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£43,000 drinks bill for banker clearly not feeling the crunch
Anna Davis20 Feb 2009
A city banker stunned staff at a Soho club by running up a bar bill of more than £40,000 in a single night.
The wealthy financier defied the credit crunch by ordering the mammoth amount of drinks at a post-Brits party at Maya in Dean Street.
The banker, who did not wish to be named, shared the drinks with four friends and other partygoers in the club's VIP area on Wednesday night.
After spending more than £37,000 on champagne and vodka, the man left a £5,000 tip for the waitress.
In less than three hours the group got through two methuselahs of Dom Perignon, which each hold the equivalent of eight bottles, at a cost of £9,000 each.
They also drank two jeroboams - the equivalent of four bottles each - of Cristal and three magnums, equivalent to two bottles, of Cristal Rosé. The bar bill also included five regular bottles of champagne at £350 each and £3,000 worth of Belvedere vodka. A spokesman for Maya said: "Maya gets a lot of big spenders, but this is a biggie.
"The recession is hitting people hard, but it didn't seem to bother this man.
"He is a regular in Maya and is a member, and he brought along four friends.
"But he ended up sharing all the drinks with a lot of other people in the VIP area.
"The champagne bottles were coming out with sparklers in them and lots of people approached them to see what was going on and were offered a glass.
"They racked up the bill in about two and a half hours."
Maya opened in September 2007.
Lady Gaga, Sienna Miller and actor Rhys Ifans have all partied at the club, whose DJs specialise in funky house and electro music.
Henry Conway, the socialite son of MP Derek Conway, runs parties and organises the guest list on Fridays.
Reader views (30)
Foreign exchange markets only work because traders can sell currencies they don't own and then buy them back moments later.
Give or take a few hundred billion pounds, the equivalent sterling amount traded in a day on the world's foreign currency exchanges equals the total UK GNP in a year.
Like professional football, currency trading is a very short career but the best get very highly paid ... and rightly so in both cases.
Sanctions exist: if traders make huge losses by risking too much and breaking the bank's rules they'll break the bank itself in days, lose their jobs and could end in jail for 10 years like Nick Leeson did when he broke Baring's.
Windfall taxes would drive ALL currency traders out of the UK, with huge consequences, not least for the Treasury.
If they stay in London they pay half their well-earned winnings to the Treasury within weeks in income tax, hence reducing the banks' net borrowing from the government.
Which is what the general public wants, isn't it?
- Max Jones, Leeds, England, 08/12/2009 12:19
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Go boy, you're doing us proud...spend, spend, spend ! Hope you got lucky too...I suspect not but nevertheless good show !
- Nishan, South Kensington, 08/12/2009 11:19
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If he has the money to spend then so what.Enjoy it now as tomorrow it may have gone.
- Mike, London England, 08/12/2009 11:19
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It wasn't £43,000 it was only £41,750 with Vat! My friends and I had the worst hangovers the next morning as well.....
- Anon, London, 08/12/2009 11:19
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If this man did not pay the bill from his own pocket,as it would seem to be the case, then he can be considered as reprehensible as a "social abuser".
Whose money did he squander at the bar for his and friends' personal pleasure?...just to get drunk?
May be some of it is money the/his bank saves,in these austeity times, from laying-off employees who have families to feed and children to educate?...
Shameful and unethical to any standards.
- Nino, Montreal, Canada, 08/12/2009 11:19
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Doesnt make him a bad pesron. Jelousy is everyone elses problem.
- Keith Price, Luton, England, 08/12/2009 11:19
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Clearly a very generous man. May a say a big THANK YOU on behalf of the waitress! He probably changed her life with that tip. As for all those criticising, he worked hard for his money and is entitled to spend it any way he likes.
- Kataobi, London, UK, 08/12/2009 11:19
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"It would be nice if this man could find it in his heart to donate some of his wealth to deserving charities and when he leaves the planet, he cant take it with him.
- Awesome Geronimo, Leeds UK"
And you know he does not...how?
Oh, and David, Ljubljana, that money not being spent would not have made a jot of difference to those that get by on just $1 per day...but it does help those people, such as the staff, suppliers, etc that have to get by on far more than $1 per day just to exist in places like London. To try to compare (for emotive effect?) lacks a mark of personal maturity.
- Escobar A-Lop-Lop, Camden County, 08/12/2009 11:19
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Doubtless the report will be a great comfort to the owners of the 40,000 houses that have been repossessed by the banks this year and help soften any distress at losing their homes they might otherwise have experienced.
- Ned Kelly, Nottingham, 08/12/2009 11:19
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Bank staff are under strict instructions to book hospitality in their own names and not in that of the bank in an attempt stop just this type of publicity, anyone who thinks junket is a thing of the past in the city really is very deluded.
