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Mystery banker runs up bar bill of nearly £44,000 at Mayfair club
Alistair Foster26 Feb 2010
It looks like the good times could be back for London's bars.
On the day when Royal Bank Of Scotland announced it was handing out £1.6 billion in bonuses, a mystery banker ran up a bar bill of almost £44,000 at Mayfair club Aura.
He was with five friends as they splashed thousands on Cristal champagne in just two and a half hours.
The bill included 40 regular bottles of Cristal, at £330 each, and when the bar ran out, they simply moved on to bigger sizes, eventually ordering nine £1,100 magnums and a £4,000 jeroboam.
The man also ordered two bottles of vintage Pommery champagne at £5,000 each, although the price was slightly more justified as they included free flights to France.
Two magnums of Grey Goose vodka at £360 each and £70 of Red Bull topped off their order.
A source said: “They were a smartly-dressed group led by an American banker in his thirties. They took a table in the VIP area and seemed determined to celebrate. They were just ordering bottle after bottle and handing them out to anyone and everyone in the bar.
“They arrived at 11.30pm and had left by 2am, so goodness knows how much their bill could have been.”
Reader views (27)
Ah must be hedge fund top brass advance spending their gains from forthcoming shorting of sterling...
- Amoren, luxembourg, 01/03/2010 08:16
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It's an outrage! Why wasn't I invited?
- Buggula, W. Mids, 28/02/2010 15:09
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arrogant self centred people who care little for the hard working people of this country, they could not care less how they get the money or who suffers for their mistakes, HANG ON is it the bankers or the labour ministers i'm thinking of
- Scouser, liverpool, 28/02/2010 15:08
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Mr. Darling should ring him up and thank him for the VAT contribution....perhaps a few more flak jackets could be purchased for some troopers.
- Ron, Hong Kong, 28/02/2010 07:40
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Oooof, is my head sore today...
- John W2, London, 27/02/2010 19:09
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I can't quite get over the way this has been reported! This was actually a private party where seven friends generously paid the bill for about a hundred people's drinks. I know it's fashionable to report stuff like this and wind up people about bankers, but try to get your facts right first.
- Anna, London, 27/02/2010 13:29
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Nice to know our tax is being spent so wisely.
Instead of bailing out RBS, the govt. could have paid off our mortgages.
- Simon, London, 27/02/2010 11:59
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At least they are spending it here and not overseas this way the tax man will get some back!
- Richard Edmunds, Rayleigh UK, 27/02/2010 11:25
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Sounds more like a footballer than a banker, but they were described as 'smartly-dressed' and failed to spit-roast anyone.
- Squiz, Islington, 26/02/2010 22:22
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Good to see the 'city boys' can still do night out, although its a poor venue for such high profile cash splashing, then again a decent place wouldn't give up such information.... knowing the banking fraternity that £44k ended up on the 'company plastic'....
- Mr B, London, 26/02/2010 17:18
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Maybe it was a Nu Labor guy celebrating retirement on gold plated pension?
- Georgie, Islington, London, 26/02/2010 16:57
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£20 cover charge costs £120. No wonder the economy is screwed.
- Nobby Clark, Perth, the Scottish one, 26/02/2010 16:50
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Lets face it we are all living on the wrong planet,go back a thousand years and you will always see "Us and Them".
- Davey_Bouy, Chertsey, 26/02/2010 16:42
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good effort i hope he got something done!!!
- Stewart Spencer, london, 26/02/2010 16:38
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It's only a matter of time until his identity is revealed, then the media will have a field day if he is employed by one of the banks bailed out by the state.
- George, Cambridge, 26/02/2010 16:23
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What jolly lucky fellows
- Piqued, London, 26/02/2010 16:11
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£5718 in service charge.... That's maddness.
My God, the things I could do with a spare 44k.
- Mark, St Albans, 26/02/2010 15:46
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Come on, this is plain ridiculous, I actually make it nine bottles EACH in two and half hours, never mind the Red Bull... Call me naive but I don't think that happened to six bankers or any body else for that matter. It s just a publicity thing from the club or plain idiotic journalism...
- Fifi De La Rue, London, London, 26/02/2010 15:44
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Look at the size of the tip - wonder if the staff got it all ?
- Doug, Barnet, 26/02/2010 15:41
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Maybe they had just made a killing speculating on the future of the UK economy. They didn't happen to work for a certain Mr Soros?
- Dannyp, Egham, 26/02/2010 15:40
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And likely spending money he skimmed off his clients....
- Dan, Buenos Aires, Argentina, 26/02/2010 15:35
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I find it incredible that six people could run up a bar bill in so short a time.
Anyone who pays that amount of money for champagne, vodka and red bull must have more money than sense. Well, he has just proved it, hasn't he?
The same would apply even if he had just 5p.
- Stephen Odonnell, Bexhill, 26/02/2010 15:04
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It was probably just another expense account business lunch.
Do not worry about this man being foolish with his money; it will all be tax deductable.
As Pb, London,UK, said; how do we know he was a banker; he could just as easily have been an MP?
- Mickinlondon, london, 26/02/2010 14:11
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FOR Pb.
They knew he was a banker because of his bad taste in drinking and mixing.
Red Bull, Champagne and Grey Goose how much lower can you fall??
- Peter Glazier, Sao Paulo, Brazil, 26/02/2010 13:44
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I would love to meet any human being who can drink 8 bottles of champange in 2 and a half hours, never mind the rest of the supposed bill.
- Stuart Wing, LOndon, 26/02/2010 13:22
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A classic case of having to buy friends...any popular person with that kind of cash would have invited a whole heap of friends and splashed 44k on entertaining them rather than giving bottles out to strangers.
- Andy, Richmond, 26/02/2010 13:22
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if nobody knew who he was, then how do they know he was a 'banker'?
- Pb, London, UK, 26/02/2010 13:09
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