Best's son runs up bill in his name

With his model looks and celebrity background Calum Best was able to enjoy the very best of London life.

As the son of George Best he was a welcome guest at glamorous openings and was invariably pictured with a beautiful young woman on his arm.

However, behind the glossy image the truth was somewhat different. In recent magazine interviews he complained that he had hardly seen his father since he was born and now a rift has opened up between the pair that may never be healed.

It has emerged that Calum has fled to Hawaii after using his father's debit card to pay for a three-month stay at a London hotel.

Best Snr, who only discovered the truth when he went overdrawn and his card was refused in a shop, says he is "shocked and hurt" by his 21-year-old son's betrayal.

He says he had offered to put Calum up at a Chelsea hotel for a month, but was stunned when he discovered that he had paid for three months, after the hotel was duped by a woman claiming to be "Mrs Best".

In his column for the Mail on Sunday's Night & Day magazine he writes: "I suppose Calum is not as grown up as I thought.

"I had planned to buy him a car for his 21st birthday last week but that is now on hold. He needs to learn a few hard lessons."

The 55-year-old recovering alcoholic-says he offered to pay for a month in the hotel as he and his wife had not yet moved into their new house.

Best said: "Since then, he has led me to believe he's been off modelling around the world, popping back to London only occasionally.

"Then the other day, I went to buy something with a debit card and was told, in front of a queue of people, that the card issuer had turned down the request.

"I was very embarrassed and I couldn't understand it."

He said his 29-year-old wife Alex discovered that the huge hotel bill was the cause and, on ringing the hotel, was told that a "Mrs Best" had rung the hotel to authorise the extended stay.

Best wrote: "The only other Mrs Best is Calum's mum, Angie. She remarried years ago, but still calls herself Mrs Best to cash in on my name.

"She says she knows nothing about it, so the whole thing is a mystery. But whoever this 'Mrs Best' is, she has a ****** cheek."

Mr Best rang his son's mobile, only for it be answered by someone else who said Calum was on his way to Hawaii. He wrote: "The sad thing is that I would give him almost anything if he asked me to, just like I would Alex.

" The difference between them is, my wife never asks for a penny... Calum, if you're reading this in Hawaii or wherever you are, I think you owe me an explanation."

The spat is the latest twist in a tortured relationship between the former footballer and his only son by his first wife.

Two months ago Calum told how he rarely saw his father after his parents' marriage ended shortly after he was born.

He said: "I've been phoning him for years and I'd always get the answer machine and he never called back. Then I called the house in Ireland and he sounded good, sounded sober, and we talked for about 45 minutes. That was the longest conversation I've ever had with him.

"My dad is still a stranger to me but it's too late to be bitter. I just want to have a father-son relationship."