Darius Guppy

Darius Guppy (born 1964) is a British–Iranian socialite and former convict. He was involved in an attempted insurance fraud involving a faked robbery, and is known for his relationships with Earl Spencer and Conservative politician Boris Johnson.

Biography

Guppy's mother was the Iranian author and singer Shusha Guppy (1935–2008).^[2] His grandfather on his mother's side was the philosopher and theologian Grand Ayatollah Seyyed Mohammed Kazem Assar, who held the chair of philosophy at Tehran University; his maternal cousin, another Assar grandson, is Hooman Majd.

His father was the writer Nicholas Guppy (1925-2012).^[3] On his father's side he is a descendant of Lechmere Guppy, the naturalist who discovered the eponymous fish, as well as the inventor Sarah Guppy,^[4] Thomas Guppy, the engineer and business partner of Isambard Kingdom Brunel, the explorer Amelia Guppy, Sir Francis Dashwood , Bt (founder of the Hellfire Club) and the medieval Plantagenet family.^[5]

Guppy was educated at the Lycée Français Charles de Gaulle, Eton College, and Magdalen College, Oxford. In his second year, he became a member of the Piers Gaveston Society, as well as the Bullingdon Club.^[6] He was the best man at Earl Spencer's wedding to model Victoria Lockwood, his first wife; Lord Spencer was his best man in return. He was a close friend of Boris Johnson, who later became the Mayor of London,^[7] as well as of Count Gottfried von Bismarck.

He is married, has a daughter and two sons, and lives in Cape Town, South Africa.^[8]

Insurance fraud

In February 1993, Guppy was jailed for staging a faked jewel robbery and claiming £1.8 million from the insurers.^[9][10] Guppy claims his fraud was intended as retribution against Lloyd's of London, since his father had lost money in the Lloyd's of London financial crisis of the 1990s.^[8] Guppy and his business partner, Benedict Marsh, hired a man to fake a robbery, discharge a firearm and tie them up. The offence did not come to light until over a year later, after a police informer who had acted as an accomplice had been arrested attempting to imitate the pair.^[11][12] Guppy was sentenced to five years in jail.^[13][14]

Other details

During a telephone call he asked Boris Johnson (then a journalist at the Telegraph) to provide the home address of News of the World journalist Stuart Collier. Collier had been making enquiries into Guppy's background, and in response Guppy wanted to send someone to physically assault Collier. The address was not provided and the attack never took place, but a tape of the conversation was leaked to the press.^[15]

He has written for The Spectator magazine, the Asia Times, the Independent on Sunday and The Independent,^[16] the Sunday Telegraph,^[17] and the New Statesman.^[18]

Bibliography

• Guppy, Darius (1996). Roll the Dice. Blake Publishing. ISBN 1-85782-159-9. ^[19]

References