Court battle exposes overcharging at £800,000 event at Elton John's home.

The extravagant spending of Britain's rich and famous has been revealed in the High Court, where the organiser of some of Britain's most lavish parties was shown to be a cheat who regularly overcharged his stellar list of clients.

Matthew James had become one of Britain's most famous fixers with a series of outlandish events. He sent giraffes and zebras to wander among guests at a garden party thrown by Elton John, recreated an airport to celebrate Kevin Spacey's term at the Old Vic, and held an open-air dinner for Stella McCartney in a forest lit with 2,000 candles.

But his award-winning company, DNA Productions (Europe), has been wound up after a High Court battle over the cost of an £800,000 party in the grounds of Elton's mansion. The judge ruled that the company had grossly overcharged one client and routinely concealed the true costs of events to others.

James came to prominence in 2001 after organising the White Tie and Tiara Ball in the grounds of Elton's 37-acre pile in Windsor, Berkshire. Over four years, he organised the annual charity event attended by guests including Puff Daddy, Michael Caine and Ronnie Wood with a variety of glittering themes. At one, based on an 18th-century Fragonard painting of a girl on a swing, staff wore powdered wigs and Swarovski created a secret crystal garden in the woods. In 2005 James entertained hundreds of guests with a menagerie of safari animals.

His company went bust after he was ordered to pay £100,000 to Armenian-born property tycoon Rafi Manoukian by the High Court. Mr Justice Evans-Lombe found that James had launched a 'campaign of concealment' over the cost of a joint birthday and christening party that was held by Manoukian at Elton's home. Guests, including David and Victoria Beckham, dined in an £80,000 marquee.

Manoukian, who with his brother Bob is believed to be worth more than £250m, had expected DNA to charge a 12.5 per cent management fee and take commissions from suppliers of up to £16,000 for the lavish party. But when he received the full £827,761 bill, he believed that the company had been unfair in raising costs and had failed to pass on discounts offered by suppliers.

His suspicions were confirmed when an assistant at DNA accidentally sent a list detailing the real costs of supplies and services to his office. Manoukian, 52, refused to pay the full bill. James took his case to the High Court demanding an outstanding payment of over £200,000.

Documents emerged in court showing the full scale of the 'impropriety'. James and a former employee of DNA admitted that the company had a policy of concealing suppliers' discounts from all their clients. Evidence showed that James had taken at least £50,000 in discounts from Manoukian's party which he had not passed on to his client.

One email, from James's assistant and event producer Victoria Smith to a supplier, said: 'When you do quote, could you also just include 10 per cent commission to us hidden in the quote? We have to show the client all our invoices which is why we need the written quote and also the commission included.'

In another email to a supplier, Smith wrote: 'As discussed, attached is a breakdown of how I need your quote laid out in order to show Manoukian - so we can then get deposit [sic] from him! Where the costs are higher, it's because we have marked them up - your quote should still show these as I have quoted to Manoukian but allowing for a bit more commission for DNA. Does that make sense?!'

The judge said: 'Matthew James accepted it was DNA's practice to conceal from its clients that it was receiving commissions or discounts from some of its suppliers in addition to an event management fee... It was Matthew James's evidence that DNA's practice was not to record offers of commission or discounts from suppliers in writing, as far as possible, and correspondence referring to such offers or their payment was routinely deleted from DNA's books and records.'

The judgment revealed that DNA went into voluntary liquidation in June 2008 with debts of £389,892. The company's staff have also been laid off.

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