Cycling’s former golden boy being exposed as a cheat shocked the world. He summed himself perfectly in a comment to Oprah Winfrey in January 2013: “I look at this clip [of himself] and say ‘Look at this arrogant prick.’“ Many call for him to retire into obscurity but sadly that seems unlikely. Instead, the former boyfriend of Sheryl Crow seems to think he can build a media career. Most of us would rather he’d just cycle off.
Tag: liar
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Lance Armstrong
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Why pay less?
Living life to the full Donald G. Abbey style
“Why pay less when you can pay more?” is a mantra that some strangely choose to live by. In my time, I have encountered a couple with a different Ferrari for each day of the week, someone who proudly declared their home had a window for each day of the year and an heiress who insists upon the local baker feeding her dog daily with a freshly baked caviar pie.
When I discovered a house in California priced at $78,000,000, I didn’t expect to subsequently find out that the same vendor is also selling another of his homes in Montana at the very same price. Having done a little research into Donald G. Abbey, the commercial real estate tycoon who owns both The Bradbury Estate and Shelter Island, I discovered that here indeed is another personality whose excess knows no bounds.
I suppose when people sell homes of this worth, the asking price they set is quite irrelevant. “What,” I’m sure they ask, “is $5 million between friends?” Equally, when it comes to developing such properties, characters of this nature do not show any reserve. Bling is most definitely the order of the day and the larger and flashier one can build, I guess, the better.
An aerial shot of The Bradbury Estate, 172 Bliss Canyon Road, Bradbury, California, CA 91008, USA 
The front elevation of the main house 
The owner and his guests need not get wet on arrival in their limousines Abbey’s Bradbury Estate is a case in point. This vast property consists of a 33,000 square foot main house with 7 bedrooms and 10 bathrooms. It is almost entirely made of French limestone and includes a chef’s kitchen with a pizza oven, a 2,000 bottle wine cellar, an oak paneled elevator and a leather paneled poker room. Bedrooms include domes with hand painted frescos and in addition there is a detached 6,700 square foot guest house above a 10 car garage and a 5,700 square foot pool house with a catering kitchen, gym, massage room and a subterranean EPA certified 25 yard rifle shooting range complete with a gun storage room and 2 large safes.
The hall of the main residence comes complete with a gallery and bar 
A vast library provides the perfect space to enjoy a good book 
The library’s glazed ceiling 
Another palatial reception room 
The house features a rather impressive kitchen 
Mr Abbey’s copper bath tub comes complete with a mat displaying his initials in front of it Within the 8 acre grounds there is a cross shaped infinity-edged pool – perhaps Mr Abbey is religious – that is “just a few feet short of Olympic length.” It requires 350,000 gallons of water if it is to be filled to capacity. Adjoining this is something even more ludicrous: a 1,000,000 gallon, temperature-controlled rainbow trout pond that cost some $8,000,000 to construct. The pond is said to be “adorned with perennials,” is heated by a custom gravity separator with UV filters and is “chilled for the trout by a 300-tonne central cooling plant.” At Bradbury, thoughts of water crisis in Sudan and Ethiopia come way behind the needs of Abbey’s rainbows.
The rear of the house viewed from above The Bradbury Estate’s $8,000,000 trout pond 
The estate’s 350,000 gallon near Olympic length cross shaped infinity edged swimming pool 
The property’s EPA certified 25 yard rifle range For those wanting to avoid California’s UV rays, Bradbury also boasts an acre of porches, decks, loggia and walkways. A 600ft blue stone driveway completes this “once in a lifetime trophy property” that “belongs in the portfolio of the most astute collector” and it has space for “60 foot truck access or multiple limousines.”
When Mr Abbey has tired of California, he is able to retreat to his own island in Montana. The 24 acre Shelter Island on Flathead Lake includes 7,000 feet of frontage to the water, a world class sporting clay course and 3 computer controlled tracks and docking systems that allow boats to be landed in the dry dock without riders ever leaving the craft or handling a line. The island is powered via an underground armoured utility cable that carry 12,000 amps to it along with CAT-5 computer cable and phonelines and the main entertaining space features a mammoth television of some 120-inches in size.
An aerial view of Donald G. Abbey’s Shelter Island 
Mr Abbey’s passion for copper continues with a conservatory made out of the metal on the lakeside elevation of the main residence on Shelter Island 
The Great Room of the main residence on Shelter Island 
Mr Abbey’s passion for fine wines is displayed in a bar and tasting room in the property 
The owner and his guests can access their boats without having to go anywhere near the water Abbey has built over 44,000 square foot of accommodation on his island. The main house has 5 bedrooms and 8 bathrooms. His “Great Room” features ceilings of some 45 foot in height and in addition to yet another indoor shooting range, there is a kitchen that woudn’t look out of place in The Savoy hotel.
