This week I begin with a cautionary tale.
My elderly parents were recently the victims of callous fraudsters whose scam, in my mother’s own words, left her feeling “shamed and embarrassed”. Heartbreakingly, she told me: “I don’t know how I could have been such an idiot or so gullible”. By making public this scam my mother hopes she can prevent other suffering the stress, guilt and upset their actions inflicted on her.
This is how the scam worked. ‘Peter Lewis’, purporting to be from the Visa card fraud department called my mother listing her recent purchases. To gain trust he instructed her to call the number on the back of her debit card for verification. Somehow this fraudster was able to intercept her call to a perfectly legitimate number. ‘Peter’ then asked for my mother’s help in identifying an internal bank fraud by going to her local branch to withdraw £6,000.
There was initial hesitancy on the part of the bank, as she is 87 and had never previously withdrawn more than £300 in cash. She explained — as instructed by ‘Peter’ — that it was to pay a doctor in cash. Staggeringly , the payment was then authorised by a manager.
Once she was home, the fraudster phoned my mother to go through the bank note numbers. He declared half were forgeries. To ‘help trace the forgers’ he sent a ‘courier’ to collect the £6,000 cash. My mother and father having been lured into the conman’s trust duly handed over the notes.
His next move was to persuade my mother to assist him further in monitoring the ‘fraud’, by making transfers to the TSB bank totalling £21,000. Both transfers were made by my slightly confused but still trusting mother before, the next day, realisation dawned, and the police were notified.
You may wonder why my parents were so gullible. They both thought it all “rather fishy”. But the truth is frailty of health when the calls came in, combined with how much genuine personal information the fraudster had, made them feel all was legitimate.
The only happy ending has been supplied by Nat West. They refunded the full £27,000 after their own fraud department investigated.
Now, back to joyous occasions. Music manager Dr Colin ‘Lester’ Balsam hosted a sumptuous dinner to celebrate his OBE. I caught up with dance pioneer Craig David, to whom I suggested an exciting collaboration. I can’t share any more information yet, as I have not yet asked his manager — watch this space!
The UK’s greatest living lyricist, Don Black, invited me to his show Sunset Boulevard at the Royal Albert Hall. I sat next to the north’s greatest event planner, Liz Taylor.
Separately, we also celebrated multi-award-winning designer Kelly Hoppen’s CBE at her star- studded Langan’s party. In 2015 I attended The Great Festival of Creativity in Shanghai, where Prince William’s first words to Kelly were “my wife will be so jealous I met you without her”.
Another great night out was when theatre producer Nica Burns invited us to the world première of The Drifters Girl, starring the spine-tingling Beverley Knight and four utterly terrific singers. It was an extraordinarily enjoyable show.
A rare bout of illness enabled me to catch up on some of my clients from my bed. Piers Morgan was hilarious interviewing Joan Collins; Molly Rainford shone as a burgeoning star taking the lead in the current BBC’s biggest children’s show, fictional drama Nova Jones; and Arlene Phillips and Naughty Boy are locked up in a Castle for ITV’s I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out of Here. I also watched Nathan Evans play his first festival appearance at TRNSMT in Glasgow, where he won Best Male Breakthrough Award at the Scottish Music Awards, having over two billion streams for his Wellerman sea shanty.
Last week’s sad death of Stephen Sondheim brought back a memory. I recorded a production of A Little Night Music. Stephen called to thank me, saying Judi Dench’s performance of Send in the Clowns moved him in a way that the song had never moved him before.
Travel restrictions permitting, my next column will be from Barbados where, except for 2020, I have holidayed for 30 years. Meanwhile, as this year’s MOBO Awards return to the BBC, my charity shout out is the MOBO Trust of which I am founder and chair. We advance education in the performing arts, particularly for young people from diverse backgrounds. www.mobo.com/trust.