty three Portland places for sale by the way,
right now, Yeah, it's listed on Southby's Realty.

Speaker 3 (49:04):
How much is it worth?

Speaker 2 (49:05):
Seventy five million pounds, which for US Yanks is almost
ninety five million dollars.

Speaker 3 (49:11):
Okay, so it's just out of my price.

Speaker 2 (49:13):
Yeah, well, you know, we'll pull it together. It's been
renovated once again, and so it's very sleek and modern inside.
I was going to watch the listing video, of course,
but I only got a little ways into it and
then it just I got so pissed off. There you go, there,
I didn't make it out of like the court room. Yeah, Zaren,
what's your ridiculous takeaway?

Speaker 3 (49:34):
Oh? Thanks, I was afraid you were gonna ask me that. Yes,
my ridiculous takeaway is this guy who hosts faces and
rubs shoulders. How is it this? This always works? Like
I know he's sitting there telling Daily Mail, like I'm
I'm basically, you know, conning these people in Asia by
pretending I know these things, and I position myself. He's

(49:56):
just giving away the game and it still works. Like
I wish that the bad magicians didn't get so much applause.
That's what I'm saying like it's not a good trick
he's doing.

Speaker 2 (50:06):
There's like a sociopathy to it where it's definitely that yeah,
absolutely no remorse. He's just like this shark swimming through
the water. It doesn't like you're saying taking someone's last
five thousand.

Speaker 3 (50:17):
Doing the old tradition to British exploitation. It's like, yeah, seriously,
it's like the worst of that.

Speaker 2 (50:24):
Yeah it is, and I I am so.

Speaker 3 (50:28):
Flat.

Speaker 2 (50:28):
I shouldn't be flabbergasted because it's too common. But the
superficiality of it all that, like he can't let a kidney,
you know issue taint this like you know, crazy image
that he has cultivated. And it's just like everything is
at a surface level.

Speaker 3 (50:44):
You know.

Speaker 2 (50:45):
I've had all these people in my house and I've
seen their faces.

Speaker 3 (50:47):
It's not like the stars. They've said hi to me.

Speaker 2 (50:50):
These are my close confidence And you can tell from
the pictures. It's like you're at a party and you
lean in and like, hey, take a picture.

Speaker 3 (50:56):
It's all surface, and then sex parties and then orgies.
It's like either like you're in me or you're looking
at my surface. That's it. It's all surface.

Speaker 2 (51:05):
Oh, that's it. I can't talk about him anymore today.
He's a horrible person. Kind of fun too, It's gonna be.

Speaker 3 (51:14):
Baby and then all of a sudden.

Speaker 2 (51:16):
My god, humans are terrible.

Speaker 3 (51:19):
You can tell the Prince to put his clothes back
on and go back to Buckingham Power.

Speaker 2 (51:23):
Take off the hitlar out. You can find us online
at ridiculous Crime dot com. We are also at Ridiculous
Crime on both Twitter Instagram. You can email us at
Ridiculous Crime at gmail dot com. No one will answer you.
Leave us a talk back at the iHeart. We have
fired like six interns over the email thing.

Speaker 3 (51:41):
Let go, I mean fire. Do you act like their
interns don't come back?

Speaker 2 (51:46):
I bake stuff for them and they love it. Well.

Speaker 3 (51:48):
Producer Dave's super cool with them. I'm just the only
one that's a jerk. I'm like, oh, are you new here?
They're like, I've been here for a year. I'm like whatever,
I'll learn your name.

Speaker 4 (51:55):
Your name.

Speaker 2 (51:56):
No one wants to answer the emails. Leave a talk
back on the heart app.

Speaker 3 (52:00):
Yes, reach out. That's also interesting though, was oli our
interns being dogs also problem? I mean then they said
they don't even listen.

Speaker 2 (52:08):
Huge problem. That's it. Oh hey, wait, Dave, do we
have any topics? Oh my god, I let cheat.

Speaker 4 (52:27):
Hey, guys, love your show. My wife and I want
to just point out that Elvis had black hair because
he really liked Captain Adam the Captain Marvel, Sorry, Captain Marvel,
not Captain Adam. The guy currently known as Shazam, and
dude really liked his comic books. It's really cute. Actually,

(52:50):
I don't like the guy, but I think that's kind
of cute, right, I think it's cute.

Speaker 3 (53:00):
Oh, talk bags.

Speaker 2 (53:07):
Ridiculous Crime is hosted by Elizabeth Dutton and Zaren Burnett,
produced and edited by Sir David Cousten, third Earl of Flavortown.
Research is by Marissa Rombelfield Harrowgate Brown and Andrea Fittington
Kettleston Song Sharpened Hear. The theme song is by Thomas Brongle,
Sutterton Lee and Travis butter Chief Toxington, Fairywell Dutton. Host

(53:28):
wardrobe is provided by Botany five hundred. Executive producers are
Benjamin Gollington, Hammerfield Bowlin and Noel Chamberwell, Chattington Brown.

Speaker 3 (53:42):
Dis QUI Say It One More Time Crime.

Speaker 1 (53:49):
Ridiculous Crime is a production of iHeartRadio, four more podcasts
My heart Radio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcasts, or
wherever you listen to your favorite shows.