In the UK, the property most similar to anything Abbey has built has to be Updown Court at Windlesham in Surrey. Developed by a former bricklayer named Leslie Allen-Vercoe, the house was described by him as being: “The most important residence to be built in England since the 19th century.” Architectural critics did not agree and some went as far as to say that it looked like: “A cross between a Tesco superstore and Center Parcs.”
Allen-Vercoe’s behemoth of a house is gargantuan in size. With 103 rooms it includes 24 bedrooms, 5 swimming pools, a 2-lane bowling alley, a squash court, a floodlit tennis court, a 50-seat cinema and a panic room. The heated driveway that led to the house is entirely made of marble and cost some £2.5 million to construct but plainly none of this appealed to the market as it languished for sale at a price of £70,000,000 from 2006 to 2011 before being repossessed by the Irish National Asset Management Agency (NAMA). Updown Court was sold for half the original asking price to a foreign buyer in October 2011 and is, I believe, due to undergo extensive remodeling.
Updown Court, Chertsey Road, Windlesham, Surrey, GU20 6HY, UK Allen Vercoe once stated: “If Elton John were a house, he’d be Updown Court.” Equally, I imagine if Mr Abbey’s residences were to be compared to any celebrities they’d be the vulgar car crash that is Donatella Versace and the ludicrous money obsessed singer with a dollar sign in her name, Ke$ha.
Updown Court, Shelter Island and The Bradbury Estate all illustrate that money cannot buy you good taste. I suppose, though, that those who ultimately come to live in them will have plenty of space to choose how and where to enjoy their own form of misery.
For more information about Donald G. Abbey, go to: http://www.theabbeyco.com
For information on both The Bradbury Estate and Shelter Island, contact Bob Hurwitz of the Hurwitz James Company on +1 310-477-8865. Website: http://www.hurwitzjamesco.com
A website devoted to The Bradbury Estate can be viewed at: http://www.bradburyestate.com
A video of Shelter Island can be watched at: http://vimeo.com/11404637
For more details on Updown Court, go to: http://www.updowncourt.com/
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Hook off
The deportation of Abu Hamza and the story of Hassan Butt
It’s taken far too long but thankfully the day of Abu Hamza al-Masri’s deportation has arrived. This evil one-eyed Egyptian-born Sunni preacher, best known for his hateful views and involvement in terrorism, has been in prison in Britain since 2004 and is now finally to be extradited to America to face terrorism charges.
Abu Hamza al-Masri 
Hassan Butt when he appeared on the American CBS television magazine news show “60 Minutes” My only experience of such people involved meeting a young man named Hassan Butt in 2008. Butt, known in the Muslim community as the Al Qaeda supergrass,” was allegedly a former recruiter for the organisation. I met with him after he wrote an article for the Daily Mail in which he stated:
“My plea to fellow Muslims: you must renounce terror… My pleas to fellow Christians: you must renounce racism.”
These words came from a man, born in 1980, who had previously said of Britain:
“I feel absolutely nothing for this country. I have no problem with the British people… but if someone attacks them, I have no problem with that either.”
These words came from the very mouth of a man who had been a member of the now banned radical Islamist group Al-Muhajiroun. Butt claimed to have taken tea with Mohammad Sidique Khan, the leader of the 7 July bombings, recruited upto 200 people to undergo jihadist training in Pakistan and raised between £7,000 and £9,000 a month towards the “cause.” Here was someone who had concluded that:
“I would agree to being called a radical and one day I may even be called a terrorist, if Allah permits me. That is something it would be an honour to be called.”
On the day Butt’s “Damascene conversion” article was printed I was working with an American billionaire vodka tycoon on his various projects in the UK. The man concerned came to London on a periodic basis and always began his day by scouring his favourite right-wing paper for whatever took his fancy. If there were something or someone he liked the look of in it, he’d yell across the room: “Get ‘em round.” More often than not, when I made the call, such people would turn up as many sought funding for their projects. Few of them ever got whatever they were after as this individual was especially careful with his dollars.
On reading Butt’s article, which I admit I also found well written, the Jewish billionaire was thoroughly impressed. He said: “I like the sound of this guy. Get him round.” At the end of the article was a Gmail address so reluctantly, imagining that no doubt MI5 would begin monitoring my own account, I sent off a message. Within minutes, Mr Butt was on the phone.
