Paul 'The Plumber' back fighting

PAUL Davidson can barely conceal his disgust as he peels off £20 from a wad of notes - held together by a paper wrapper that says '£1,000' - to buy a round of drinks in his favourite pub, the Admiral Rodney, just down the road from his £2.5m six-bedroom home in the Cheshire stockbroker belt.

'That's this week's pocket money,' complains the man nicknamed 'The Plumber'. '£1,000! How am I meant to live on that?'

It is immediately obvious he can't. His pocket money significantly fails to cover the costs of running six houses in England, including his home in Prestbury, Cheshire, and a Spanish villa where it takes ten minutes to walk from one end to the other. And then there is the 100ft yacht once owned by Marshal Tito of Yugoslavia, a 40-seater Rave Bus equipped with bar and plasma screen and 11 other cars, including a Bentley Arnage that goes from zero to 60 mph in six seconds and is driven by John, his one-legged chauffeur.

'He's got a disabled parking badge,' boasts Davidson. 'We can park anywhere. It's brilliant. I drive him on Monday nights, though, so he can have a drink.' Davidson, 48, once owned a £550,000 McLaren F1, but sold it after it had done only 700 miles following a whopping £25,000 service bill.

So it comes as no surprise to learn that the flamboyant entrepreneur usually spent about £40,000 a month. His straitened circumstances began in March when the High Court froze his assets in a prolonged battle over the ownership of the patent of a pipe-fitting joint that he invented to make his fortune. The judge limited him to spending £1,000 a week.

The situation worsened after the Financial Services Authority, which has fined Davidson £750,000 for a controversial spread bet on the movement of shares, preventing him moving his funds around. 'I can spend up to £1,000 and borrow money from my wife, but she can't pay my bills,' he says.

Davidson, who has a grown-up son and daughter with his wife, Karen, claims to be worth 'between £60 million and £65 million'. He says the two rulings have cost him 'hundreds of millions of pounds' after he was forced to sell six developments, including a hotel conversion in North Wales and an industrial estate and two office blocks in Macclesfield, Cheshire.

'I expected to make a profit of about £50m on them, and I lost an option on a hotel complex in Madrid where my profit share would have been about £60m,' he says.

But he still owns a secure car park used by Manchester United players. 'I've got their mobile phone numbers somewhere,' he says. 'Do you want them?' Davidson has also closed two companies and pulled out of three others.

He adds: 'I'm the best inventor in the world. England should be proud of me. Why am I being treated like this? If I'd been to Eton or Harrow, I wouldn't have the problems I've got.'

Those problems started more than two years ago and relate to a £5m spread bet on Cyprotex, a bio-tech company Davidson founded. The bet helped the successful flotation of Cyprotex by pushing up the price of the shares, but the FSA concluded that it constituted market abuse. Davidson, who claims to have been ignorant of the bet, says he was not even interviewed before being fined.

'I said I'm not coming to talk to you unless I'm compelled,' he says. That would prevent his evidence being used against him. The FSA refused to compel him. But the situation now looks brighter.

As Financial Mail reported last week, Christopher Fitzgerald, head of the FSA's Regulatory Disciplinary Committee, which sets penalties, had spoken to Terence Mowschenson QC, a neighbour and deputy chairman of the independent tribunal considering Davidson's appeal, during the hearing.

Both have now resigned after admitting that it was not their first chat. But their accounts differ on how many times they spoke and what they talked about, though Mowschenson admits on one occasion indicating the views of two tribunal members who appeared to sympathise with Davidson.

'I'm supposed to remember what I did over two years ago, and these two monkeys can't remember what they said a few days ago,' snaps Davidson. 'This tribunal is a poodle of the FSA.

'This lot are totally and utterly contemptible. This is a complete abuse of process. It feels like the result of the tribunal had already been decided. Under article six of the Human Rights Act, I'm entitled to a fair trial and I intend to get it.'

The tribunal resumes tomorrow, but the FSA wants a change of members. Davidson is demanding transcripts of any taped conversations between Fitzgerald and Mowschenson, details of any connections between tribunal members and the FSA, details of which clubs or masonic lodges they belong to and, under the Data Protection Act, all information relating to himself.

'How can they reject it?' he asks. 'I want to know what they have been up to, then I'll decide if I want new members.'

Davidson is also considering suing Mowschenson for '£1,000 more than he has'. He says: 'He sat on the tribunal knowing he was chatting about the case. He isn't allowed to do that. If a jury member spoke to a witness, even to say ''Hello, what's the weather like?'' that would be the end of a case.

'I don't know why the FSA just doesn't do the decent thing and give up. It has done everything else to get me. I am going to sue the FSA for a huge amount. This has damaged my health - and you can't put a price on that.'