I suppose if he had not boasted so extravagantly, this liar might have been able to get away with his revision of history:

Mr Irvine, originally from Salisbury in Wiltshire, admitted to the St Petersburg Times that he had had made up parts of his CV because of social pressure.

He said: “When I first came down there and I met people down there with all this money, it was like trying to keep up with the Joneses. I was sitting in a bar one night and that came out. It was stupid.”

His apparent claims that he had cooked for US presidents were shown to be without foundation, as was his boast that he had helped construct the royal wedding cake in 1981.

His rise to fame and fortune came quickly, however, and it was surely hard not to arouse suspicion. Knighted by the Queen for cooking? Those are some Joneses he must be trying to keep up with.