Speaker 1: Ridiculous Crime is a production of iHeartRadio Zaren Elizabeth.
Speaker 2: Check it out. Yeah, you know it's ridiculous.
Speaker 3: Oh my god, girl, Yes, mosquitoes.
Speaker 2: They're so I hate mosquitoes.
Speaker 3: I know someone actually likes enjoys mosquito bites. Okay, they
Speaker 3: like how they get the feeling, the annoyance anyway, that
Speaker 3: they're weird. But my point is, mosquitoes, I just found
Speaker 3: out recently, are attracted to all my favorite foods.
Speaker 2: Huh.
Speaker 3: Yeah, they're attracted to bananas. Okay, they're attracted to dried
Speaker 3: fruit beer. I mean, this is my diet. What am
Speaker 3: I supposed to do?
Speaker 2: They love me? I am so sweet for them. Oh really,
Speaker 2: I'm delicious to mosquitoes.
Speaker 3: What type of blood do you have?
Speaker 2: Red?
Speaker 3: No? What like ab oh? You know d do you
Speaker 3: know what? Honestly, do you know what?
Speaker 2: Whole blood?
Speaker 3: Because mosquitoes are attracted to oh blood way more than
Speaker 3: any of the.
Speaker 2: Other No, I think I'm like ABCD.
Speaker 3: If you have type oh blood, you're eighty three percent
Speaker 3: more likely to attract mosquito. Really, yes, I've been over
Speaker 3: here just investigating mosquito trying to find out how I
Speaker 3: can get around them. Yeah, right, I'm just gonna wear
Speaker 3: all sleeves, dude.
Speaker 2: I've been I've been like covered in mosquito bites once,
Speaker 2: really like painfully. In fact, one time I got mosquito
Speaker 2: bites so badly all over my bare legs. And then
Speaker 2: I had to fly out and go to someone's wedding
Speaker 2: and I had a dress I don't usually wear dress.
Speaker 2: I had a dress that like went to my knees.
Speaker 2: Oh no. And you know friend of the show, Sarah
Speaker 2: TACIONI Golden, she spent like two hours trying to use concealers.
Speaker 2: Do I have I not heard of stockings? I planned
Speaker 2: to wear these open toe shoes op to heels, and
Speaker 2: I didn't want to do that open toe with stockings.
Speaker 2: And then someone was at the wedding with open toe
Speaker 2: and stockings, and all of us were pointing and laughing.
Speaker 2: So better to just go with like totally disgusting palkmark legs.
Speaker 3: You know what that is ridiculous? That's ridiculous.
Speaker 2: Yes, Do you want to know what else is ridiculous?
Speaker 3: Dude? That's why I showed up orgies.
Speaker 2: What this is ridiculous? Crime a podcast about absurd and
Speaker 2: outrageous capers, heists and cons it's always ninety nine percent
Speaker 2: murder free and one hundred percent ridiculous.
Speaker 3: I know, you heard that.
Speaker 2: British eighties and nineties tabloid culture.
Speaker 3: Oh my god, it was a thing. Yeah, it was.
Speaker 3: It was vicious.
Speaker 2: It was a lifestyle choice.
Speaker 3: You know.
Speaker 2: There's all the gossip that they had about.
Speaker 3: Like the Royal page six stuff. Yeah.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it was like the Bazoom bagals.
Speaker 3: Or Yakini that's in the paper. Yeah, Charles and Die.
Speaker 2: Remember Tatler magazine still there. They would spill the goods
Speaker 2: on like the upper class.
Speaker 3: They hated Fergie, that redheaded, unfortunate poor dear.
Speaker 2: And then they were like the Sloane Rangers. Are you do?
Speaker 2: You know that what they're called.
Speaker 3: IM familiar with the term.
Speaker 2: So a Sloane ranger is like an upper middle class,
Speaker 2: upper class woman who dresses and acts and vacations and
Speaker 2: plays like just like her peer group. It's sort of
Speaker 2: like an early influencer. So they have this look. It's
Speaker 2: super uniform and preppy.
Speaker 3: Yeah that's what I remember.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think of like a crisp white shirt and like.
Speaker 3: Blazers and definitely blazer.
Speaker 2: Blonde hair in a low pony which like there's a
Speaker 2: comedian who does this thing about how like when you
Speaker 2: see low pony on like a celebrity or model, it
Speaker 2: looks so cool and you do it, you put it on,
Speaker 2: you look like one of the founding fathers. That's me.
Speaker 2: That's the problem I have. But like classic styles for
Speaker 2: the Sloane Rangers, like an air scarf and like whatever.
Speaker 2: In the US the look is called preppy. In France,
Speaker 2: it's called Bonjean. Princess Di was nipuzl.
Speaker 3: I've never heard that one before.
Speaker 2: Yeah, she was the peak the panicle. Princess Die a
Speaker 2: boy Sloan was called a raw for who raw Harry.
Speaker 2: He's a real who raw Harry r r a h.
Speaker 3: Oh like Okay.
Speaker 2: So the name Sloane Ranger comes from Sloane Square in Chelsea.
Speaker 2: That's where the rich folks living around, and so the
Speaker 2: name the name was created in nineteen seventy five in
Speaker 2: an article in Harper's and Queen magazine. And in the
Speaker 2: eighties it was the look.
Speaker 3: That was it familiar.
Speaker 2: And in the eighties there were lots of parties and
Speaker 2: fabulous places that catered to the Sloane Rangers. One empresario
Speaker 2: who showed them a good time. Was a man named
Speaker 2: Edward Ormus Sherrington Davenport.
Speaker 3: That's a serious name.
Speaker 2: Edward Ormas Sherrington Davenport. Wow, Lord Edward Davenport A ka
Speaker 2: fast Eddie Fast, Eddy Fast. So who's this fast Eddie?
Speaker 3: Right?
Speaker 2: Let me give you a breakdown. He was born in
Speaker 2: nineteen sixty six in Kensington, London. So he went to
Speaker 2: something called a crammer. I'm loving this. Where do you go?
Speaker 2: I go to a crammer? There are private prep schools
Speaker 2: that specialize in prepping students for entrance exams to college
Speaker 2: kuman like a college prep cramming like studying and they're
Speaker 2: just going to c in there. So it was a
Speaker 2: posh school and he's surrounded by posh kids. It wasn't poor,
Speaker 2: but he wasn't at their level. So the first gig
Speaker 2: he had, the first job he ever came up with
Speaker 2: for himself, is he would like go walking on down
Speaker 2: Tutelan to the local shops. He'd buy a bunch of
Speaker 2: can and and then he'd toolon back to the school
Speaker 2: and sell it to all the rich kids at a
Speaker 2: major markup because they were too lazy to hoof it
Speaker 2: down to the shops and pick up like an arrow bar.
Speaker 3: I did the exact same thing. So what got me
Speaker 3: kicked out of the boy Scouts.
Speaker 2: So he started to see that he could make money
Speaker 2: and it wasn't too hard.
Speaker 3: But laziness is a great way to make money.
Speaker 2: Other people's laziness a perfect that's most of like what
Speaker 2: you see the product.
Speaker 3: A lot of services are based on them.
Speaker 2: Yeah. So he starts selling cheap jeans at the Portobello
Speaker 2: Road Market port Road. It's fantastic, I love it. Anyway.
Speaker 2: He wanted to make the bed moms.
Speaker 3: And brunsticks that has that song Portobello Road, I think
Speaker 3: it is.
Speaker 2: Anyway, they're famous for their mushrooms. So he he wanted
Speaker 2: to make money. He wanted to have a good time
Speaker 2: making money. I mean, isn't that the goal?
Speaker 3: She loves Don't be here for a long time, but
Speaker 3: for a good time.
Speaker 2: That's me man. Yeah. So he wanted to surround himself
Speaker 2: with the swells. He wanted to be one of the swell.
Speaker 3: Sure, So one.
Speaker 2: Year in his late teens, he threw himself a birthday party.
