» Karma

God works in mysterious ways....
Apologies for the length!

Lets start about four or five years ago, I met and became good friends with a guy who worked in television. We got on really well, and he became 'my gay best friend'. As it transpires, he was a slippery as hell, so let's just refer to him as Mr Snakey. He was a snake in human disguise.
There's no denying we did have some really good laughs. He had some annoying habits, which I chose to overlook (no-ones perfect etc etc) The main one being that he was a pathologica liar, something that became more and more evident over time. I would sit in a bar and watch him tell bare faced lies to friends and strangers. As I said, he worked fairly high up in TV, and would regale everyone with tales of how he had slept with/been made a pass at by most major celebrities. God knows why, he is about 5 stone overweight, balding, and not particularly attractive. His ego knew no bounds.


What most people didn't know was that Mr Slippery Snake led a completely different life. He was in massive debt, had credit card bills and store card demands piling up on his doormat. Probably about £75k in debt, and he didn't even have a mortgage. Paying sky high rent on a palace, just to impress people, Although he told everyone he owned it and had paid off the mortgage.... His debt was a result of trying to buy the attention and affection of people by buying huge rounds in bars, and shovelling copious amounts of class A Drugs up his nose. by the time I met him, I wasn't completely aware of the level of debt, as this was something else he chose to lie about.


So when Mr Snakey loses his job a few months after I meet him, I am happy to go along with and pay the majority of bills when we went out. I have a fairly menial job, and don't earn a lot of money, but had some savings from a redundancy package. (conservative estimate spent on being his friend £7-8k, including taking him on weekends away, paying his utility bills to prevent him being cut off etc etc, and his rent to prevent him being evicted. His response was always - 'I'm gonna get that big shot job in TV soon, and will pay you back every penny you have spent' At this point, can I add, I hadn't realised quite what a bullshitter he was.

Added to which I also lent him money, roughly £5k, to pay off baliffs when they came to seize his car and worldly goods for non payment of debts, and fines at the county court so he wouldn't be imprisoned. Even attending court with him, to watch him lie to the Judge.

Eventually he does get a new job, in a major TV production company, earning silly money, that he now uses to buy new celebrity friends by throwing money and class A drugs at them. (Wish I had the nerve to go to The News of the World:-) It's quite sad really, he deludes himself they like him. Coke heads would be friends with Fred West if he was throwing Columbian marching powder around...You'll see his name from time to time, on TV Credits.

It was at this point that It slowly dawned on me what a mug I had been. Now he had a little money in his pocket, my usefulness was expiring rapidly. Mr Snake now had new friends and workmates to impress, and sponge from, and never had any time for me, was always too busy with work etc etc. To compound this I was having some really bad financial problems. At this point I decided to send him an email asking him to start paying back the £5k I had lent him. Suprise suprise, all I got was bullshit, how his car needed new parts, he had a large tax bill, how his landlord had increased the rent (and he still has a huge amount of debt) Added to which, from friendship that had been a almost daily contact in phone calls/texts or get togethers, he decided to cut me completely from his life, would not answer phone calls, emails, texts, which hurt a great
deal.
He absolutely broke my heart, how he used me, and how manipulatively he had behaved, unfortunately something that was only apparent with hindsight.
Karma?
Three weeks ago my numbers came up on Euromillions and I netted just over £1.5 million pounds.

No doubt he'll hear about it eventually, although I am keeping it very low key. Ironically, if it had happened six months ago, he would have been the first person I would have rung, and his debts would have been wiped out in an instant.
He did me a favour, that Despicable Mr Snakey. I am now very wary of people where money is concerned.
Now, as the interest on my fortune just grows, so does the interest on his debts.
Karma? - I should say so......
(Sat 23rd Feb 2008, 10:53, More)