Bookmaker betting on feng shui

Dr Paul Darby performing a feng shui ceremony

A feng shui expert has been asked by a London bookmaker to discover why customers keep raking in the money.

Payouts to punters visiting the Ladbrokes outlet on Putney Bridge Road are 20% higher than other shops.

Dr Paul Darby of Nottinghamshire says the shop's layout is to blame for clients' good luck.

He says the office is in the cellar where there is no natural light, and the energy of the nearby river is blocked by a new police station.

Upside down

Dr. Darby's expertise has been called upon before.

He used the art of feng shui to overturn the so-called "curse of the southern dressing room" at Cardiff's Millennium Stadium in 2002.

No team using the stadium's southern dressing room had ever won the Cup Final before his visit.

The front area is very good for the customers, and they are bringing in all the energy of the outside world Dr Paul Darby Feng shui expert

After Dr Darby's intervention, Stoke City became the first team to beat the curse.

According to Dr Darby, eight out of 10 teams using the dressing room now win their matches.

Dr Darby says he became an expert in feng shui after becoming crippled and bedridden from stress brought on in his former role as headmaster of Berry Hill Middle School in Mansfield, Nottinghamshire.

"I left the school 15 years ago, and became a pensioner at 39.

" I'd always been interested in the Far East, and studied to become a Doctor of Oriental Philosophy."

Dr Darby has been working with the Ladbroke's branch , for the past 10 days.

He says its problems are easily solved.

"The layout of the shop is upside down - there's rubbish outside the front, and the kitchen area and toilets are at the back, blocking all the energy."

"The front area is very good for the customers, and they are bringing in all the energy of the outside world, which is bad for the business."