Speaker 2: Was massive, extravagant. Everyone loved it, and the rich kids
Speaker 2: begged him to throw another one please. It was so fun.
Speaker 2: But the party. It costs serious money to put on
Speaker 2: big parties.
Speaker 3: Oh I, especially if you're trying to impress the word.
Speaker 2: Well, that's the problem. Like when you throw a good
Speaker 2: party and then everyone's like, oh, we should do that again,
Speaker 2: And like you throw a good dinner party and suddenly
Speaker 2: everyone wants to have the dinner party at your house
Speaker 2: and you're like, a hi, guys, it's gonna be a
Speaker 2: pot look, and they're like, that's not the kind of
Speaker 2: way you party. I'm like, I know, so okay, I'll
Speaker 2: just eat the cost. He thought about it. He's like,
Speaker 2: it costs a lot of money, but I could actually
Speaker 2: make money on this. I'm going to charge admission.
Speaker 3: Oh.
Speaker 2: So, in nineteen eighty three, he's nineteen years old, fast Eddie,
Speaker 2: he co founded a party company with a pal of
Speaker 2: his name, Jeremy Taylor. They gave it a great name.
Speaker 2: They called it gate Crasher Limited.
Speaker 3: Oh I thought it was gonna be Lord and Taylor.
Speaker 2: Oh wow, good one. So they put together all these
Speaker 2: amazing bucchanalias.
Speaker 3: Nice I love Balia.
Speaker 2: They did invite boys from the boys' school. Okay, girls
Speaker 2: from the girls.
Speaker 3: That does work out well.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I went to a girls school. I know, you know,
Speaker 2: you just short circuit when you see a boy's. Like,
Speaker 2: we used to have like exchange days where all the
Speaker 2: Catholic schools would kind of you'd send students around as
Speaker 2: like your representatives to like show that you're logical, good people.
Speaker 3: Do you guys have we did the thing where we
Speaker 3: would exchange basically like we had a really good big
Speaker 3: pool at Jesuit, so the girls school didn't have a
Speaker 3: big pool, so they would come over and do their
Speaker 3: swim practice at our school and let me tell you,
Speaker 3: the stands were full of people rooting for the women's team.
Speaker 2: Francis, I never got sent out to another school. They
Speaker 2: were just like, no, that's not a good We don't
Speaker 2: want them to know this is what we're like. And
Speaker 2: so they'd like, you know, exemplary Catholic youth would be
Speaker 2: sent to other schools, and then exemplary Catholic youth show
Speaker 2: up at our school. And when the boys, yes from
Speaker 2: the boys school or one of the co ed schools.
Speaker 2: Bishop of Dowd is a Poe at school, they'd show up.
Speaker 2: It was just like we would literally like our brain's
Speaker 2: short circuit. Its smoke came out of our ears, and
Speaker 2: we're just like, I can't function. There's a there's a.
Speaker 3: Boy here like them are coloring hall.
Speaker 2: We're just like everyone's like they can't focus.
Speaker 3: I feel like I'm too many clothes. I take up
Speaker 3: some of these clothes.
Speaker 2: The nuns are on their like last nerve. They can't
Speaker 2: take it with us, and they're just like whatever. We're
Speaker 2: just you know, you're you're you're old enough to do work,
Speaker 2: but here's a coloring book. I can't with you today.
Speaker 2: So anyway, So that's what he's doing. He's organizing this.
Speaker 2: It's not exemplary Catholic Keith, I got you just yeah,
Speaker 2: rich kids. So boys' school, girls school booze great music
Speaker 2: and so they're not like parties that someone's flat or
Speaker 2: like a local parish hall. He has them at country
Speaker 2: homes with names like long Lead and Weston Park. Wow,
Speaker 2: like Biggins, Yeah, like Lord's Manners, like some Downton Abbey kid.
Speaker 3: Yeah exactly, I seen the show, know what you made?
Speaker 2: Sure? I don't watch TV. So, uh, there're they weren't
Speaker 2: small affairs because these are big places. Some of them
Speaker 2: had ten thousand people there.
Speaker 3: Oh wow, there's small villages parties exactly.
Speaker 2: So with crowds that big, you know he's making money.
Speaker 3: Oh God, I hope.
Speaker 2: So try two hundred and fifty thousand pounds per year
Speaker 2: on for size Sarah. Wow. Yeah, and at its peak
Speaker 2: hundred tons. Yes, it is peak. There's just pounds of
Speaker 2: like blubber. At its peak the company made one million
Speaker 2: pounds a year on these things. Pounds sterling Ah, Peter York.
Speaker 2: You don't know him, but.
Speaker 3: He's don't know who I know social.
Speaker 2: Maybe it is. He a person friend, a social commentator,
Speaker 2: and he's the co author of the Sloane Ranger's handbook
Speaker 2: So Good. He described the scene quote, they were an
Speaker 2: instant rave for Sloane Rangers, but with a real kind
Speaker 2: of car dealers feel to them. It's a good money spinner,
Speaker 2: a way to make a fast buck. It's having all
Speaker 2: the technology and ideology of rays. But each time you
Speaker 2: read about it it's presented as a posh ball sending
Speaker 2: a signal to certain types of parents and their children.
Speaker 2: It just goes to show that the aspirations of the
Speaker 2: Sloane Ranger days are not dead. There are still kids
Speaker 2: who want to be with their own kind.
Speaker 3: Oh I caught that last line.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and of course this wasn't just happy times in
Speaker 2: a strobelt.
Speaker 3: Yeah, mansion, no No.
Speaker 2: Reporter Alexander Reynolds said, quote, I finally met him. He's
Speaker 2: talking about fast Eddie In nineteen eighty seven, when I
Speaker 2: was working as a teenage correspondent for Punch magazine, where
Speaker 2: full disclosure, my dad was the arts editor. I saw
Speaker 2: him walking along King's Road one sunny day. He was thin,
Speaker 2: very thin, light gray, double breasted suit, gel back hair,
Speaker 2: smile like a Halloween skull. I knew the guy he
Speaker 2: was with and homed in for an introduction. He gave
Speaker 2: me a part time job taking photos at the gate
Speaker 2: Crasher Balls at age seventeen. I thought the gig would
Speaker 2: be one big, long Gatsby Mansion romance, where simplicity of
Speaker 2: heart would be its own ticket of admission. Boy was
Speaker 2: I wrong. So I must say that the first time
Speaker 2: I read the quote, I read smile like a Halloween
Speaker 2: skull as smells like a Halloween skull.
Speaker 3: Oh, and I spent.
Speaker 2: Perhaps too much time wondering what that would smell like.
Speaker 3: And why Nirvana rejected it as a song title.
Speaker 2: And then I reread the sentence and I felt really stupid,
Speaker 2: so I thought I'd tell everyone about this too.
Speaker 3: I am I like that this is pre like any
Speaker 3: Heath Ledger movie as a joker. So you didn't say
Speaker 3: joker smile.
Speaker 2: Now you Yeah, exactly, And so Reynolds he says he
Speaker 2: was wrong to think that it was a big long
Speaker 2: Gatsby mansion romance. Nope, this is a business.
Speaker 3: Oh yeah.
Speaker 2: And while it was businessing very well, order of the sloan, right, Sorry,
Speaker 2: it's it's businessing very well, but it's not businessing very well.
Speaker 3: Oh. There was a distinction.
Speaker 2: Custom is an excisee audit, and it was not a
Speaker 2: clean one. It revealed that fast Eddie had underpaid his
Speaker 2: VAT bill. Oh value added tax. Yeah, so it's assessed incrementally,
Speaker 2: and it's levied on the price of a product or
Speaker 2: a service whatever, at each stage of production, distribution and
Speaker 2: then or sale to the end customer. So at fast
Speaker 2: Eddie Davenport, he understated his tax returns by you know,
Speaker 2: almost twenty five thousand pounds. And he also lied and
Speaker 2: said that only three pounds fifty of the fourteen pound
Speaker 2: entry fee for the gate crashers ball was liable for VAT. Oh.