- Les, London, 08/12/2009 11:19
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Good man, helping keep the wine producers, vintners, bar owners and serving staff employed, not to mention the big slice to the exchequer.
- Paul, London, 08/12/2009 11:19
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no wonder there is a banking crisis if bankers spend what must surely be more than the adverage person earns in a year on alcohol in such a short space of time. there must have been some very sore heads the next day. perhaps the money could of been given to a homeless charity who have headaches of their own
- Owen Mulhall, london uk, 08/12/2009 11:19
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A fool and his money are soon parted. One more reason why bankers bonuses are ridiculously disproportionate to many other hard working citizens wages and the waste on bankers wages and should be controlled.
- Peter Noterfed, Paris, France, 08/12/2009 11:19
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It would be nice if this man could find it in his heart to donate some of his wealth to deserving charities and when he leaves the planet, he cant take it with him.
- Awesome Geronimo, Leeds UK, 08/12/2009 11:19
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That is obscene, its the bankers that got this country in this mess in the first place. Greedy FAT bankers. All these people loosing their jobs - it makes me sick.
- Coral, London, 08/12/2009 11:19
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That's a LOT of alcohol - even at inflated prices! Lots of sore heads next day I'm sure, apart from the bar owner and the staff who got the tip. Classic trickle down effect! I'm sure G. Brown and the Treasury would desperately love the £40bn in tax receipts from the City - a large chunk of which has been lost in the past 12 months' turmoil. If there's no-one making the money then there's no-one paying the taxes that keeps the country's public servants in work.
- Dc, London, 08/12/2009 11:19
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Supported by the tax payer of course.Just another justification for peoples anger,the rewarding of failure is no way to run a industry,and its a terrible example to are young people such vulgar ostentation.40000 sent to a charity would have supported a lot more people and done a lot more good and sent a positive message to are youth.
- Kev, London-UK, 08/12/2009 11:19
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Good Lad, well done.
- P I Staker, London, 08/12/2009 11:19
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Perhaps they are in the sector of the banking industry that isnt going to the wall. They do exist you know!
- Stuart, UK, 08/12/2009 11:19
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Doubtless the report will also be comforting to that proportion of humanity which "gets by" on $1 a day - those who can read, that is, because there was never enough money to educate them in the first place. Personal choice and personal responsibility are important marks of personal maturity - but is there no limit or sense of excess?
- David, Ljubljana, Slovenia, 08/12/2009 11:19
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Why all the criticism of bankers pay? Why no complaints regarding the excessive 'rewards' paid to pop-stars, actors and footballers?
- Joe, Thornton Heath, UK, 08/12/2009 11:19
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Plainly the bankers are not making the money!how many trillions have we the tax payer given them just this year?
- Kev, London-UK, 08/12/2009 11:19
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Since when has anybody got the right to say how someone should spend his/her money. How can you presume that the person has cost the taxpayer a penny, more likely they pay more tax in a year than some people pay in a lifetime. It would be/is very concerning to impose controls on personal freedoms such as this. Are the people who say give the money to charity saying the same to professional footballers with a garage full of cars. It's their choice or do you believe that it's your right how to CONTROL it.
- Michael, Switzerland, 08/12/2009 11:19
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I had the best year ever last year raking in a salary (not bonus related and not a dime if im sick) of almost £125K, and I am paying tax in excess of £54K to the tax man, so exceptions in the credit crunch do exist. And blow anyone who tries to tell me how to spend my money!
- Raminder Bhalla, Northolt, 08/12/2009 11:19
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This isn't unreasonable considering there were five of them, afterall, and he was treating strangers as well.
- Bloke, London, 08/12/2009 11:19
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Swiss Michael, couldn't agree more. The chips on shoulders around these parts sometimes could make Harry Ramsden wealthy enough to run up a £40k bar bill.
And just how glad is that waitress feeling today? OK, the tip was in all likelyhood shared among all the waiting staff, but funny how some can overlook the generosity too.
- Escobar A-Lop-Lop, Camden County, 08/12/2009 11:19
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Leave the poor man alone. Let him relax, bankers are on 24hr call to their clients all year, and earn every penny, give him a break.
- Anon, London, 08/12/2009 11:19
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Good Work fella!
- Darren, London, 08/12/2009 11:19
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This is excellent news. People who can afford to spend should do just that. This is exactly the sort of behaviour needed to envigorate the economy. I'll drink a toast to him tonight. Cheers !!
- Peter, Pirot, Serbia, 08/12/2009 11:19
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Good man! -and a gent, to boot. Treated the waitress well.
- Nick (Expat), Hong Kong, 08/12/2009 11:19
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