My dishonourable friend

BORN with so many aristocratic titles that he started selling a few to wealthy Americans, Richard Bentinck Boyle, 9th Earl of Shannon; Viscount Boyle, Baron of Castle-Martyr, Co. Cork; and Baron Carleton of Yorkshire, comes from the bluest of blue-blooded stock. He was born into the pomp and luxury of the Indian Raj and served as a page at the coronation of George VI.

After Eton, he joined the Irish Guards, rising to the rank of captain, and in 1947 married glamorous Italian Caterina Imperiali di Francavilla. As Katie Boyle, she found fame as a television presenter in the Sixties and Seventies. They divorced after eight years.

But now, the 80-year-old earl and his titles have cropped up in connection with a string of business failures, a fraud investigation and a new venture with an ex-convict.

Earlier this year, Paul Fenton, a semi-retired businessman who splits his time between Spain and Southampton, was approached to put £100,000 into a computer training business by self-styled businessman Richard Kelly-Wiseham. Fenton learned that Kelly-Wiseham was a convicted fraudster. Boyle, a friend of Kelly-Wiseham, was to be chairman of Inspire IT, which was sponsored by respected accountancy firm Mazars.

{1}Believing that Fenton had promised some money, Boyle sent him a letter on House of Lords stationery saying: 'I will be very pleased to invite you and your wife for lunch, by which time we will see the benefits of our investments.'

Boyle, who has not put a penny of his own money into the venture, signed the letter 'Shannon', under which was typed 'Rt Hon The Earl of Shannon'. Though he had been Deputy Speaker in the Lords in the Seventies, he lost his seat when hereditary peers were scrapped in 1999.

He said the paper for the lunch invitation was 'probably in my desk somewhere from years ago'. Lords stationery is not supposed to be used for private purposes, but Boyle said: 'If that is the rule, you can throw out every member of the House.'

Boyle - family motto Let Us Be Judged By Our Actions - has known Kelly-Wiseham for more than 15 years and was aware he had served eight months in Ford open prison for false accounting and other fraud. Both men had been directors of two other failed companies, Carleton Ltd and Concept Accessories, which were dissolved in late 2002.

Of Inspire IT, Boyle said: 'Somebody I knew said he was doing this business, which seemed rather a good idea. It was selling training on IT. I've been involved in manufacturing for most of my life and this was another product to sell.'

Unfortunately, the 50-page document produced by Mazars to sound out its wealthy clients about investing in Inspire IT makes no mention of Boyle's age, nor of the fact that Kelly-Wiseham was jailed in 1998 for obtaining credit by deceit and false accounting and was subsequently an insurance salesman.

Mazars' proposal letter contains highflown statements such as: 'The future is the belief in the product delivery as being a vehicle that will make a difference in enabling individuals greater access to learning through a range of methods that suit learner participation and style.'

Glowing CVs describe Boyle as the ' proposed' non-executive chairman and Kelly-Wiseham as the intended 'business development manager'.

{2}At his home in Bishopstoke, near Southampton, Kelly-Wiseham admitted his fraud conviction to Financial Mail but denied any wrongdoing.

Mazars, which published the informal proposal, said that the investment communication would go only to ' experienced' investors to gauge their interest. They were also advised to seek professional advice in respect of it with their own financial advisers.

The firm added: 'As is made clear in the Terms of Issue, no reliance is to be had on it, including for the purposes of investment decisions.' There is no suggestion that Mazars was aware of Kelly-Wiseham's past.

More reliance can perhaps be placed on Companies House records, which show that Boyle, who now lives with his third wife, Almine, near Reading, Berkshire, had director-level appointments with 22 companies over the years.

Records variously describe him as 'peer of the realm' or 'consultant'. Three of the companies were liquidated and 11 dissolved. Only seven remain active. None appears successful.

One was London Mortgage Exchange, a shady mortgage broker and property investment firm now being investigated by the receiver. Boyle was a director between December 2000 and October 2001.

In 2002, LME was investigated by the Department of Trade & Industry, which wound it up last year, claiming it had 'offered unsuitable mortgage deals' to people 'already in difficult circumstances'. The DTI said LME had operated 'without a credit licence, falsely claimed membership of official mortgage organisations and failed to keep proper accounts'.

Boyle, who has been interviewed by the receiver, told Financial Mail that he had no knowledge of any improper practices. One of the victims of LME summed it up when he said: 'I suspect the Earl of Shannon was simply used as a name.'

And it seems that many others were taken in by its grandeur.