Speaker 3: Okay.
Speaker 2: According to him, the other ten pounds fifty was for
Speaker 2: raffle tickets, a magazine subscription and posted.
Speaker 3: So it was non tax, was what he saying.
Speaker 2: That's what he's saying. But the crowd, the Crown prosecutor
Speaker 2: was like, yes, in the Crown prosecutor legal business, we
Speaker 2: call that cheating. So November nineteen ninety, Davenport he gets
Speaker 2: convicted of tax evasion and he's sentenced to nine months
Speaker 2: in jail.
Speaker 3: So the end of the eighties for him.
Speaker 2: Yeah. However, the sentence was reduced on appeal to a
Speaker 2: nine month suspended sentence for tax fraud and he served
Speaker 2: only two weeks. Two weeks. Two weeks.
Speaker 1: So.
Speaker 2: In a two thousand and six interview with Tatler magazine,
Speaker 2: Davenport was asked how he coped with those two weeks.
Speaker 3: Oh, yes, please tell us. How did you manage? How
Speaker 3: many tattoos did you get?
Speaker 2: Quote boring, There aren't many parties there. I learned nothing
Speaker 2: from my experience in there. Anything you do you have
Speaker 2: to make sure is within the law. You can do
Speaker 2: things within the law and make money. Now, we are
Speaker 2: very careful to make sure that we are playing by
Speaker 2: the rules.
Speaker 3: Someone should ask him what he thought of toilet wine
Speaker 3: a little pruno.
Speaker 2: Then he said, quote basically, gate Crasher was bloody good fun.
Speaker 2: I enjoyed every moment of it and was incredibly naive
Speaker 2: about things like that. When you're nineteen and making money,
Speaker 2: you don't think about tax This is true, That's very true.
Speaker 2: So the conviction wasn't the only problem that gate Crasher limited.
Speaker 2: At the time, the tabloids started running pictures of the parties.
Speaker 2: So there's little Birdie Sharpington Millworks, cocks with their knockers,
Speaker 2: hanging out, dancing with Clancy Wilkes, Pemberton Masters. The families
Speaker 2: were not pleased, Saren, and thus died the gate Crash. No,
Speaker 2: no worries, bro Fast Eddie Davenport is full of ideas.
Speaker 2: So he started a luxury pawnbrokering business, which is kind
Speaker 2: of genius, right.
Speaker 3: So he travels those.
Speaker 2: Circles and so he could be there for those who
Speaker 2: needed like quick Buck. You know, it's the people whose
Speaker 2: parents like you know, didn't didn't know about all these
Speaker 2: you know, debts, or like the people who live in
Speaker 2: big rambling estates that have little or no cash flow.
Speaker 3: Sure, but they've got nice old silver Yeah, so.
Speaker 2: He handled mostly jewelry and he did cars. So like Emeralds, pearls, BMW's.
Speaker 3: I get it. Yeah, like you got Ben's or whatever,
Speaker 3: a Bentley and you need to move it right.
Speaker 2: So this is what he said about it. Quote, I'm
Speaker 2: opening a new office to deal with loans of twenty
Speaker 2: five thousand pounds above. This is an ideal service. If
Speaker 2: people need cash in a hurry, I give it to them.
Speaker 2: There are no questions asked. All they have to do
Speaker 2: is leave something of worth and we're happy. At any
Speaker 2: one time, I will have about sixty cars in storage.
Speaker 2: You know, Monte Carlo would be a fantastic place to
Speaker 2: set up shop. All those casinos. The potential for lending
Speaker 2: is massive. You should really go one day. So the
Speaker 2: clients who wanted to be able to reclaim their belongings,
Speaker 2: they had like a minimum of five percent interest a
Speaker 2: month on the loan.
Speaker 3: That's actually not as bad as I thought it was
Speaker 3: going to be. Yeah, being basically the veig on this.
Speaker 2: So he's doing well and he wanted to add to that.
Speaker 2: So he went out and he got a memorial title
Speaker 2: of the village of Gifford in Shropshire, and that allowed
Speaker 2: him to call himself Lord Edward.
Speaker 3: Okay, there he's landed.
Speaker 2: Now, Yeah, he's not a member of the peerage. Yeah,
Speaker 2: so he's fast Eddie, he's Lord Eddie. He's shady Eddie.
Speaker 2: In nineteen ninety six he moves on to another venture.
Speaker 2: He'd take out leases on bars, pubs, nightclubs in London
Speaker 2: and then he'd turn around and rent them out. So
Speaker 2: he's like basically sublettingh god for tenants that didn't know
Speaker 2: they were subletting, and he'd you know, get a tidy
Speaker 2: profit because he's jacking the price. He said himself, quote,
Speaker 2: now I've returned to London to do what I do best,
Speaker 2: buying leases on loss making properties, returning them to a
Speaker 2: profit and then selling them. My new company bought Bar
Speaker 2: Circa from Allied Dominique when it was losing one hundred
Speaker 2: thousand pounds a year, and we already have made it profitable.
Speaker 3: Come. He sees value that others don't see, and then
Speaker 3: he goes to the people who don't see the value
Speaker 3: and goes, you want to buy this.
Speaker 2: Yeah, precisely, and so's it's just that his company wasn't
Speaker 2: buying and so like sniffing a story BBC gets in
Speaker 2: on it. You'd come to find out he was increasing
Speaker 2: the rents with sometimes no more than two weeks notice,
Speaker 2: and he'd come up with new terms and then threatened
Speaker 2: to evict the club if he didn't. So it isn't
Speaker 2: like if you're living in a crappy apartment you can
Speaker 2: just move out if the landlord's terrible.
Speaker 3: It's a business. Yeah, you're tying.
Speaker 2: Can't just move it at your livelihood. So he played
Speaker 2: it even closer to the bone and started like failing
Speaker 2: to pay his own rent to the actual owners. Oh no,
Speaker 2: he just pocketed the rent from the club or bar,
Speaker 2: and then the real landlord comes calling.
Speaker 3: I had this happen with the landlord. I live with
Speaker 3: a guy who was giving him the rent and he
Speaker 3: wasn't giving it to the landlord. One day, the landlord
Speaker 3: showed up and said, you're all evicted.
Speaker 2: I was like, what right, Okay, so that's what Eddie's doing. Yes,
Speaker 2: I feel Davenport he denies the claims. He said, quote
Speaker 2: it was a very far fetched piece. It was really
Speaker 2: really irrelevant programming talking about the BBC investigation investigators with
Speaker 2: the Department of Trade and Industry as well as the cops.
Speaker 2: They got together and they raided fast Eddie's house in
Speaker 2: two thousand and six, and that was in connection with
Speaker 2: two property companies that went under still owing millions of pounds.
Speaker 2: Action was taken against an audit firm. But Davenport of
Speaker 2: did any legal proceedings. Why why he did everything through
Speaker 2: an intermediary. His name was never on anything. He never
Speaker 2: spoke directly to anybody.
Speaker 3: He's going to real British gangster.
Speaker 2: Yes, completely. So nineteen ninety eight, he along with two
Speaker 2: others they posed as aristocrats and they ran up an
Speaker 2: eighteen thousand pounds bill at glenn Egels, you know glenn
Speaker 2: Egels luxury resort in Scotland. YA five day New Year's
Speaker 2: Eve party. Then they skip out on the bill and
Speaker 2: he was facing charges for that, but everything gets dropped
Speaker 2: when he just failed to show up in court.
Speaker 3: Does guy Richie know this story? Oh my god.
Speaker 2: So his lawyers deliver a doctor's note that said he
Speaker 2: was experiencing renal failure and was on kidney dialysis.
Speaker 3: Okay, things that old move. But he wasn't lying, Oh
Speaker 3: he really was.
Speaker 2: Yeah. Now I'm not sure how that excuse is not
Speaker 2: paying for a five day party. But you know you
Speaker 2: do you?