Butt told me that he’d be in London in the following days to appear on Newsnight with Jeremy Paxman so I invited him to lunch. On the day in question, an extremely well presented 27-year old appeared in a brand new £50,000 Audi Q7. After he’d parked, I said: “That’s a nice car.” His response: “The BBC have loaned it to me.” I was perplexed and thought this unlikely, but let it go.
I introduced Mr Butt to the vodka tycoon and for the next hour, the Muslim and the Jew chatted about the differences and similarities between their religions and ways of life. The utterly charming Butt wanted the billionaire, who happened to own a publishing house, to pay for and print his autobiography. The aggressive billionaire had another agenda. His vision of how to unite the religions was to produce a leaflet. He ranted: “It’ll begin thus: ‘If I want to worship a tree, I’ll worship a tree’.” An impasse was reached.
Over lunch at Choy’s on the Kings Road, the conversation continued hopelessly in the same vein. When it was over and as Butt drove away in the Q7, all I could think of was that the security services would most probably now begin monitoring our business activities.
That night, Butt appeared on Newsnight and beat off all of Jeremy Paxman’s attacks. I suppose all who recruit for terror organisations are probably charm personified but Butt most definitely showed his utter brilliance of mind when put up against the media’s finest.
Butt’s strategy worked as he was subsequently invited by the then Minister of State for Security, Counter-terrorism, Crime and Policing, Tony McNulty, to advise them on how to stop young Muslims being “radicalised.” Butt, whom a government source described as having “understood the terrorist mindset perfectly,” had managed to get to the heart of the British government.
The next move of this man, who was arrested but released without charge on five counter-terrorism charges between 2002 and 2008, was to claim that Greater Manchester Police were harassing him. Many of his allegations, though, were illustrated to be pure fantasy in the transcripts of interviews held with them:
“I actually arranged myself to be stabbed in the shoulder, sorry in my arm and in my back because I knew if I said I had been attacked Shiv ([Malik] a freelance journalist and co-author of Butt’s autobiography, Leaving Al Qaeda: Inside The Life And Mind of A British Jihadist) was going to ask for some proof so basically I stabbed myself… you know it was just part of the whole scam.”
I do not know what has become of Butt now but the last reports of him I have been able to find were published in the Daily Mail in July 2009. Here, the paper reports that he “hurled an onslaught of race abuse at police” during an argument over where his Audi Q7 was parked. How odd that that vehicle, supposedly loaned by the BBC, had surfaced again but equally strange was that this educated man was accused of shouting such things as: “Do you like feeling Pakis up?” and calling police “Gestapo,” “bald dogs” and “members of the BNP.” This portrayal was most certainly at odds with the Butt that I met, but plainly he was the Jekyll and Hyde of Al Qaeda.
Whilst my encounter with the pseudo-terrorist Butt was almost certainly with a young man of fantasist tendencies, Abu Hamza truly is a preacher of hate and a force for evil. This hook-armed “terrorist facilitator with a global reach” claimed tens of thousands in benefits in Britain yet also incited others to blow up our citizens. He solicited murder and stirred up racial hatred yet happily ran up legal costs at this nation’s expense. As such, Abu Hamza’s downfall is very much welcomed and his deportation from the British Isles will be celebrated not just by Her Majesty the Queen but indeed by the whole nation.
Watch a Channel 4 News video clip featuring Hassan Butt at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_t3uw2nZ7kY
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Video of the Week: Sorry is the hardest word to say
The spoof of Nick Clegg apologising hits the iTunes charts
“I’d like to take this opportunity to put things straight,” began the Deputy Prime Minister, Nick Clegg, this week when he attempted to say sorry for breaking his party’s election pledge on tuition fees.
Such a stunt was inevitably going to be controversial and equally opened Clegg to taunts from his opponents and the public in general. I am sure, however, the Liberal Democrat leader did not expect that an adapted version of his speech would enter the Top 40 hits of the week in the iTunes charts or that he’d find himself challenging the likes of Kanye West, The Killers and Carly Rae Jepsen for the top spot.
Nick Clegg: Britain’s next popstar? “The Nick Clegg Apology Song: I’m Sorry (The Autotune Remix)” hits the iTunes charts Turned into a ditty little song named: “The Nick Clegg Apology Song: I’m Sorry (The Autotune Remix)” by parody site The Poke, Clegg cleverly realized the political capital in embracing the two-and-a-half minute video and gave permission for it to be released. He did so on the basis that all profits go to the Sheffield Children’s NHS Foundation Trust, of which his wife Miriam is a patron, and now appears to be benefitting from the publicity during the key time of his party’s annual conference.
