Back on the party scene: £4.5million fraud ‘Lord’
FrAUDSTEr ‘Lord’ Edward Davenport is clearly back in favour with his high society pals.
The flamboyant self- styled aristocrat was pictured at a party with Freddie Fox, of the celebrated acting dynasty that includes his father Edward and cousin Laurence, Billie Piper’s ex-husband.
‘You are invited to join us for a fancy dress birthday soiree into the world of hedonistic Barbie & Ken,’ read the invitation to the bash in Marylebone hosted by Davenport’s old friend Emma Sayle, who was in a rowing club with Kate Middleton.
Latterly, she is known as the founder of Killing Kittens, the sex party organisers.
Davenport, pictured right in his Eighties heyday, and Sayle used to host bashes at his £30 million mansion, 33 Portland Place, before it was sold to pay his £14 million legal bills.
Davenport, who made his name running the Gatecrasher Balls for public school teens, was given an eight- year prison sentence in September 2011 for a £ 4.5 million fraud. He was released from Wandsworth Prison after just three years after falling ill following a kidney transplant.
He was spotted out on the town just one
month after his discharge, seeming to enjoy something of a miraculous recovery. Just as miraculous appears to have been his social rehabilitation. There were at least 51 victims of his advance fee scam, including one who paid Davenport £285,000 to arrange a loan of more than £150 million — which never materialised.
Among those conned was Princess Diana’s wedding dress designer Elizabeth Emanuel.
After the judge released him as an ‘act of mercy’, he returned home to his 24-bedroom Georgian mansion in the West End, which was used as a location for the Oscar-winning film The King’s Speech and was the venue for Boy George’s 40th birthday.
After putting it on the market, the property was snapped up by British owners, who are turning the hedonistic palace back into a family home.
Upon completion, the house is anticipated to be worth up to £70 million.