A British business journalist who left the UK with his family following his conviction in the Daily Mirror share-tipping scandal says plans to instil the value of money into his three children and stop them turning into 'spoilt brats' - by sending them to school in South America - have spectacularly backfired.
Mauritius-born Anil Bhoyrul, now 60, carried out 180 hours of community service in 2006 for his part in the ‘City Slickers’ ‘buy, tip, sell’ scheme between 1999 and 2000.
Along with his then colleague James Hipwell, the columnists would buy shares in cheap ‘dotcom’ era companies before recommending them to Daily Mirror readers. When the shares leapt in value, the journalists quickly sold their own shares off for a handsome profit.
Bhoyrul pleaded guilty to conspiracy to breach the Financial Services Act 1986 at Southwark Crown Court.
With his reputation in tatters, the journalist and his Slovenian photographer wife Branka, who he married in 2008, started a new life in Dubai, spending eight years living in a 5,000-square-foot luxury villa in the glamorous Emirati city.
However, deciding that their three children, Evita, Joe and Savannah, then aged nine, six and five, were fast becoming ‘spoilt materialistic brats’ who should grow up in a less money-obsessed environment led them to another continent.
Anil Bhoyrul sent his three children Evita, Joe and Savannah, then aged nine, six and five, were fast becoming ‘spoilt materialistic brats’ to Bolivia to learn the value of money
When Joe, Evita and Savannah returned to live in Dubai, he says, they simply re-embraced consumerism, he admitted
'One iPad wasn't good enough, they needed three,' Bhoyrul told Esquire. 'My son wanted an iPhone and an Apple Watch, just like the ones his pals at school [had].'
When Bhoyrul turned 50, he surprised the family with business class flight tickets for a holiday in the Maldives.
'On the way home, all three [children] kicked off at the humiliation of having to fly economy,' he recalled.
Committed to reframing their brood's relationship with money, the couple chose Bolivia after the children threw plastic darts at a world map.
Bhoyrul was hopeful that entering the school system in the landlocked country, one of the poorest in South America, might offer his three offspring a different perspective on life. None of the family had visited before.
Living in the country’s capital, La Paz, for two years from 2018, the family would go to school via the Amazon rainforest, with the three siblings immersed in the natural world.
While in Bolivia, Evita undertook the 46km Death Road mountain bike challenge to mark her eighth birthday, while Bhoyrul's son Joe got his 'first ever paid job as an ice cream seller', the former City Slickers columnist wrote on Instagram.
Living in the country’s capital, La Paz, for two years from 2018, the family would go to school via the Amazon rainforest, with the three siblings immersed in the natural world
Bhoyrul has published a new book documenting the nine months before his son Joe was born
'When I asked him what he would do with the cash, he said, "Buy a one-way ticket to Dubai,"' Bhoyrul's caption read.
However, in London this week for the UK launch of his new book, the author admitted that South America’s version of the Good Life has seemingly had no lasting impact on his children’s approach to finances.
When Joe, Evita and Savannah returned to live in Dubai, he says, they simply re-embraced consumerism.
Attending the launch party for his new book, Men’s Guide to Pregnancy, at swanky cocktail bar ESQ in London this week, he divulged to the Daily Mail’s Richard Eden: ‘They were meant to learn the value of money and not get carried away.
‘It didn’t work. They came back after six years, and within ten seconds their view was, “I’ve done my time. Where’s the iPhone? We’re never going back”.'
His teenage daughter Savannah, who gave a speech at the book launch, is a devotee of designer labels, he says.
‘They’ve totally gone the other way now, and my daughter spends a fortune. At just 13 years old, she’s got all this designer gear’.
He adds: ‘I wouldn’t advise parents to ship their kids off.’
Bhoyrul’s parenting manual is billed as ‘the pregnancy book he’ll actually read’ and documents the nine months before the couple’s son Joe was born.
Daughter Savannah admitted that she’d only read the ‘front and back’ of her father’s new book and joked: ‘I only came on this trip so I could get some Blank Street’, referencing the viral coffee and matcha chain.
Describing the book to attendees at the book launch, where guests included his former Daily Mirror editor Piers Morgan and broadcaster Andrew Neil, the author said: ‘This is the men’s side of the story, the ups and downs, highs and lows, the chaos, comedy and farce. Everything happens to a man.’
Men's Guide to Pregnancy: The unfiltered truth and practical wisdom for every dad-to-be is published in the UK on October 1st by Myrtle Press