FLAMBOYANT businessman George Steen has been a glamour photographer, an acupuncturist and a professional singer.

But it is his role as a crooked financier which has landed him a six-year jail sentence.

His luxury lifestyle in the Philippines was in stark contrast to the one he led back home in Darlington.

His three-bedroomed semi-detached house in Geneva Road, and the nine-year-old Toyota car he drove, gave neighbours no hint of his vast wealth.

But in the Philippines, his money meant he enjoyed a lifestyle many can only dream of, and he was treated like royalty.

Friends last night told how he owned three properties - all with more than five bedrooms, security guards, butlers and servants, as well as a share in a hotel in Manila.

His taste in cars is German, with two BMWs and a Mercedes, but his pride and joy was a £500,000 Sunray speedboat.

A friend said: "He lived a very frugal life in Darlington - not at all like the one he had out there.

"Before his arrest, he was living in the Philippines for six months of the year. He just loved it.

"He was treated like a God because of his money. He had champagne in every room of his house, gold taps, all the trappings of luxury."

While on trial at Southwark Crown Court, Steen would stay in a flat he rented in Finchley Road, London, and would turn up at Number 2 court wearing expensive Armani suits and the very best silk ties.

Yesterday, less than five hours after being brought back to England, he was back in court.

This time there was no designer suit, nicely pressed shirt or fashionable neckwear, just a sweatshirt and pair of trousers.

The Darlington entrepreneur, who has a law degree for which he studied in Majorca, first came to the attention of the public in 1985 when he was made bankrupt with declared debts of more than £40,000.

During the opening of his public examination the following year, the official assistant receiver, Robert Patterson, said Steen had shown a callous disregard for his creditors, and was "perhaps a person totally unfit to take charge of any business".

It later emerged that before becoming a credit broker, Steen ran three companies in the Leeds area which imported medical equipment and ultra-violet ovens. All three went into liquidation with debts totalling about £50,000.

The bankruptcy was annulled in 1989 after a company called Ultra Show Limited paid his creditors.

The annulment came just in time for Steen to fly to the Philippines for a Christmas wedding to his 19-year-old fiancee, Emma.

At about the same time, he launched a fundraising campaign for a medical centre on the Filipino island of Crodua.

Steen, who as a singer once appeared on the same bill as Frankie Vaughan, released a single called One Little Candle and an album titled With Love From George Steen, to raise money for the project.

Steen surfaced again in 1993 when his new loans firm, Philippine Finance, based in Darlington, came under scrutiny from the Government's Securities and Investments Board.

The investigation centred on claims remarkably similar to those for which he was jailed yesterday.

Clients claimed they paid advance fees of £700 and more to a Brighton finance company run by David Andrews, who was jailed for five years alongside Steen yesterday, for loans they never received.

One company in Cornwall said it had gone into receivership with the loss of 20 jobs following lengthy delays in obtaining a loan from Steen.

Steen claimed he had "nothing to hide" and offered to open his files to Durham Fraud Squad.

Police said there was insufficient evidence of criminal intent.

Steen's name was mentioned in the bankruptcy hearing of former fruit machine king Vince Landa in 1994.

Asked about a legal document transferring the ownership of Stanhope Castle, in Weardale, County Durham, to a company connected to his former business associate Dennis Stafford, Mr Landa claimed he had signed it under duress at Steen's Darlington office.

The investigation which eventually led to Steen's downfall involved members of Durham Fraud Squad spending months gathering evidence.

In the largest operation of its kind the force has mounted, Detective Sergeant Ray Scanlan and Detective Constable Ian Wilson spent five weeks in the US in the summer of 2000 working with the FBI and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.

At the same time, officers from the Sussex force were carrying out a similar operation in Australia and New Zealand.