Speaker 3: Okay, whatever, let's take a break.
Speaker 2: Okay, when we come back, Sierra Leone will enter the chat.
Speaker 3: What zaren, Elizabeth?
Speaker 2: I was telling you about fast Eddie, Ormis, Sherrington Davenport.
Speaker 3: Oh yes, Lord Davenport's.
Speaker 2: Party Empire, and then I mentioned Sierra Leone.
Speaker 3: You did, I remember wrote help with that?
Speaker 2: With that?
Speaker 3: Why that mountain Lion.
Speaker 2: Let me tell you. In the nineties, Sierra Leone was
Speaker 2: in the middle of a terrible civil war.
Speaker 3: Horrendous, yeah, child soldiers, the whole band, oh god.
Speaker 2: Yeah. Things were about to get worse than an already
Speaker 2: terrible situation when in nineteen ninety seven there was a
Speaker 2: coup to overthrow the president and then the UN and
Speaker 2: British forces came in to help squash it. Did you
Speaker 2: know that this made UK Prime Minister Tony Blair a
Speaker 2: sort of hero to the people of Sierra Leone.
Speaker 3: I did not, I noticed. I do know that Tony
Speaker 3: Blair is hero to some people. That will surprise you.
Speaker 2: Uh huh, yeah, exactly interesting times we live in. But
Speaker 2: let's go back a tiny bit to nineteen ninety six.
Speaker 2: So the civil wars, raging government finances are thinning somehow,
Speaker 2: fast Eddie Davenport, Oh No, gets approached by the cash
Speaker 2: strapped government of Sierra Leone. What so he meets with
Speaker 2: the Foreign Minister and High Commissioner of Sierra Leone, Professor
Speaker 2: Cyril Foray, fore laid out his problem the High commission building. Basically,
Speaker 2: the Embassy sure was a wreck. It was a huge
Speaker 2: mansion at thirty three Portland Place, built in seventeen seventy five.
Speaker 2: In its glory, it was an unbelievable building. But it
Speaker 2: had been neglected.
Speaker 3: And the Government of America and fallen down.
Speaker 2: But Sierra Leone government couldn't They can't afford to fix it.
Speaker 2: And it wasn't just fixing it up. They couldn't make
Speaker 2: their rent.
Speaker 3: Oh they didn't. They didn't even own it, no renovation,
Speaker 3: but they.
Speaker 2: Still had twenty years on the lease. I don't know.
Speaker 2: So they couldn't just walk away from it, right, So
Speaker 2: what are they going to do?
Speaker 3: They need fast Eddie Okay.
Speaker 2: Nineteen ninety seven rolls around, The coup takes place and
Speaker 2: then it's put down. Sierra Leone government is trying to
Speaker 2: get UN peacekeepers to come and assist the British who
Speaker 2: were just holding everything down. In nineteen ninety nine, Davenport
Speaker 2: makes a deal with the Sierra Leone government. He said
Speaker 2: he would rehab the building with the condition that he
Speaker 2: would provide alternative offices for the High Commission. And then
Speaker 2: a clause in the contract allowed Sierra Leone to buy
Speaker 2: back the property for one point five million pounds the
Speaker 2: next year.
Speaker 3: Oh no, yeah, oh no, I hear it. So that
Speaker 3: next year, I hear that, right, you said, buy back, Okay,
Speaker 3: go on.
Speaker 2: Next year came and went, and it wasn't like they're
Speaker 2: just sitting on their thumbs in West Africa, like between
Speaker 2: nineteen ninety one and two thousand and one, yes, fifty
Speaker 2: thousand people were killed in this civil war and hundreds
Speaker 2: of thousands of people were forced to leave their homes
Speaker 2: and become refugees. They went to Liberia in two thousand
Speaker 2: and one. The government was busy seron. So the UN
Speaker 2: forces they arrive, they're taking rebel held areas and disarming
Speaker 2: the rebel soldiers. Meanwhile, they've got thirty three Portland Place.
Speaker 2: That's the least of their worries, a building they couldn't
Speaker 2: even afford to buy back. They're not thinking about this.
Speaker 2: So since the government hadn't paid him the one point
Speaker 2: five million to take control of the building. Davenport says,
Speaker 2: it's his mine, it's not mine, and he made it
Speaker 2: his base in London. He made it his private residence.
Speaker 3: Oh yeah wow.
Speaker 2: So the government of Sierra Leone, they took legal action
Speaker 2: against him. They accused him of exploiting the chaos in
Speaker 2: their country in order to cheat him out of the
Speaker 2: twenty four bedroom, five story mansions. Five damn, it's huge.
Speaker 2: And they also said that he conspired with the then
Speaker 2: High Commissioner to get the property on the cheap.
Speaker 3: Oh.
Speaker 2: Instead of fighting, sorry, and the guy doesn't fight the accusation,
Speaker 2: he just resigns.
Speaker 3: For mister forre Oh. Look African corruption.
Speaker 2: Because see Davenport, he got possession of it from Sierra
Speaker 2: Leone for fifty thousand pounds. Oh, He's like, I'll give
Speaker 2: you fifty thousand pounds for it. It's worth five million
Speaker 2: pounds at the time.
Speaker 3: He's like, you know why people have traditionally exploited your people.
Speaker 2: Any traditions going going come on for old times sake.
Speaker 2: Lawyers for Sierra Leone they issued a writ in London
Speaker 2: that said Davenport had masked the true value of the property.
Speaker 2: But remember the place was run down, and so an
Speaker 2: independent appraiser comes commissioned by the Sierra Leone government. He said,
Speaker 2: the government's interest in the building was like pretty much
Speaker 2: worthless because Davenport had renovated the place completely, doing more
Speaker 2: than one point three million in repairs. So he poured.
Speaker 2: Davenport pours all his money and do it to fix
Speaker 2: it up. And they're like, Sierra Leone, you couldn't make
Speaker 2: the rent, you couldn't pay him the one point.
Speaker 3: Five You're out of this.
Speaker 2: This is what Davenport said about it quote, it is
Speaker 2: been a frightening experience the government of Sierra Leone.
Speaker 3: Him.
Speaker 2: Yeah, the government of Sierra Leone approached me to help
Speaker 2: them out, and I did. They had no money and
Speaker 2: needed to sell the house, which was in a very
Speaker 2: bad state of repair. Not many people would have taken
Speaker 2: the risk of dealing with the Sierra Leone government. Obviously,
Speaker 2: as a property developer, I wanted to make a profit
Speaker 2: on the house, and I still think I can, but
Speaker 2: there's no guarantee. It is a few years off before
Speaker 2: I can say whether it will be a bargain. In
Speaker 2: the meantime, I won't be going on holiday in Sierra Leone.
Speaker 3: Talking to the press. Does this man no favors?
Speaker 2: Never? Okay?
Speaker 3: So he sounds every time he's host Well, there are.
Speaker 2: Ways of doing business that are within the law technically,
Speaker 2: but those ways are always pretty much low. You know,
Speaker 2: this was low. This was a low thing to do.
Speaker 2: The government was struggling. He took advantage of it, and
Speaker 2: I know that's the nature of the game.
Speaker 3: And yeah, but it's low and fear.
Speaker 2: Yes, And that's the thing about this guy, Like a
Speaker 2: lot of times he's within the law, but he just
Speaker 2: lacks integrity and empathy, like he feels nothing legal.
Speaker 3: Don't make it just so it wasn't enough that.
Speaker 2: He got one over on an entire nation. He decided
Speaker 2: to celebrate this. He threw a I won in court
Speaker 2: party in Monaco, his second home, and it was like
Speaker 2: a who's who of late nineties, early two thousand.
Speaker 3: Blisters okay, pink, oh wow, Macy.
Speaker 2: Gray, Oh, Jean Claude.
Speaker 3: Van Dam, Macy Gray with the funny voice, Macy Yeah.
