Dashwood: Parisian homemakers pay down Farrow & Ball's £82.5m debt Gerald Smith shorts lavish lunch speculation Cast your mind back to the tale of the festive lunch hosted at the Connaught in December by the ex-wife of Dr Gerald Smith, the fraudster jailed in 2006 for stealing £35m from Aim-listed software company Izodia. Rumours are now swirling that the bill for the all-afternoon "shindig" attended by Gerald Smith and 31 others came to £37,000, says a source familiar with the Smiths" annual feasts. Such a sum is far out of Dashwood's dining budget - and Smith, who has footed the bill in previous years, was equally quick to deny the tally. "That's wrong," he told Dashwood. I haven't seen the bill. Just as well - some might say the man ordered to pay £41m in 2007 for his part in the massive Izodia scam should still be watching the pennies. Interesting to see who has been bending the ear of Martin Wheatley as he prepares to take on the mantle of head of the Financial Conduct Authority. Wheatley has made it clear the markets will operate with integrity under his tenure - and the publication of who has been taking him for lunch reveals him to be a man of his word. Lloyd's of London was first to break bread with the consumers" champion last autumn, followed by JP Morgan, PwC and Citi. As Wheatley lectured the British Bankers Association: "It is clear to me that we need to move on from where we, and you, have been." To lunch, presumably. Tributes to Barratt's Yorkshire home The late Sir Lawrie Barratt won't only be remembered for creating the UK's biggest housebuilding company. Countryfile presenter John Craven has named a walk through Barratt's estate on the North Yorkshire moors as his favourite, whilst others remind Dashwood that Barratt played his part in the Queen's Jubilee celebrations by presenting local children with commemorative cups. May he rest in peace.