A spokesman for The Poke commented:
“Nick Clegg has been very good-humoured about this. He has become the first politician in history to achieve a position in the pop charts for making an apology. The Poke is staggered by its success.”
A spokesman for Mr Clegg added: ’It’s good news that the Sheffield Children’s Hospital will be the ones to benefit from the song getting into the charts.”
Whilst Clegg’s days at Number 10 may hopefully be numbered, perhaps a career in the pop business beckons. For that reason, we make it The Steeple Times Video of the Week.
Watch the full video at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KUDjRZ30SNo&feature=player_embedded
Read The Poke, whose motto is “Time well wasted,” at: http://www.thepoke.co.uk
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Assange's asylum
Matthew Steeples gives his view on Julian Assange’s having been granted asylum by Ecuador
I spent much of the day yesterday watching the Occupy News Network live video stream from outside the Ecuadorian Embassy in London.
For those who don’t know it, the Occupy News Network is the news source of the Occupy protestors who began “occupying” parks, financial districts and public squares throughout the world from 15th October 2011. With an aim of keeping their audience “abreast of developments in the global revolution,” the channel focuses on “expos[ing] police brutality and abuse of the law.” I was fascinated, amused and equally horrified by what I saw and I quickly became engrossed.
Police and protestors outside the Ecuadorian Embassy in London, 3 Hans Crescent, London, SW1X 0LS With a man named Pedro both behind the camera and conducting interviews, viewers of the live stream were exposed to the thoughts of the Assange fanatics stood outside the building in Knightsbridge where he is holed up. Here, in the lead up to the statement that Julian Assange would be granted asylum by Ecuador, the audience heard interviews with supporters, police and bystanders. Most, to be honest, talked utter junk and illustrated the paranoia and stupidity of their positions.
The first I saw compared the prospect of police storming the embassy to the “invasion of Iraq” before laughing as he announced that hackers had crashed the Met Police website. “We should give them [the hackers] an Olympic medal,” he added.
The next, a young girl of no more than 20, described my least favourite politician, Theresa May, as “The Witch of Downing Street” and then announced that the police “like to scare young girls… They like to give you a good shove.” A smartly dressed American man spoke of his Orwellian terror when he stated:
“I worry about my visa status. I am afraid of what might happen to me in both Britain and the USA. I might lose my job for being here. We’re starting to become worse than Russia.”
The first moment of amusement came when a pizza delivery man arrived. He was filmed being turned away by the police at the door of the embassy. Subsequently, he came on camera and was asked who the pizza had been meant for. “Someone called Julian,” he answered. “Don’t you know who he is?” Pedro asked. “No,” he answered in bemusement before wandering off. Taxis and another pizza delivery for “Julian” followed and all these innocent workers left rightly angry at the prank that one of the protestors was trying to use as a way to aggravate the police. The police showed sense and correctly did not react.
The next arrived when Pedro decided to interview a pair of bystanders from Yorkshire. He asked: “Is that near the sea?” before seeking their view on Mr Assange’s “plight.” They answered simply: “Who is he? Sounds like a load of old nonsense to us.” They didn’t have a clue who the Wikileaks founder even was and plainly had no interest in his case.
Masked protestors unveiled Commentary continued in the same vein and as the police repeatedly asked the film crew to step away from the highway they were obstructing, several arrests occurred. These and the police’s refusal to engage with them set a rather loud Brummie woman off into a gargantuan rant where she announced: “We should throw rocks at them when they [the police] storm the embassy.” Others, mostly masked, described President Obama and even their formerly beloved Guardian as “terrorists.” Assange, himself, was termed a “radical Ron Paul.” If these people are representative of Assange’s supporters, the likes of Sarah Saunders, Vaughn Smith and Jemima Khan would do well to distance themselves from him and this ragbag of nutjobs.
I pass the Ecuadorian Embassy several times each week and during Assange’s occupation, on many days there have been more police than supporters present. Sometimes there wasn’t even one person outside. This was indicative of the lack of support, but yesterday, on an occasion when a major announcement about their flawed superhero was due, the Occupy News Network were reduced to desperately stating:
“We need more numbers here. We really need some more people down here. We’re in Knightsbridge. We’re just near the Harrods tube exit. If you are in London, come now. We need you now.”
