Trickster Claimed To Be 'buying Tyrrell'.

A man dubbed the 'Prince of Conmen' persuaded party guests that he was about to buy the Tyrrell F1 team, a court heard yesterday.


According to The Daily Telegraph, Sulaiman Al Kehaimi referred to the team's cars as 'our cars' throughout a party he hosted at a French chateau during the 1996 Monaco Grand Prix although, in reality, he had very little money and no intention of buying an F1 outfit. Indeed, the court was told that Al Kehaimi gained access to the chateau by persuading the owner that a friend, a Saudi prince, was interested in buying the property, and that a television series featuring the Hollywood actor Kevin Costner was to be set there.


During the grand prix weekend, Al Kehaimi acted out his 'fantasy' of being a wealthy F1 investor, flying guests back and forth to the Monaco circuit in private helicopters and entertaining them in lavish surroundings. According to evidence given during the hearing at Oxford Crown Court, guests were sufficiently duped to refer to Al Kehaimi as 'one of the richest men in the world'.


"He pretended to people that he was buying the team," alleged Simon Brand, prosecuting, "but all that was pretence, a fantasy, a fairy story. Someone referred to him as one of the richest men in the world, he was called 'the Sheikh' and 'His Excellency', and kept referring to the Tyrrell racing cars as 'our cars'.


"Instead, the evidence goes to show that, far from being the wealthy man he pretended to be, Al Kehaimi was, in fact, strapped for cash."


The court also heard that Al Kehaimi was accused of trying to deceive the team out of ?40,000, as well as attempting to extract money from both Richard Branson and Mohamed Al Fayed by asking for sponsorship. He also boasted that he owned the racehorse Desert Orchid and was the head of a two million strong tribe in Saudi Arabia.


Al Kehaimi faces six charges of deception and theft totalling in excess of ?326,000. The trial continues.