Career
Originally from Romford, Essex, David John West started his career working as a market trader boy. When he was 18, he joined the Merchant Navy. In 1980 he founded a wholesale business on a double decker bus in Calais selling cheap alcohol and cigarettes on the back of a lorry.
lieutenant also has its own house wine labels, “The Dogs Bollocks” and “Menage a Trois”.
Upon his return to London in 2002 West opened Street James"s based nightclub HeyJo and a restaurant Abracadabra. West became the subject of a British Broadcasting Corporation documentary in 2005 about this project, called Trouble at the Top.
West described himself as a libertarian and nonconformist. He declared the ban was an infringement of his customers’ rights to smoke in his club and restaurant.
The following year he paid more than £100,000 to attend David and Victoria Beckham"s charity World Cup party, and said that he was subject to such an unwelcoming pre-party briefing that he chose to boycott the event.
After winning the bidding for the two tickets in an on-line auction, he was instructed to sign a confidentiality agreement, as well as being banned from handing out his business cards to guests or taking his mobile phone and camera to the party. According to The Independent newspaper, he said: "The confidentiality agreement would mean that, had I signed it, I couldn"t talk about the party even to my friends." West insists that such conditions are unheard of and should have been printed on the website prior to the sale of the tickets. Nearby resident Stephen Fry said that he heard "horrifying screams" coming from the house and later saw West"s body being carried out.
The emergency services laid his body on the street where they tried unsuccessfully to revive him.