Speaker 2: And like think about the timing of it. It's like
Speaker 2: she's a little bit cuckoo, so, which you know, God
Speaker 2: bless So they're all there in describing the party, this
Speaker 2: is how he said, quote it all got a bit
Speaker 2: out of hand. We all started smashing plates and throwing
Speaker 2: chairs in the fire. What I'm expanding into private equities.
Speaker 2: Any parties I throw now will be private ones. I'm
Speaker 2: discovering my serious side.
Speaker 3: I think my joker origin story would be attending one
Speaker 3: of his parties. I think I would lose it.
Speaker 4: Well.
Speaker 2: The lawyer representing the Sierra Leone government quote, the fraud
Speaker 2: element has been dropped and it is part of the
Speaker 2: But as far as we're concern the case is very
Speaker 2: much alive. It is premature for him to be blowing
Speaker 2: his trumpet about it.
Speaker 3: Oh yeah.
Speaker 2: They claimed breach a contract against him, and this was
Speaker 2: because he didn't find suitable alternative accommodations for the High Commission,
Speaker 2: like he said, an so without thirty three Portland Place,
Speaker 2: they relocated to an office above a really busy tube
Speaker 2: station and it was just, you know, horrible. He settled
Speaker 2: out of court with the government for an undisclosed sum,
Speaker 2: and the British government offered to buy a new building
Speaker 2: for Sierra Leone's High Commission. Davenport gets left with the
Speaker 2: remainder of the lease and he acquired the whole thing
Speaker 2: in two thousand and five. So yeah, and he made
Speaker 2: the most of it.
Speaker 3: Right.
Speaker 2: He's got thirty three Portland place. He throws parties there,
Speaker 2: He hosts fashion shoots and he would lend it out
Speaker 2: for filming. The parties there were legendary. Boy George had
Speaker 2: his fortieth birthday party there in two thousand and one. Okay,
Speaker 2: the Rothschild family rented it out for a soire attended
Speaker 2: by Princess William and Harry. In two thousand and five.
Speaker 3: Some of my favorite people.
Speaker 2: Celebrities flocked to the place. Friend of the Show, Paris Hilton.
Speaker 2: Oh yes, chare Naomi Campbell, Hugh Grant.
Speaker 3: We got to do a Naomi Campbell story.
Speaker 2: Yea, we really do. King Boss, Ronnie Wood, Vivian Westwood, Cure, Knightley. Huh.
Speaker 2: He also rented out the space.
Speaker 3: Oh Rod Stewart would imagine, I'm just.
Speaker 2: Kicking soccer balls all over the place. He would. He
Speaker 2: rented the space out for pole dancing lessons.
Speaker 3: The pink this is the pink effect.
Speaker 2: That's the total pink effect. They're all doing like that
Speaker 2: scarf work on the fabric.
Speaker 3: You're dropping down out of the sky.
Speaker 2: On a rope amy winehouse. Yeah, she shot her rehab
Speaker 2: video at the property.
Speaker 3: Oh amy, oh Amy, no no no.
Speaker 2: It was used as Lionel Log's clinic in the movie
Speaker 2: The King Speech.
Speaker 3: Ah.
Speaker 2: And then there was the steamy stuff. I promised you
Speaker 2: a lot of porn was filled.
Speaker 3: Them there, of course.
Speaker 2: Yeah. And then he threw these VIP masked orgies there.
Speaker 3: Oh god, it.
Speaker 2: Cost you ninety quid to get in. And apparently these
Speaker 2: were really popular with like celebs and royals because everyone
Speaker 2: had to be masked up and not in like a
Speaker 2: COVID stop the spread, k kN ninety five totally eyes
Speaker 2: wide shut, freaky business. I was I'm kind of hoping
Speaker 2: that some of them wore the scarier Venetian masks, the
Speaker 2: plague doctors, or some of them, like just the regular
Speaker 2: when you're in Venice and you see him like that's
Speaker 2: that's really disturbing the one day.
Speaker 3: Some of them look like not like the like the
Speaker 3: opera glass where you're holding the stick that keeps the
Speaker 3: mask by your eyes, and I mean those, but some
Speaker 3: of the black ones, it's like leather and the slits.
Speaker 2: Terrifying.
Speaker 3: Are you here to kill me?
Speaker 2: I just hope that that's what they wore to the orgies.
Speaker 2: You like that freaks and so anyway, or you know
Speaker 2: what they could wear is my old man latex mask.
Speaker 3: That would be good and I told.
Speaker 2: You about it. It looks so real and it would be
Speaker 2: amazing in an orgy, he said, wear am at. Yeah,
Speaker 2: maybe maybe the sloths dancers can wear, but like I
Speaker 2: may wear it next time we record. Here's the problem.
Speaker 2: It smells like bad chemicals.
Speaker 3: Trying to wear chemicals.
Speaker 2: It's like three years four years old and is still
Speaker 2: off gassing anyway, orgies. So the general manager of the property,
Speaker 2: Frederick Porter, he said, when he's talking about filming the
Speaker 2: King's speech quote, everyone in the film industry knows what
Speaker 2: goes on in there. Everybody would like to be at
Speaker 2: one of those parties. They're all very well run events.
Speaker 2: The people who are invited are all like minded. There
Speaker 2: were no sex parties while filming was going on. Of course,
Speaker 2: when he's talking about King Speed, an anonymous local said, quote,
Speaker 2: the room where Colin Firth has all his elocution lessons
Speaker 2: is exactly the same room where sex parties and porn
Speaker 2: discos have been held. For such a royal film. It
Speaker 2: certainly isn't a very regal setting.
Speaker 3: I need to tell them about Hollywood.
Speaker 2: Business Thorn discos.
Speaker 3: Did do you also know about the royals?
Speaker 2: Because you're the ones there? It's it is a very
Speaker 2: regal setting.
Speaker 3: Yes, probably the most regal setting there could be.
Speaker 2: So Davenport, he puts it this way. Quote you can
Speaker 2: call me flamboyant and an opportunist, and I suppose I
Speaker 2: am a bit flash, but I'm trying to create an
Speaker 2: image of someone who can deliver on an international scale.
Speaker 2: People in Hong Kong and China are going to expect
Speaker 2: you to have some kind of presence. So when they
Speaker 2: go to my website and they see my title and
Speaker 2: the pictures of all the celebrities who have genuinely been
Speaker 2: to my house and said hi to me, they're going
Speaker 2: to take me seriously.
Speaker 3: Said hi to me. These other people take me seriously.
Speaker 2: I want to be taken seriously because I saw tyn
Speaker 2: Daily in person at a distance that thank you Westminster
Speaker 2: City Council. They fought him over and over about noise
Speaker 2: violations and disturbing the peace at thirty three Portland Place.
Speaker 3: The mons getting too loud.
Speaker 2: Oh God. At one point they took him to High
Speaker 2: Court from me using the property. Why well, thank you
Speaker 2: for asking. Well, planning officers showed up at the mansion
Speaker 2: on December ninth, two thousand and nine, and you know what,
Speaker 2: let's go there with them. Okay, Zarin, close eyes. I
Speaker 2: want you to picture it. You are a Westminster City
Speaker 2: Council planning officer. You're a proper fellow, shine shoes, crisp shirt.
Speaker 2: You take yourself and your job and your duties seriously.
Speaker 2: Right here, you've been dispatched to thirty three Portland Place.
Speaker 2: It's a notorious address in your office. So many complaints
Speaker 2: have been filed. The place is a headache. But it's
Speaker 2: also notorious because you've heard all about the celebrities and
Speaker 2: the orgies, and you've always kind of hoped to be
Speaker 2: sent out to the location someday. That day is today's erin.
Speaker 2: You and two other officers stand at the front door
Speaker 2: of thirty three Portland Place. It's a brick, sandstone affair.
Speaker 2: You can hear the thumping of club music, laughter and
Speaker 2: the occasional drunken whoop and scream of delight coming from inside.
Speaker 2: You knock on the front door, hoping someone will hear it.
