If you plan to dine with Desmond, then bring a long spoon

RICHARD Desmond drives a Rolls-Royce with the number plate RCDI. It stands for Richard Clive Desmond One. ‘Because Richard Clive Desmond always has to be number one,’ says someone who used to work closely with him.

Few would doubt that he has achieved his ambition. Desmond, 68, has a fortune estimated at £2billion, travels by private jet and has a mansion in ‘billionaires’ row’ – The Bishops Avenue in north London. It is said a butler used to deliver a banana on a silver tray twice a day to him at his opulent office in the City.

But Desmond’s journey to the top, to be Number One – at least in financial terms – has perhaps earned him more enemies than friends. Might this explain why, at one time, he had his own bodyguard who was also his driver?

Either way, there can’t be many more controversial businessmen in Britain than Richard Desmond, the former porn baron-turned-newspaper magnate-turned-property mogul – an individual who left school at 15 and who, while admirable, inspires fear and loathing in equal measure.

His Northern & Shell empire, now the vehicle for his real estate operation, once included Penthouse and Asian Babes, and X-rated satellite channels such as Red Hot as well as OK! magazine and the Daily Express and Daily Star.

His ‘ porn’ network was sold off in a bid to improve his image and he has given millions to good causes. Yet, much to his annoyance and frustration, his reputation still precedes him.

‘The Tyrant of OK magazine’ was the headline of an article I wrote about him for this newspaper a number of years ago. At times, it was difficult to believe what was being relayed to me by those who had experienced Desmond’s management style. These kind of ‘stories’ resurface whenever Desmond is in the news, as he is today over the so- called ‘cash for favours’ scandal which threatens to bring down Housing Secretary Robert Jenrick.

During one meeting at his London headquarters, I was told how he hurled a chair (a big leather one with two armrests) because a senior executive had upset him.

On another occasion, Desmond – who divorced first wife Janet in 2010 when his second, Joy, was already pregnant – went ballistic when a female executive was late for a meeting.

‘When she walked through in through the door Richard said: “Right, you’re f****** late, get in the cupboard”,’ revealed an employee who was only too happy to talk – off-the-record, of course.

‘The woman told him she was sorry for being a little late but she was not going to carry out his instructions. Richard just wouldn’t give in. There were a number of visitors in the boardroom that morning. They were absolutely stunned. Richard finally ordered the woman out of the boardroom. She resigned shortly afterwards.’

Sometimes verbal confrontations turned physical – such as the time Desmond took a swing at an editor at the Daily Express.

The journalist’s mistake? He had left out a story which subsequently appeared in the Daily Mail. Desmond’s ‘target’ avoided the first blow but ended up being jabbed in the stomach in full view of other members of the editorial staff. The editor felt he had no alternative but to leave and then brought a case for constructive dismissal. The proprietor agreed to settle at the 11th hour.

Few who were there will forget Desmond’s performance in 2004, when he goose- stepped in his boardroom, holding two fingers to his upper lip ‘Basil Fawlty-style’, in a puerile attempt to embarrass his rivals at The Daily Telegraph, who at the time were the subject of interest from a German publisher. ‘I was having a laugh at their misfortunes,’ Desmond, who is Jewish, said later.

The German theme also featured in a spoof edition of OK! on the wall of his boardroom. Snarling out from the front cover was a salivating bulldog under the headline: ‘Over the Ages Britain has Repelled the Invaders.’

Underneath, the text boasted of past victories over Germany in the war and the 1966 World Cup Final and, more pointedly, the Spanish Armada. OK!’s most bitter rival was Spanish-owned Hello!

It might have been a spoof but it encapsulated Desmond’s business philosophy which, to put it bluntly, is to see off the opposition. There are many other examples of his hard-nosed approach.

After staff at his Express newspaper titles went a seventh consecutive year without pay rises, the National Union of Journalists described Desmond as ‘Britain’s greediest billionaire’.

‘Worst human being on Earth,’ was how one industry executive described him before he took over Channel 5 in 2005 (since sold again). In the subsequent bloodbath, seven out of nine directors were culled. Afterwards, his executives were forced to sing The Carpenters’ We’ve Only Just Begun.

Most of all, Desmond’s enemies have seized on a story that (in 1992) he was threatened by the US mafia which was using his adult magazines for an advertising scam without his knowledge. It was claimed in court documents that a senior executive was abducted in New York by gangsters who slashed his face with a knife and ‘applied a Taser-style’ stun gun to his testicles. Desmond dismissed the account as ‘pure fantasy’.

A spokesman said his ‘company had never knowingly had anything other than legitimate dealings with businesses’.

But there is no doubt that such stories, accurate or not, do nothing for his public image. He still loathes the fact he is best known for being the purveyor of topshelf magazines, even though they were sold off in 2004.

Today, Desmond still runs Northern & Shell but it is a vehicle for his property development empire – which is why he is back on the front pages.

The unfolding controversy has embroiled Mr Jenrick, who approved Desmond’s plans for 1,500 flats in Docklands just a fortnight before the billionaire donated £ 12,000 to the Tory

Party. The decision was rushed through to ensure Desmond did not have to pay a community levy of £40million.

Desmond denied any impropriety in an interview with the Sunday Times at the weekend.

He said: ‘All we ever wanted to do, all we want to do, is build firstclass homes in London in a firstclass development where in fact

Joy and I are going to have an apartment. We want to be proud of it. We’ve even, for a p***-take, called it Desmond Boulevard.’

He prefers the narrative of his autobiography, The Real Deal, which he wrote five years ago, to the one portrayed in the papers.

That tells the story of how a Jewish kid from north London – brought up by his mother after his father gambled away their savings – became a billionaire.

‘Yes, he can be a bit ruthless,’ a close friend of Desmond, who also used to work for him, told the Mail. ‘But he has done a lot in his life. I thought he was one of the cleverest people I have ever worked with, certainly on magazines. He was absolutely brilliant. But he can be difficult.’

That, as they say, is an understatement. To adapt an old saying, perhaps Mr Jenrick should have known that if you dine with Mr Desmond, prepare to bring a long spoon.

‘Goose-stepped into the boardroom’ ‘He is brilliant... but he can be difficult’