Crime Correspondent: 'Fast Eddie'

Self-styled ‘Lord’ Davenport - known as 'Fast Eddie' - masterminded an ‘advanced fee fraud’ scheme that ripped off scores of businesses.

<p style="outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-size: 10px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; padding: 0px; margin: 0px; border: 0px initial initial;"> <p style="outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-size: 10px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; padding: 0px; margin: 0px; border: 0px initial initial;">Davenport set up Gresham Ltd in 2005 and pretended it was a respectable business with 50 years of sourcing huge commercial loans. He charged companies advance fees for loans of up to £157million but the money never materialised.<p style="outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-size: 10px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; padding: 0px; margin: 0px; border: 0px initial initial;">The scam conned at least 51 victims and from 2007 to 2009 Gresham Ltd received more than £4.5million from unsuspecting clients, the court heard.<p style="outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-size: 10px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; padding: 0px; margin: 0px; border: 0px initial initial;">‘To outward appearances it was long-established, wealthy and prestigious,’ said <a class="entity" href="http://www.metro.co.uk/explore/people/mayo_simon" style="font-size: 10px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; text-decoration: none; cursor: pointer; outline-style: none; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; padding: 0px; margin: 0px;">Simon Mayo</a> QC, for the prosecution. ‘It was essentially worthless. Its only business was fraud.’<div class="img-cnt figure" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-left: auto; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-size: 10px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; min-height: 1px; zoom: 1; clear: both; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; padding: 0px; border: 0px initial initial;"><img alt="Edward Davenport and Tamara Beckwith" height="488" src="http://img.metro.co.uk/i/pix/2011/10/06/article-1317887059430-0E3DA13B00000578-86093_466x488.jpg" style="outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-size: 10px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; padding: 0px; margin: 0px; border: 0px initial initial;" width="466" /><span class="img-cap legend" style="padding-top: 4px; padding-right: 6px; padding-bottom: 4px; padding-left: 6px; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: black; color: white; display: block; margin: 0px; border: 0px initial initial;">The businessman had many high-profile friends including socialite Tamara Beckwith (right) (Picture: Rex Features)</div><p style="outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-size: 10px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; padding: 0px; margin: 0px; border: 0px initial initial;">Davenport owns Sierra Leone’s former high commission at Portland Place, London, used in The King’s Speech – and a gay porn film.<p style="outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-size: 10px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; padding: 0px; margin: 0px; border: 0px initial initial;">The 45-year-old is pictured on his website with celebrities including Cowell and Hugh Grant, Knightley, Beckham and Mick Jagger.<p style="outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-size: 10px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; padding: 0px; margin: 0px; border: 0px initial initial;">He boasted of 'beautiful homes and a collection of sports cars which would make any man jealous including a Ferrari 360 Spider, an Aston Martin Virage Volante, a Rolls-Royce Phantom and a Lamborghini'. <p style="outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-size: 10px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; padding: 0px; margin: 0px; border: 0px initial initial;">Davenport was banned last year from using his home for activities including a ‘porn disco’, sex party and pole-dancing lessons. <p style="outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-size: 10px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; padding: 0px; margin: 0px; border: 0px initial initial;">He was jailed last month for seven years and eight months with accomplice Peter Riley, 64, of Brentwood, Essex. They were convicted of conspiracy to defraud. Borge Andersen, 66, of South Kensington, got 39 months for the crime.<div class="img-cnt figure" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-left: auto; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-size: 10px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; min-height: 1px; zoom: 1; clear: both; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; padding: 0px; border: 0px initial initial;"><img alt="Elizabeth Emanuel" height="442" src="http://img.metro.co.uk/i/pix/2011/10/06/article-1317887542846-0E3E425600000578-408217_466x442.jpg" style="outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-size: 10px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; padding: 0px; margin: 0px; border: 0px initial initial;" width="466" /><span class="img-cap legend" style="padding-top: 4px; padding-right: 6px; padding-bottom: 4px; padding-left: 6px; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: black; color: white; display: block; margin: 0px; border: 0px initial initial;">Con victim: Royal dress designer Elizabeth Emanuel was among those who paid money to Davenport (Picture: PA)</div><p style="outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-size: 10px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; padding: 0px; margin: 0px; border: 0px initial initial;">According to Gresham Ltd accounts, Andersen received £159,564 from the fraud, Riley £695,407 and Davenport £773,000. A total of £349,025 vanished, the court heard.<p style="outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-size: 10px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; padding: 0px; margin: 0px; border: 0px initial initial;">The convictions at Southwark crown court can be revealed because a reporting order was lifted yesterday.<p style="outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-size: 10px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; padding: 0px; margin: 0px; border: 0px initial initial;">Princess Diana's wedding dress designer Elizabeth Emanuel - who had been one of Davenport's victims - welcomed his sentence.<p style="outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-size: 10px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; padding: 0px; margin: 0px; border: 0px initial initial;">The 58-year-old turned to him in 2008 in the hope of raising £1m for her business, Art Of Being, and was asked to pay £20,000 - later reduced to £5,000 - for his company to complete due diligence.<p style="outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-size: 10px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; padding: 0px; margin: 0px; border: 0px initial initial;">'I think justice has been served,' she said.<p style="outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-size: 10px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; padding: 0px; margin: 0px; border: 0px initial initial;">'The amount I lost was nothing compared to everybody else but he was happy to take my £5,000. It sums up the sort of person he is.'<span style="outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-size: 10px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; padding: 0px; margin: 0px; border: 0px initial initial;">

Self-styled ‘Lord’ Davenport - known as 'Fast Eddie' - masterminded an ‘advanced fee fraud’ scheme that ripped off scores of businesses.

Davenport set up Gresham Ltd in 2005 and pretended it was a respectable business with 50 years of sourcing huge commercial loans. He charg...