As the 1pm announcement approached, from what I observed, there were still more police and bystanders than supporters present.
When the announcement came that asylum had indeed been granted, I decided enough was enough and turned the Occupy News Network off. I later listened to William Hague’s wise statement about the situation and found myself in total agreement:
“We will not allow Mr Assange safe passage out of the UK… We must carry out our obligation to extradite him to Sweden… This asylum is groundless as he is avoiding the legal processes of Sweden and Britain… This is is not about Wikileaks of the United States of America.”
Frankly, Julian Assange belongs in the asylum rather than being deserving of being granted such. Assange breached his bail and is, under Section 7 of the Bail Act 1976, eligible for arrest for that if nothing else. If he is subsequently sent to Sweden and charged, he should let justice take its course. He ought to realise that his innocence or guilt will be decided by the courts of a perfectly civilised liberal nation and that he has as fair a chance as the next man.
Mr Assange: you’ve made your point and you are not, as one of your supporters suggested, a “freedom fighter.” You are, instead, just a blabbing bail jumper who stands accused of rape. You have cost British taxpayers and your very own supporters hundreds of thousands of pounds and Ecuador will lose their standing in the world by harbouring you. To be totally honest, though, you should realise that the majority of us are bored of you and your “I’m above the law” attitude.
Please, Mr Assange, end this tedious charade, do the decent thing, proudly walk out of the front door of the Ecuadorian Embassy and hand yourself in. If you truly are an innocent man, we’ll all respect you a hell of a lot more.
For more information on the Occupy News Network, go to: http://occupynewsnetwork.co.uk/ and to view their news stream, go to: http://www.ustream.tv/user/occupynewsnetwork
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Tom McLoughlin: “What’s on your mantelpiece?”
The Steeple Times asks private aviation entrepreneur Tom McLoughlin: “What’s on your mantelpiece?”
7th January 2013: When we published this interview on 16th August 2012, we were unaware of the real identity of Thomas McLoughlin. He told us he was an ambassador for American Express and all manner of other tales. Our readers responded in their droves and he has now been identified for what he truly is. His answers will remain here as illustration of his persona. The man is an obnoxious fake. If you spot him, contact Chelsea police station as they are very interested in his activities.
Update 13th February 2013: Thomas McLoughlin pleaded guilty to two charges on 28th January 2013 and is due to appear again at Isleworth Crown Court on 11th March 2013. Readers may wish to attend to witness his departure. It’s almost certain they’ll be waving him on his merry way to a Serco prison truck rather than to a Learjet or a Mercedes AMG.
Update 12th April 2013: After having his sentencing delayed for health reasons, Mr McLoughlin is back in court again this morning. We await news with baited breath.
Update 17th May 2013: Mr McLoughlin’s sentencing has been delayed until 12th June whilst the courts await medical evidence.
The Steeple Times shares “wit and wisdom.” What’s your guiding force?
My belief in God and my own God.
“Don’t get even, get medieval” is, in our humble opinion, a great motto. What’s yours?
“Don’t get mad, get even.”
Kerry Katona was considered unacceptable in 2007. Who or what is unacceptable in 2012?
Tony Blair trying to resurrect his political career.
Tony Blair misses being Prime Minister. What do you miss most in your life?
A golf course when I can’t get to one.
What might you swap all your wealth for?
To live out my life on a desert with a certain Italian actress.
Donald Trump was once a case of: “If you owe the bank a thousand, they close you down; but if you owe the bank a billion, you own the bank.” What’s your view on the banking crisis?
Everyone knows that the City has been full of crooks for years. Unfortunately most of them are American now.
What phrase or word do you most loathe?
“Actually.”
In the UK, some people consider charity to “begin at home.” What’s your view and what causes do you personally support?
Children’s causes here and around the world. Adults can take care of themselves.
The judge in “Law Abiding Citizen” states: “I can pretty much do whatever I want” before being blown up whilst answering her mobile phone. What’s your view on the appropriate use of such devices?
I wish I could position my mobile phone to assassinate some political leaders in the world.
Tom McLoughlin pictured with Dovile Mazeikaite at No. 11 Cadogan Gardens, London, SW3. © Matthew Steeples, 2012. If you could fill a carriage on The Orient Express, who would be your fellow passengers?
All my ex-business enemies with one or two assassins. Several girlfriends would accompany. The ex-business enemies would be disposed of at the first stop.
If you were unfortunate enough to end up on death row, what would be your last meal and where would you eat it?
