The company organised parties for teenagers at country houses such as Longleat and Weston Park,[14] which were attended by up to 10,000 party-goers at any one time and at the height of their success were generating £1,000,000 a year.

[15] The idea behind the balls was to enable wealthy teenagers at single-sex boarding schools to meet the opposite sex and drink large amounts of alcohol.

The balls gained a reputation for debauchery, with one newspaper calling them the scene of "Unbridled lust among upper-class Lolitas and public school Lotharios.

"[16] The balls ceased to be held after an HM Customs & Excise audit found that Davenport had substantially underpaid his Value Added Tax bill.

[8] Davenport was found to have understated his tax returns by £24,672 by falsely claiming that only £3.50 of the £14 entry fees for the Gatecrasher Balls was liable for VAT; the remaining £10.50 was supposedly for raffle tickets, a magazine subscription and postage.

[14] After selling the clubs, he established a high-end pawnbroking business with offices in Bruton Street, Mayfair, to pawn expensive jewellery and luxury cars.

[8] He claimed to own 25 buildings in the West End of London worth an estimated £100 million,[8][18] controlled through a Monaco-based company called the Davenport Trust, as well as property in Monaco and Thailand.

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.

"[8] 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.

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.

[3] In 1996, Davenport was introduced to Professor Cyril Foray, the former Foreign Minister and High Commissioner of Sierra Leone, during that country's civil war.

[citation needed] Davenport entered into negotiations with the Sierra Leone government in order to refurbish the country's London embassy, 33 Portland Place, built in 1775 by Robert Adam and valued at £5 million.

In July 2006 Westminster City Council issued an enforcement order directing Davenport to cease using the property for "commercial and non-residential purposes" but this was essentially ignored and unauthorised use continued.

[25] Davenport has also hired out the building for high-profile events, including exhibitions, films and photography shoots for figures such as Kate Moss, Johnny Depp and Helena Bonham Carter.

[24] In July 2010, following a party at 33 Portland Place, Westminster City Council brought a legal action against Davenport charging him with breaching a noise abatement order.

[12] Later that month Westminster City Council brought an action at the High Court charging that Davenport's use of the property breached planning permission.

[28] Davenport was found to have breached the 2006 enforcement notice and a High Court judge issued a permanent ban on the use of the house for non-residential purposes.

Two months later, at the start of December 2009, SFO investigators and police raided 19 commercial and residential properties in London, Surrey, Cheshire and Derbyshire and arrested six people.

The property, an office building at 80 Paul Street in the City of London, was said to have been sold for £700,000 more than its market value due to a false claim made about a lease supposedly guaranteed by Gresham Ltd.

[36] Also accused were David McHugh, an accountant; David Horsfall, Davenport's solicitor, Peter Riley, a Gresham director; Richard Kirkup (also known as Richard Stephens), who had been convicted in 2004 of a previous advance fee fraud;[3] and Borge Andersen, Davenport and Riley were remanded in custody to Wandsworth Prison while the others were released either on bail or without charges.

[36] In June 2011, the SFO brought 11 cases against Davenport in Southwark Crown Court, though prosecutors said that these represented only a fraction of the true scale of the fraud, as there were at least 51 victims in the UK, Austria and India.

[32] Davenport was found to be the "ringmaster and guiding mind" behind the fraud,[3] while Riley was described as "an accomplished conman" and a skilful liar who "strung along borrowers on a huge scale with bare-faced lies".

[37] However, SFO investigators are reported to have found that Davenport has few assets in his name and went to great lengths to distance himself from the fraud; Judge Testar commented, "He did not leave very many footprints in the snow himself.

[32] Sentencing Davenport, Riley and Andersen, Judge Peter Testar said: "This was a professional, sophisticated fraud which had a grave impact on its victims, decent honest people.

"[38] The Director of the Serious Fraud Office, Richard Alderman, hailed the convictions as a major success for the SFO and commented: "This was a proactive investigation that stopped a sophisticated criminal enterprise in its tracks.