Edward Davenport (fraudster) - Business

Business

Following the success of the Gatecrasher Balls, Davenport turned his attention to the club industry in 1991. His ventures included joint-ownership with Piers Adam of the SW1 Club (now known as Pacha), and The Conservatory based in Derby. After selling the clubs, he established a high-end pawnbroking business with offices in Bruton Street, Mayfair, to pawn expensive jewellery and luxury cars. After acquiring the manorial title of the village of Gifford in Shropshire, he began to call himself "Lord Edward," though he is not a member of the peerage. He claimed to own 25 buildings in the West End of London worth an estimated £100 million, controlled through a Monaco-based company called the Davenport Trust, as well as property in Monaco and Thailand.

According to Davenport, his business method is "buying leases on loss-making properties, returning them to a profit and then selling them." A BBC investigation reported that tenants would pay their rent to one of Davenport's temporary companies, which would then pay the owner of the building. He was accused by the BBC of increasing tenants' rents at short notice and evicting them if they did not agree to the new terms, but he denied the claims, calling them "very far-fetched." In 2006, his home was raided by police and Department of Trade and Industry investigators looking into his links with two property companies that collapsed owing millions of pounds. He avoided legal action on that occasion, although action was taken against an audit firm.

In 1998, Davenport and two other men were charged after running up an £18,000 bill at the luxury Gleneagles Hotel in Scotland during a five-day New Year party. The three were said to have posed as aristocrats. They denied the charges, which were later dropped, but Davenport failed to turn up in court and claimed that he had suffered kidney failure and could not travel because he was receiving dialysis.