Ron Davies
On
October 27, 1998, Ron Davies had a "moment of madness"
on Clapham Common. The area, notorious for clandestine homosexual
encounters, prostitution and drug dealing, was an unusual spot to
take an evening walk. On his jaunt Ron bumped into a 'rasta' and
naively accepted an invitation to go for a meal. They picked up
two of the rasta's friends and soon after Ron was robbed at
knifepoint and relieved of his car.
Davies resigned so quickly after the incident the press suspected
a homosexual motive to his Clapham Common adventure. Such
accusations were denied by the hapless MP who cited his
"lapse of judgement" as the real reason for his
resignation. Now every time Davies goes for a country walk,
tabloid journalists pop out of the undergrowth and accuse him of
trying to pick them up for gay sex.
Raphael
Gray
Gray
set up a website called 'e-crackers.com' which displayed hacked
credit card details. As the self-proclaimed 'Angel of E-Commerce'
he even sent a shipment of Viagra to Bill Gates. His tabloid
notoriety was assured when one morning in the quiet village of
Clynderwen he was awoken by his mum with the news that members of
the FBI were at the door.
Tecwen
Whittock
The
trial of the three Who Want's to be a
Millionaire fraudsters was front page news
for days and popularised the concept of 'coded coughing'. The
brainy trio's cunning scam (to cough whenever a right answer was
uttered) was less sophisticated than your average twelve-year-old
cheating in a school exam. Whittock received a suspended jail
sentence and lost his job into the bargain. Even worse he is
condemned to spend the rest of his life being coughed at by
hilarious labourers and cheeky kids.
Steve
Strange
Former
pop star and nightclub impresario Steve Strange was addicted to
heroin, suffering from depression and living in Porthcawl. He
probably thought it couldn't get any worse but in 2000 the man
who once sang Fade to Grey
was caught nicking a £10.99 Teletubby from a shop in Bridgend.
He was given a three-month suspended jail sentence. The
shoplifting New Romantic has recently bounced back with an
enjoyable autobiography: Blitzed!
James/Lauren
Harries
James
Harries was a prodigy. At the age of 14 he published a book, Rags
To Riches, which explained how to make
money from jumble sales. His appearance was unusual - he wore a
bow tie, had a mop of golden hair and spoke with the poshest
accent any Cardiffian has ever uttered. He turned up on numerous
chat shows where to all intents and purposes he was paraded as a
freak. After dropping out of the limelight for many years James
recently reappeared - to tabloid glee - as... Lauren. The prodigy
had undergone a sex-change operation. Lauren is currently
attempting to resurrect her career on the celeb circuit.