Speaker 2: You peer down over the iron railings into the basement
Speaker 2: entrance area below. You expect to see discarded panties or something,
Speaker 2: but its neat as a pin. You knock on the
Speaker 2: glossy black door again, this time opening and slamming the
Speaker 2: mail slot, and hopes that's louder than your pounding fist. Finally,
Speaker 2: a man opens the door. Because it opens the party,
Speaker 2: noise becomes a little bit clearer, but you can still
Speaker 2: tell that it's coming from one of the lower floors.
Speaker 2: This place has five stories. He's holding a stack of
Speaker 2: what looks like flyers. Ticket, he says in a drawl ticket.
Speaker 2: You respond, yeah, you got a ticket? Uh no, You
Speaker 2: tell him you get one online six quick fifty. He
Speaker 2: hands you a flyer. You pull out your council officer
Speaker 2: ID and tell him that's your ticket. The other officers
Speaker 2: follow suit. You all feel so poor now. The man
Speaker 2: steps aside, and you see people milling about all manner
Speaker 2: of designer duds. This is a commercial endeavor, not a
Speaker 2: private party and a private residence. You're positive this is
Speaker 2: exactly what the neighbors and the council are trying to
Speaker 2: put an end to. You and the other officers head downstairs.
Speaker 2: Following the music, you push through the crowd to get
Speaker 2: to what looks like the main attraction. There's a swimming
Speaker 2: pool the length of a long room. Along one wall
Speaker 2: are a series of alcoves containing conversation pits, low sectionals
Speaker 2: surrounding low coffee tables. The lights are low too, but
Speaker 2: you can see everything, and you can see the pool
Speaker 2: water is a dark amber. That's a lot of pea.
Speaker 2: Surely this is a health code violation. You push past
Speaker 2: a camera crew and you see someone dunk a glass
Speaker 2: into the pool water and take a long sipo. You
Speaker 2: can smell the waves of alcohol coming off the pool.
Speaker 2: That's not pe The pool is filled with cavasia. What
Speaker 2: it's filled with one thousand liters of kooniak. You've seen enough.
Speaker 2: You and the other officers push back out through the
Speaker 2: party and step out into the cool air of Portland Place.
Speaker 2: You have to put a stop to this, so the
Speaker 2: council they got an enforcement notice on Davenport. He was
Speaker 2: found to have breached it in two thousand and six
Speaker 2: and as a result, the High Court judge issued a
Speaker 2: permanent ban on the use of the house for non
Speaker 2: residential purposes. In March of twenty eleven, Davenport asked a
Speaker 2: court of appeal to overturn the ruling, and the next
Speaker 2: month he lost that appeal. Oh so with that in mind,
Speaker 2: let's take a break and listen to the dulcet tones
Speaker 2: of a seemingly endless series of ads. And when we
Speaker 2: come back, I'll let you in on fast Eddie's big
Speaker 2: con right, Yo, Edward ormis sharing to Davenport, Edward Davenport,
Speaker 2: steady Lord d Lord Edward Lord Eddie. He threw parties,
Speaker 2: he cheated the country of Sierra Leona out of their embassy,
Speaker 2: and then he went straight up con classic con. So
Speaker 2: from two thousand and seven to two thousand and nine
Speaker 2: he ran a fake finance company called Gresham Gresham. You
Speaker 2: know there's a legitimate wealth management advisory firm called Gresham Financial.
Speaker 3: I was wondering, like, that's not familiar.
Speaker 2: It sounds good. Well, that's what that was his goal.
Speaker 2: He was going, it's not the same thing. He purposely
Speaker 2: wanted that confusion. So he said that they'd been trading
Speaker 2: since nineteen fifty eight, but it was just a shell
Speaker 2: company that he bought and renamed in two thousand and.
Speaker 3: Five that had been opened in nineteen fifty eight or something.
Speaker 2: Oh, he he pulled that out of you know, all
Speaker 2: sorts of stuff.
Speaker 3: I thought it was one of the things where you
Speaker 3: bought an old company and said we've been doing this
Speaker 3: since nineteen.
Speaker 2: So he pulled it out of his tutor. Yes, so
Speaker 2: they had like fake account information brochures. He put ads
Speaker 2: in the Financial Times and other newspapers to give it
Speaker 2: credibility question and then he he used it using an alias.
Speaker 2: He never put his name.
Speaker 3: Oh once again. Yeah, of course.
Speaker 2: So Gresham said that they would provide financing for projects
Speaker 2: that like traditional banks weren't willing to back mavericks, risk
Speaker 2: takers care for you. Yeah, so if a real bank
Speaker 2: is like you're a little bit shape, come on this way.
Speaker 2: So the investment requests they come rolling in. Davenport and
Speaker 2: his co conspirators, Borge Anderson and Peter Riley. They said,
Speaker 2: we are pledging billions in funds for all these projects.
Speaker 2: Your projects are fantastic unders you deserve all the money.
Speaker 2: So it's they got a bunch of people a million
Speaker 2: for you, ten million for you pledged. Problem is, the
Speaker 2: loans were never advanced because there weren't the billions.
Speaker 3: But they were pledged.
Speaker 2: I made a pledge, I made a solid promise. They
Speaker 2: made their money because here they have no money to
Speaker 2: give out, or are they making money because these people
Speaker 2: are begging for money. They charged the businesses quote unquote
Speaker 2: deposits and fees for quote verification, and fees for a
Speaker 2: loan guarantee, and then another due diligence.
Speaker 3: Cause classic fraud. I want to give you money, but
Speaker 3: I just need to do a.
Speaker 2: Couple of tests. Tens of thousands here, maybe fifty thousands there.
Speaker 2: The businesses, these are victims. They they paid the deposits
Speaker 2: and the advance fees, the due diligences of business, and
Speaker 2: then Davenport and his little minions they kept it all
Speaker 2: with nothing in return. So Gresham, the business is about
Speaker 2: to be exposed. So Davenport closes up shop, starts another
Speaker 2: fake finance company, and this one he calls cutting in company,
Speaker 2: as in what he does right, cutting and running the
Speaker 2: serious fraud off Cutting and SFO like the airport, but
Speaker 2: not an airport serious fraud. Okay, they're like, you know,
Speaker 2: buddies with the flying squad. I almost said the flying then.
Speaker 3: Flying.
Speaker 2: So the SFO they're looking into ten cases of people
Speaker 2: who were offered billions in loans by Gresham, just the
Speaker 2: tip of the iceberg. So it's just we're taking the
Speaker 2: top ten of these. That's a costly tip, the ten biggest.
Speaker 2: These ten were promised loans totaling five hundred million pounds,
Speaker 2: and then Davenport and the co conspirators they promised to
Speaker 2: finance more than fifty commercial loans. A lot of the
Speaker 2: victims went bankrupt. I imagine they had their professional reputations
Speaker 2: absolutely destroyed.
Speaker 3: Totally no jobs. I imagine there were some divorces of
Speaker 3: the some.
Speaker 2: People had full breakdown. Yeah, they ruined lives. Elizabeth Emanuel
Speaker 2: a fifty eight year old fashion designer. She is the
Speaker 2: one who created Princess Die's wedding dress, that big flush.
Speaker 3: I pretend like I know you're.
Speaker 2: Talking at Remember it was like huge ruffles.
Speaker 3: I don't story book. I know that she has she's
Speaker 3: got like the big shoulders. I don't know that princess style.
Speaker 2: She was one of Gresham's victims. Oh no, she needed
Speaker 2: a million pound investment for her company and all she
Speaker 2: had left was five thousand pounds to her name, some total.
Speaker 2: So she puts up sixty five percent of her company
Speaker 2: in exchange for the loan. You know, that's my collateral.
Speaker 2: Gresham was like, but you know what, I need the
Speaker 2: due diligence money on this, and it's going to cost
Speaker 2: you twenty thousand pounds before we can carry out.
Speaker 3: Has five?
