Life’s a beach for Vaz aide who paid for his rent boys
pOSING on the beach, this is the former parliamentary aide who paid Keith Vaz’s rent boys.
Yesterday it emerged Daniel Dragusin, a 31-year-old Romanian, is also linked to the hotel where the Mp got freebie rooms to meet young men.
Mr Vaz faces a string of questions about the role of fixer Mr Dragusin, who was in hiding last night. his involvement in the sex and drugs scandal came to light when it emerged a payment of £150 was made from Mr Dragusin’s bank account to the account of a male escort. There is no suggestion Mr Dragusin was aware the money was for the eastern european prostitute to have sex with the married Mp.
Since arriving in Britain eight years ago, Mr Dragusin has worked as Mr Vaz’s chauffeur and as a parliamentary aide to the Mp’s long-time friend, Lord King of West Bromwich, until Lord King’s death from a heart attack in 2013.
The Romanian was entitled to a parliamentary pass, prompting more questions for Mr Vaz, who was pictured with him on the Commons terrace in 2011.
pictures on social media showed the young aide on holiday – using a distinctive green house of Commons carrier bag as his beach bag – in 2012 in Goa, a region of India where Mr Vaz is revered as a VIp.
Mr Dragusin now lists himself on LinkedIn as working at diabetes charity Silver Star, which was founded by Mr Vaz. The charity says its funds were not used to pay the rent boys, but no one has explained why Mr Dragusin paid them.
In a further twist, the Romanian lives with a woman who works at the Washington Mayfair hotel, where Mr Vaz enjoyed the company of young men. Maria Costache, 32, runs her own cleaning business and in 2013 also became executive and human resources assistant at the hotel, where yesterday the manager said she was not at work. There was no answer at the pair’s rented apartment in harrow, NorthWest London.
An associate said Mr Vaz and the Romanian trusted each other. ‘It was always as if Keith was really looking after Daniel, not a normal employeremployee relationship,’ he told The Times. ‘They seemed to be quite close, put it that way, in the sense that Daniel was doing a lot of work for Keith, and Keith was looking after him.’
From 2008 to 2010, he worked as a chauffeur for express Renta-Car. he later became Mr Vaz’s driver, and was occasionally allowed to borrow a ‘fancy car’, said the associate. ‘he was often driving Keith’s car when he was not on duty. Daniel presents himself quite well and is very helpful.’
Mr Dragusin and Mr Vaz did not respond to requests for comment last night.