A very bad night at Aspinalls - unlucky gambler tries to overturn £2m debt

By dawn on Saturday March 11 2000, even by his own extraordinary standards, the Fat Man had had a seriously bad night at the exclusive private gambling club Aspinalls. He had signed for four successive stacks of £500,000 worth of gambling chips, and lost the lot at blackjack. He had also lost more than £350,000 on another game. He was not a happy man.

What happened next provoked a dispute that has rumbled on for seven years - during which Fouad al-Zayat returned to the club on scores of occasions to lose another £10.6m - and yesterday ended up in court for another expensive punt on the legal system.