Speaker 2: Yeah, she only has five. She had lost the right
Speaker 2: to trade under her own name because she had a
Speaker 2: falling out with her business partner, and so if she
Speaker 2: could get the funding, she could keep the company, keep
Speaker 2: her livelihood, keep the legacy of Diana's wedding dress. So
Speaker 2: she handed over the last five thousand pounds to her name,
Speaker 2: hoping that that would be enough due diligence.
Speaker 3: Money of the twenty thousand he's waiting for uh huh ok.
Speaker 2: So he strings her along. Ye, I'm going to and
Speaker 2: then he pulls out of the deal and he kept
Speaker 2: the five. Oh yeah yeah, But SFO was watching and
Speaker 2: building a case, and he was arrested and.
Speaker 3: Charged with fraud. Oh.
Speaker 2: Prosecutor Simon Mayo said to the court, quote to outward appearances,
Speaker 2: it was long established, wealthy and prestigious. That image, however,
Speaker 2: deliberately cultivated by these defendants, was entirely false. In truth,
Speaker 2: it was a company which had only been set up
Speaker 2: by Edward Davenport in late two thousand and five. It
Speaker 2: was essentially worthless. Its only business was fraud. Davenport was
Speaker 2: Gresham's ring master and guiding light. He avoided, wherever possible,
Speaker 2: dirtying his hands through direct engagement with victims, and even
Speaker 2: resorted to using a false name, James Stewart, to keep
Speaker 2: his real name secret.
Speaker 3: James Stewart doesn't like the King, the bonny King, or
Speaker 3: Jimmy Yeah, or Jimmy Steart. Oh yeah, there's that too.
Speaker 2: So on October fifth, twenty eleven, he's convicted for conspiracy
Speaker 2: to defraud and sentenced to seven years eight months in jail.
Speaker 2: Peter Riley, He's guilty the same charges, same sentence. Borge Anderson,
Speaker 2: He's convicted on conspiracy charges. And so the woman Emmanuel
Speaker 2: the dress.
Speaker 3: Base suggested Diana's dressmaker quote.
Speaker 2: It caused a lot of problems for me in my business,
Speaker 2: not just the money, but keeping me hanging on when
Speaker 2: I could have been looking for other investors.
Speaker 3: Exactly, I was just a little.
Speaker 2: Struggling company, and to drag away my last five thousand
Speaker 2: pounds is only something a very mean and horrible person
Speaker 2: would do. I'm thrilled he has gone down.
Speaker 3: Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker 2: So January eleventh, twenty fourteen, forty seven year old fast
Speaker 2: Eddy gave an interview too.
Speaker 3: Daily Mail.
Speaker 2: There it is from his bed at Saint George's Hospital
Speaker 2: in South London, which, by the way, look at us
Speaker 2: like we have so much serendipity in our weeks lately,
Speaker 2: like compendiums and now British.
Speaker 3: Anyway, that's interesting, so Daily Mail.
Speaker 2: This is what he tells. A Daily Mail quote. I
Speaker 2: was diagnosed with a defective kidney when I was about
Speaker 2: fifteen and had my first transplant about fifteen years ago.
Speaker 2: I never told anyone about it as it didn't really
Speaker 2: fit in with my image. But over the past few
Speaker 2: years it became apparent that the kidney was not working anymore.
Speaker 2: I was in prison and feeling ill. I'd been on
Speaker 2: the NHS donor list for another transplant for ages, and
Speaker 2: then my name came up just before Christmas. I think
Speaker 2: somebody had a tragic accident and lost their life. Before that,
Speaker 2: I was traveling to Saint George's, chained up with three
Speaker 2: prison officers three times a week for dialysis. It was
Speaker 2: an ordeal for them and me.
Speaker 3: Okay, yeah, so he's trying to now get sympathy by
Speaker 3: pretending to be or not pretending, but at least letting
Speaker 3: it be known that he has suffered through something.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I'm really fascinated with him saying that it didn't
Speaker 2: match his image. Yes, that's like, that's a good insight.
Speaker 3: You know in his images. Somebody who would buy one
Speaker 3: of those kidneys that was taken out of someone against
Speaker 3: their will and they were left in a motel tub
Speaker 3: of ice, that's what images.
Speaker 2: But it wouldn't have like the right tag on it.
Speaker 2: Although I love that he's like, I might get it.
Speaker 2: Someone died a tragic accident. So he almost received a
Speaker 2: transplant twice, but the operations were canceled. With these operation
Speaker 2: cancelations and like he had a bad case of pneumonia,
Speaker 2: he had complications involving his liver. He did eventually receive
Speaker 2: another transplant, and then he needed ongoing treatment afterwards. So
Speaker 2: with that in mind, his lawyers asked the court to
Speaker 2: show mercy. They said his medical condition meant that he
Speaker 2: had to serve his time in more punishing conditions than
Speaker 2: he would otherwise have done. So the jig him released
Speaker 2: early and he was freed May of twenty fourteen because
Speaker 2: he has.
Speaker 3: Like immune suppressive drugs for the transplant, Like, what's the
Speaker 3: deal when.
Speaker 2: He gets out. He is far from an invalid who
Speaker 2: wanted to shy away from it.
Speaker 3: His image was fine.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, he got involved in property deals with a
Speaker 2: Chinese business partner. He made it known that he wanted
Speaker 2: to go like buy a film studio.
Speaker 3: And one of his right what his money was.
Speaker 2: The government wanted it.
Speaker 3: I want it for them.
Speaker 2: They kicked off confiscation proceedings those June nineteenth, twenty thirteen.
Speaker 2: He's still locked up when that all started. So, all told,
Speaker 2: through all of his schemes, he made about thirty four
Speaker 2: point five million pounds.
Speaker 3: Oh wow, yeah, it's not about empires.
Speaker 2: So he argued though that through his lawyers, because he's
Speaker 2: in jail, that he should only have to repay eight million.
Speaker 2: What he said, that's all he really got from it,
Speaker 2: and then there's thirty three Portland place. Yes, so the
Speaker 2: government was like, you got that through fraud, we want it.
Speaker 2: By October twenty fifteen, he's out of prison and he's
Speaker 2: fighting the SFO. He said that he had been the
Speaker 2: victim of double counting by them.
Speaker 3: He's a constantly victim of in its.
Speaker 2: Confiscation and compensation order, so they said they had recovered
Speaker 2: more than thirteen million pounds from Davenport. His lawyer said
Speaker 2: that was way too much and went beyond the order.
Speaker 2: He said Davenport got twelve million from fraud but had
Speaker 2: to pay fourteen teen million. So the court eventually sides
Speaker 2: with fast Eddie on that one. Where is he now?
Speaker 3: Where is he now? Elizabeth? Since he's avoided.
Speaker 2: Justice, He's alive. He has a website, the Davenport Trust.
Speaker 2: It is full of photos with him posing with celebrities.
Speaker 3: And have they aged appropriately? Jagger?
Speaker 2: Well, there are not a lot of reasons. Mick Jagger,
Speaker 2: Jean Claude Van Dam, the American Idol host, guy with
Speaker 2: the nipples, Jerry Hall, Harry.
Speaker 3: Potter is one of the Gallagher brothers.
Speaker 2: No deed Avonte, the Osborne Mom, Captain Picard, Michael Caine,
Speaker 2: who looks like he has no idea who this guy is.
Speaker 3: He probably doesn't.
Speaker 2: Someone with big bangs, Ronnie Woods, Naomi Campbell, a blonde
Speaker 2: who looks like Gwyneth Paltrow and the Project Runway Lady,
Speaker 2: but also like neither of them.
Speaker 3: Okay, so the Paltrow yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2: So the pictures they're on a scroll and I was
Speaker 2: just like typing names as they went past. It's a
Speaker 2: fun game. We should try.
Speaker 3: So.
Speaker 2: There's a link to a Vice documentary on his Wesbit
Speaker 2: documentary and it called him the Wolf of the West End.
