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Financier runs up £36,000 bar bill on champagne to celebrate bonus

Louise Barnett
Saturday 01 October 2005 00:00 BST
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The anonymous American client lavished bottles of Cristal champagne and hundreds of cocktails on his friends and other guests.

He treated one waitress at the members' club to a £3,000 tip at the end of his spending spree.

The hedge fund manager also treated Revolver actress Jasmine Lennard to champagne after spotting her in the Aviva bar at Kensington's five-star Baglioni Hotel. His drinks bill included 26 Louis Roederer Cristal Magnums costing £16,500, plus 851 cocktails which came to more than £6,000. The 12.5 per cent service charge alone cost £4,684, bumping up the total spend to £35,906.

An Aviva spokesman said the financier was feeling flush after getting a large bonus. "He was in a celebratory mood," he said.

"He had a black Amex and it just went a bit crazy. He ordered so many cocktails and distributed them to people in the club. I don't think half of them knew what was going on."

The financier apparently took a shine to Lennard, who was at Wednesday night's Aviva launch party with her boyfriend, the spokesman added.

The actress said afterwards: "I was very flattered to be receiving so much attention. Even though the guy was very sweet, it was not quite enough to make me leave my boyfriend. Maybe he could try diamonds next time."

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