CITY old-timers often tell some cracking yarns about Asil Nadir, the Polly Peck businessman who fled Britain in 1993 while awaiting trial on theft charges.

The best ones range from the 14 girlfriends Nadir allegedly kept on the company books as “consultants” to variations of how MP Michael Mates gave him the watch infamously inscribed “Don’t let the buggers get you down”.

But almost all the stories end with a warning that nearly everything Nadir touched was dodgy.

Well, here’s another one. Peter Krivinskas, long-standing adviser and lawyer to Nadir, has been struck off as a solicitor. The Law Society has confirmed his removal from its roll of solicitors.

In the past decade Krivinskas has represented a string of alleged and convicted fraudsters. Last year he unsuccesfully defended George Steen, who was jailed for six years for his part in a scam in which businessmen were offered bogus loans.

But it seems that Krivinskas might have spent a little too much time around some of his clients. The Law Society found he had been dishonest and voted for his removal.

I tried to contact Krivinskas at his office last week but he was not there.

Nadir continues to live in Cyprus, where fellow residents include drug barons Mickey Greene, Brian “The Milkman” Wright and meat merchant Peter “Maggot” Roberts.

Perhaps Krivinskas will also pop up in Cyprus some day soon to visit his most famous client.

Keep your eyes peeled.

Kitchen sink drama

IN a frantic schedule of self-publicity, Marco Pierre White, the fiery chef, seems to have taken his eye off the soufflé. He has been busy pushing his new celebrity supermarket-food business and, on Monday, hosting a Tory fundraiser at his Knightsbridge bar, Frankie’s. He hit the headlines again on Friday when the cops were called after a row with his wife. Meanwhile, the accounts for OTA Resources, his joint venture with Jimmy Lahoud, owner of Mayfair’s Mirabelle, are now eight months overdue at Companies House, likely to trigger a large fine. Though six months late, the pair have just managed to file accounts for Criterion in Piccadilly that show cumulative losses of £2.95m. Attached to one of the papers is the despairing note on which is scribbled: “Marco please sign.” Perhaps it should have said: “Get back to the kitchen.”

Who you gonna call? Spivbusters!

FOLLOWING the FSA’s bungled attempts to deal with the split-cap-trust ring-leaders, Citigroup’s bonds coup or, more recently, Legal & General’s appeal, anyone wanting to dodge the regulator must fancy their chances.

But not so fast: Prufrock has tapped into plans by the City watchdog to set up a Big Brother-style surveillance system to crack down on wrongdoing. The FSA is in talks with Inkerman Group, one of London’s top firms of private investigators — chaired by Sir John Walker, former deputy chairman of the Joint Intelligence Committee — with a view to using the firm’s technology and expertise. The same technology that is used in anti-terrorist surveillance now could be employed by the FSA to combat money laundering, insider trading and fraud.

As well as tracking all types of electronic transactions, it is able to reconstruct text messages months after they were sent and locate the exact position of users. It even has a predictive function that can spot fraud in its early stages.

Nailing the City’s spivs may no longer be the FSA’s mission impossible.

• AM I alone in being irritated by the misplaced priorities at J Sainsbury? Your local store might not have any milk or vegetables but if it’s obscure art rock you’re looking for, it’s probably just the place. A colleague was astonished to find his store was selling Laurie Anderson’s Big Science. I’m told Anderson was briefly famous in the 1980s, when she recorded with author William Burroughs (the bloke who shot his wife by accident in a William Tell moment).

  Step forward the Sainsbury buyer and explain yourself.

• THESE really are dog days at the Department of Trade and Industry. Every political party seems intent on closing down the department and now trade secretary Patricia Hewitt has lost her closest press officer, Ayesha Hazarika.

  She has been poached by EMI’s boss Eric Nicoli and will start work soon. Hazarika, who is also one of London’s brightest young comediennes, claims it was a tough decision to leave Victoria Street. Yeah, right. Pat Hewitt or Robbie Williams? Terribly tough, I’m sure.