Asil Nadir was the stock market poster boy of the 1980s who conned City bankers and private investors, not to mention the Conservative party, then staged a dramatic escape to spend 17 years as a fugitive before returning to the UK to face trial. A Turkish Cypriot immigrant, Nadir, who has died aged 83, was for many years feted as a success in the UK and Turkey. A 1991 biography of him was entitled The Sultan of Berkeley Square.