- LONDON - If there were a prize for the world's unluckiest man, British
solicitor Edward Bentley would surely be in the running.
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- His first mistake was to lose thousands
of pounds in bad investments. And disaster followed when he tried to recoup
the losses by gambling with money stolen from clients, British newspapers
reported Saturday.
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- His first idea was to fly to Monte Carlo
and place a single 60,000 pounds ($96,000) roulette bet on either the red
or black, which would have doubled his money had he won.
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- But the casino's maximum stake on this
kind of bet was 10,000 pounds, so he flew back frustrated.
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- Next he tried betting on racing and after
careful study of the form books placed a 10,900 pounds on a horse which
was bound to win. It fell.
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- Then he tried the stock market, buying
a risky 49,000 pound futures option which promised a huge reward if the
main FTSE-100 index fell. It rose, leaving him with a grand total of 1,000
pounds from his original stake.
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- By now Bentley must have realized his
luck was not going to improve and he tried to commit suicide by sitting
in his car with a pipe from the exhaust pumping noxious gases into the
vehicle. The engine promptly seized up.
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- He tried again, but his second attempt
was halted after police stopped him during a routine vehicle check. He
told investigators the theft had turned into a "comic opera.''
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- Bentley's only stroke of luck was finding
a lenient judge, who gave him a 15-month suspended sentence Friday for
stealing 64,000 pounds of his clients' money.
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