Speaker 2: He has a link that's too cool for him. He
Speaker 2: has a dead link to the King speech and he
Speaker 2: has like pictures from a Kate Moss photo shoot.
Speaker 3: I you know, like the Underground Rat, Subway Rat.
Speaker 2: Of the I really want to read you his whole biography.
Speaker 2: Please don't it, but I'm just gonna hit you.
Speaker 3: At the opening, Okay, hit me with the highlights.
Speaker 2: Edward Davenport has played host to some of the most
Speaker 2: glamorous and best known faces in the world. A businessman
Speaker 2: renowned for taking chances and living a life full of adventure,
Speaker 2: he is one of Britain's most flamboyant entrepreneurs. A man
Speaker 2: who has earned his own wealth, Davenport enjoys the rewards
Speaker 2: his successes bring, living the high life in London, rubbing
Speaker 2: shoulders with celebrity friends such as David Beckham, Naomi Campbell
Speaker 2: and fifty cent. He has a jet, beautiful homes and
Speaker 2: a election of sports cars which would make any man jealous.
Speaker 2: A regular feature on the social pages and in the
Speaker 2: rich lists of newspapers and magazines, Davenport was recently the
Speaker 2: subject of a profile published by The London Evening Standard,
Speaker 2: which describes him as quote tall, slim and draculine, with
Speaker 2: a penchant for sharp suits and Rolex watches.
Speaker 3: Do you remember Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous with
Speaker 3: Robin Leech? Yeah, remember how he was just like a
Speaker 3: barnacle on the Weltha, Yes, that's what this guy is.
Speaker 3: But the barnacle isn't willing to just sit there. It
Speaker 3: wants to be the boat. I want to be the ship. Yeah.
Speaker 2: This bio is unhinged.
Speaker 3: It's ridiculous.
Speaker 2: And there's no mention of his time in the clink
Speaker 2: or like his kidneys, but definitely.
Speaker 3: Some Naomi Campbell. And he makes sure to David Beckham.
Speaker 2: He's worth more than one hundred million. Yeah, so he
Speaker 2: cheats all these people and he comes out on top.
Speaker 3: Oh yes, and also he's cheating them out of like
Speaker 3: five thousand pounds to get this number million, like he's
Speaker 3: taking like he's not taking down big targets. Huh.
Speaker 2: So thirty three Portland places for sale by the way,
Speaker 2: right now, Yeah, it's listed on Southby's Realty.
Speaker 3: How much is it worth?
Speaker 2: Seventy five million pounds, which for US Yanks is almost
Speaker 2: ninety five million dollars.
Speaker 3: Okay, so it's just out of my price.
Speaker 2: Yeah, well, you know, we'll pull it together. It's been
Speaker 2: renovated once again, and so it's very sleek and modern inside.
Speaker 2: I was going to watch the listing video, of course,
Speaker 2: but I only got a little ways into it and
Speaker 2: then it just I got so pissed off. There you go, there,
Speaker 2: I didn't make it out of like the court room. Yeah, Zaren,
Speaker 2: what's your ridiculous takeaway?
Speaker 3: Oh? Thanks, I was afraid you were gonna ask me that. Yes,
Speaker 3: my ridiculous takeaway is this guy who hosts faces and
Speaker 3: rubs shoulders. How is it this? This always works? Like
Speaker 3: I know he's sitting there telling Daily Mail, like I'm
Speaker 3: I'm basically, you know, conning these people in Asia by
Speaker 3: pretending I know these things, and I position myself. He's
Speaker 3: just giving away the game and it still works. Like
Speaker 3: I wish that the bad magicians didn't get so much applause.
Speaker 3: That's what I'm saying like it's not a good trick
Speaker 3: he's doing.
Speaker 2: There's like a sociopathy to it where it's definitely that yeah,
Speaker 2: absolutely no remorse. He's just like this shark swimming through
Speaker 2: the water. It doesn't like you're saying taking someone's last
Speaker 2: five thousand.
Speaker 3: Doing the old tradition to British exploitation. It's like, yeah, seriously,
Speaker 3: it's like the worst of that.
Speaker 2: Yeah it is, and I I am so.
Speaker 3: Flat.
Speaker 2: I shouldn't be flabbergasted because it's too common. But the
Speaker 2: superficiality of it all that, like he can't let a kidney,
Speaker 2: you know issue taint this like you know, crazy image
Speaker 2: that he has cultivated. And it's just like everything is
Speaker 2: at a surface level.
Speaker 3: You know.
Speaker 2: I've had all these people in my house and I've
Speaker 2: seen their faces.
Speaker 3: It's not like the stars. They've said hi to me.
Speaker 2: These are my close confidence And you can tell from
Speaker 2: the pictures. It's like you're at a party and you
Speaker 2: lean in and like, hey, take a picture.
Speaker 3: It's all surface, and then sex parties and then orgies.
Speaker 3: It's like either like you're in me or you're looking
Speaker 3: at my surface. That's it. It's all surface.
Speaker 2: Oh, that's it. I can't talk about him anymore today.
Speaker 2: He's a horrible person. Kind of fun too, It's gonna be.
Speaker 3: Baby and then all of a sudden.
Speaker 2: My god, humans are terrible.
Speaker 3: You can tell the Prince to put his clothes back
Speaker 3: on and go back to Buckingham Power.
Speaker 2: Take off the hitlar out. You can find us online
Speaker 2: at ridiculous Crime dot com. We are also at Ridiculous
Speaker 2: Crime on both Twitter Instagram. You can email us at
Speaker 2: Ridiculous Crime at gmail dot com. No one will answer you.
Speaker 2: Leave us a talk back at the iHeart. We have
Speaker 2: fired like six interns over the email thing.
Speaker 3: Let go, I mean fire. Do you act like their
Speaker 3: interns don't come back?
Speaker 2: I bake stuff for them and they love it. Well.
Speaker 3: Producer Dave's super cool with them. I'm just the only
Speaker 3: one that's a jerk. I'm like, oh, are you new here?
Speaker 3: They're like, I've been here for a year. I'm like whatever,
Speaker 3: I'll learn your name.
Speaker 4: Your name.
Speaker 2: No one wants to answer the emails. Leave a talk
Speaker 2: back on the heart app.
Speaker 3: Yes, reach out. That's also interesting though, was oli our
Speaker 3: interns being dogs also problem? I mean then they said
Speaker 3: they don't even listen.
Speaker 2: Huge problem. That's it. Oh hey, wait, Dave, do we
Speaker 2: have any topics? Oh my god, I let cheat.
Speaker 4: Hey, guys, love your show. My wife and I want
Speaker 4: to just point out that Elvis had black hair because
Speaker 4: he really liked Captain Adam the Captain Marvel, Sorry, Captain Marvel,
Speaker 4: not Captain Adam. The guy currently known as Shazam, and
Speaker 4: dude really liked his comic books. It's really cute. Actually,
Speaker 4: I don't like the guy, but I think that's kind
Speaker 4: of cute, right, I think it's cute.
Speaker 3: Oh, talk bags.
Speaker 2: Ridiculous Crime is hosted by Elizabeth Dutton and Zaren Burnett,
Speaker 2: produced and edited by Sir David Cousten, third Earl of Flavortown.
Speaker 2: Research is by Marissa Rombelfield Harrowgate Brown and Andrea Fittington
Speaker 2: Kettleston Song Sharpened Hear. The theme song is by Thomas Brongle,
Speaker 2: Sutterton Lee and Travis butter Chief Toxington, Fairywell Dutton. Host
Speaker 2: wardrobe is provided by Botany five hundred. Executive producers are
Speaker 2: Benjamin Gollington, Hammerfield Bowlin and Noel Chamberwell, Chattington Brown.
Speaker 3: Dis QUI Say It One More Time Crime.
Speaker 1: Ridiculous Crime is a production of iHeartRadio, four more podcasts
Speaker 1: My heart Radio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcasts, or
Speaker 1: wherever you listen to your favorite shows.