'Playboy' ordered to shut up after 'party to end all parties' (From Daily Echo)

Southampton 'playboy' Paul Sperring ordered to shut up after 'party to end all parties'

10:23am Tuesday 21st August 2012 in News By Matt Smith , Politics and business reporter

HE lives a lavish playboy lifestyle of jet-set holidays, parties and women hanging from his arm.

With a trademark pose pointing his fingers like he is holding a gun and a permanent tan, Paul Sperring cultivates an image as Southampton ’s party king.

On his personal website he claims to have attended a “school for higher beings” in the US and says he is in the business of “world domination”.

As a grandson of the founder of the Sperrings shop chain, his family is no stranger to wealth.

But his funloving ways have landed him before the courts for blasting out loud music at his £1m penthouse apartment in Southampton.

Sperring was slapped with a fine for causing a noise nuisance at a party to celebrate his 35th birthday at the luxury five-bed pad at South Western House, which has a hot tub on the roof terrace.

Worried residents had hired their own security guard to prevent any trouble when they read about Sperring’s “party to end all parties” on a website.

They called Southampton City Council’s noise police when the booming “bass beat” from Sperring’s party in the early hours became too much to bear.

Sperring, of Oceana Boulevard, Southampton, who runs a tanning salon in Queensway, pleaded guilty to causing a statutory nuisance in breach of an earlier noise order.

Sperring is a grandson of the late Hampshire businessman Tom Sperring, who founded a successful chain of convenience stores across the south.

The business grew from a single Bitterne newsagent to an 80-plus chain before it was sold in the late 80s for £20m to US retail giant Circle K, netting a fortune for the family directors. The buyout would be worth around £46m at today’s prices.

Sperring’s father, Tom Henry Jnr, was a director of the firm and went on to start his own business ventures, while his mother is the daughter of a former Thoresen Car Ferries boss.

Appearing before magistrates, Sperring apologised for not controlling the party.

He said: “I don’t have any excuse for it. I can only apologise for it. I went to the residents’ meeting afterwards to apologise. Obviously it was unacceptable to ruin their evenings’ sleep.”

He was fined £150 and ordered to pay £85 costs.

Sperring has since moved out of the apartment off Canute Road, which he was renting. It is now up for sale through an upmarket property agent for £1m.

The Southern Western House Residents’ Association declined to comment.