Bunhill: Winging in

IF YOU are launching a new airline, you need an HQ. Readers may recall that Spencer Trethewy, the 22-year- old self-proclaimed property magnate who failed to live up to his pledge to save Aldershot Football Club a couple of years ago, is planning to lease three Boeing 747s to fly from London to Barbados. His carrier will be called Cunard Airways.

I learn that a chap calling himself Mark Spencer answered an ad in last week's Independent on Sunday to rent a house in Belgravia for pounds 1,200 a week. Spencer looked suspiciously like Trethewy, young and blond, and turned up in a chauffeur-driven Mercedes. He said he was an agent for DDC, Trethewy's main company, and gave as a reference a Marcus Gunn of Cunard Airways.

Spencer added that as an agent, he would take his commission upfront for the property and pay what was left to the owner (normally, in such cases, two months can pass before the owner sees any rent). The advertiser had read about Trethewy, including a recent story that the landlord of a house in west London was trying to evict him after he took up residence there - after claiming to have buyers for the property.

I called Gunn and Spencer at DDC's number and left a message. So far, they have not returned my call.