Five banker bar bills that will blow your mind

Alex Hope is definitely not alone

Alex Hope is back in the headlines again. No, not for splashing out another £200k on a bar bill but for standing on trial next month.

Hope has been accused of running a £5m investment scheme that is believed to trade money on behalf of investors.

But in his heyday, Hope spent £125,000 on a bottle of Ace of Spades champagne and is also believed to have hobnobbed with Coleen Rooney and England footballer Adam Johnson at the PlayGround nightclub in Liverpool’s Hilton hotel.

But don’t scoff at Hope just yet, London has a lot of bankers guzzling down Methuselahs of Dom Perignon. Here’s a few of them:

1. The £105,805 bar bill

It was 2007, the financial world was the new rock ‘n’ roll for young guns and money was flowing at jet speed. So it’s no surprise how this unnamed business honcho went to Crystal in Marylebone and spent a grand total of £105,805 in one night.

The man bought 80 bottles of champagne, including a six-litre Methuselah of Cristal worth £30,000 and a £9,600, three-litre Jeroboam. Total bill for just champagne? £80,000. Wow.

2. The £71,000 bar tab and showering £50 notes

In 2011, a group of bankers laughed in the face of recession to spend £71,000 on booze at The Rose Club in 2011. These City boys at one point even made it rain £50 notes. Their bar bill included a 24 Methuselahs of Ciroc Vodka at £1,850 a pop. They had such an epic night that they paid £18,000 in tips.

3. £60,000 bar bill to celebrate election results

In 2010, when a group of investment bankers correctly guessed the results of an election, they racked up a bar bill which is definitely not politically correct.

The men walked into Merah nightclub in Fitzrovia and asked for the most expensive bottle of champagne, which at the night wsa a Methuselah of vintage Cristal at £36,000.

A source at the nightclub told the Standard, “When the Methuselah was delivered to their table, the music was stopped and the group were chanting, ‘Down with Brown, down with Brown’.” They followed it up with a Jeroboam of Cristal at £5,000 and a Methuselah of Dom Perignon, which was £9,000.

The men walked out with a £52,000 bar with a service charge of nearly £8,000. That’s a total of £60,117.40 to be precise.

4. Want to impress a Hollywood A lister? That will be £40,000 please

Last year, when an unknown City trader spotted Hollywood star Benicio del Toro at private members club Raffles in Chelsea, he wowed to impress him.

How? By spending a whopping £40,000 on drinks including three £8,000 bottles of Dom Perignon, two Belvedere Jeroboam vodkas at £1,640, and seven glasses of Don Julio 1942 tequila for £224.

A witness to that night’s bar bill madness told the Sun, “The trader was clearly getting into the spirit of the night, and he wasn’t holding back.

“He’d obviously had a good day at the office and wanted to treat his friends.

“Benicio del Toro was at the club that night so perhaps he wanted to show off in front of a Hollywood A lister.”

5. £43,000 bar bill and a £5,000 bar bill

That’s right, a London banker didn’t bat an eyelid to tip a waitress £5000 at a party at Maya on Soho’s Dean Street.

The banker and his friends emptied two Methuselahs of Dom Perignon worth £9,000 each. But that wasn’t enough. They then drank two Jeroboams, as big as four bottles, of Cristal and three magnums, equivalent to two bottles, of Cristal Rosé.