My last meal would be Welsh lamb at No. 11 Cadogan Gardens.
What time is it acceptable to consume the first drink of the day?
Champagne at breakfast but nothing else before midday.
A Negroni, a martini or a cup of tea?
A martini with Stelios. I leased him his first five jets for EasyJet in 1994 and then he didn’t need me anymore.
Whose parties do you enjoy the most and why?
The after-party at the New Year’s Day concert in Vienna that I go to annually.
Who is the most positive person you know?
My daughter, Alexandra, aged 14.
What’s your most guilty pleasure?
A bottle of white Burgundy and a punt on Betfair.
If a tattoo were to sum you up, what would it be of?
It would be a butterfly on the arse of a girlfriend.
If you were a car, what marquee would you be?
My car, a Mercedes CL63 AMG.
Cilla Black presented “Surprise, Surprise.” Tell us the most surprising thing about you.
As a private jet captain, I flew 3 plates of Nobu sushi to Baku, Azerbaijan. The sushi cost £2,000 and the flight £78,000.
What’s currently sitting on your mantelpiece?
Photographs of ex-girlfriends.
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Julian Assange: a man who thinks he’s above the law
A visit to those supporting Julian Assange outside the Ecuadorean Embassy
Yesterday, as I walked to The Rib Room at the Jumeirah Carlton Tower with Alexandra Naylor, I came across a media camp opposite the Ecuadorean Embassy in Hans Crescent, Knightsbridge.
Ben Griffin and other Assange supporters On the other side of the road, directly next to the embassy, were four protestors and as neither of us knew what they were doing there, we decided to engage them in conversation. It turned out that these perfectly polite, yet somewhat misguided individuals were there to support Julian Assange, who is supposedly holed up inside.
The Wikileaks founder, who faces accusations of sex assaults made by two Swedish women in August 2010, we were told, breached his bail conditions and arrived at the embassy on Tuesday evening. It is believed he has remained there since and Ben Griffin, one of his supporters, told us:
“Julian is at risk of assassination if he is extradited to America via Sweden. American politicians have publicly said they want him dead.”
The media scrum opposite the Ecuadorean Embassy in London, 3 Hans Crescent, London, SW1X 0LS 
A selection of placards supporting Assange This, I’d suggest, is utter nonsense and further conversation with two Ecuadoreans revealed a similar misguided attitude to this case. Equally odd, I later learnt, is that Assange’s high-profile backers are now backtracking somewhat in their attitude to this cause célèbre. Jemima Khan, who provided £20,000 to Assange’s bail fund, commented:
“I expected him to face the allegations. I am as surprised as anyone by this.”
Mr Assange, a former computer hacker, should face justice just like anyone else. Sweden is a perfectly civilised country and if indeed he is innocent, he should stand and be counted. He should jolly well stop wasting police time and he should jolly well realise that he is not above the law.
For more information about the Ecuadorian Embassy in London, go to: http://ecuador.embassyhomepage.com
For more information about the campaign to free Julian Assange, go to: http://freeassange.org
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Edward Putman
This convicted rapist and burglar from St Albans won a £4.5 million National Lottery jackpot in 2009. He carried on claiming benefits until he was caught but now claims he’ll pay back what he owes. Put him in the stocks. -
Christian Gerhartsreiter (main alias Clark Rockefeller)
A German who used many aliases but whose biggest pretence was to give the impression he was a member of the Rockefeller family. The Man in the Rockefeller Suit gives the best account of his exploits but it is for the 2009 parental kidnapping of his child, Reigh Storrow “Snooks” Mills Boss, by a Harvard graduate named Sandra Boss that he is best known. Jailed for four to five years after being convicted for kidnap, he was subsequently also charged with the 1985 murder of a Californian man named Jonathan Sohus. Whilst this fantasist of the first order rots in the clink, his former wife has built a new life in Knightsbridge, London. -
Leslie "Les" Allen-Vercoe (also known as Les Vercoe)
This property developer tried to sell Britain’s ugliest crib, Updown Court at Windlesham in Surrey, for £70 million in 2008. It languished on the market for years and looked like a cross between a Tesco store and Center Parcs. The mansion included five swimming pools, a heated marble driveway and 103 rooms. Nobody loved it but after it was repossessed in 2011, it was finally sold on for £35 million. Meanwhile, Allen-Vercoe appeared in the dock at Southwark Crown Court in 2012 in relation to a case involving the £10 million mortgage fraudster Joanne Sarah Pier (also known as Zoe May Fletcher and Maria Micheala). He was cleared.