Businessman 'blackmailed' in strip club

Mr Fitzgerald claims to have been charged £430

A businessman has told how he was blackmailed after a £5 bargain visit to a strip club turned out to be too good to be true.

Minutes after entering the Kioko Club, in London's Soho, Warren Fitzgerald said he was threatened for refusing to pay a massive bill.

He told a court he was charged £295 for sitting with a hostess, which was increased to £430 when he was told he had made her angry.

Alexei Eskine, 28, of Slough, Berkshire, denies blackmail on September 2 this year, when he is accused of making an unwarranted demand for £430 with menaces.

'Extra services'

Mr Fitzgerald said he was walking from Euston station to Charing Cross, when a woman called out from a doorway, offering a strip show for £5.

When he entered the club he was shown to a cubicle and offered "extra services".

I was very scared in this tiny area, there was this bloke on my left and this girl in the entrance

Warren Fitzgerald

When he declined the woman produced a clipboard and insisted he settle a £295 bill for talking to her.

He refused, and they were joined by another man who closed the curtains of the cubicle and demanded he pay an extra £135 for upsetting the woman.

He said: "I was very scared in this tiny area. There was this bloke on my left and this girl in the entrance."

He said he was told the front door had been locked and it would be 'foolish to try and escape' and 'no-one knew he was there anyway'.

The businessman said they were then joined by the defendant.

Cash machine

He claimed Mr Eskine told him: "You owe money and it would be foolish to try and do anything."

London's Southwark Crown Court heard he was then taken to a cash machine in order to pay the rest.

He said on the way to the bank he ran away, cancelled his bank cards and called the police.

The trial continues.