Tuesday 5 July 2022 10:09 PM EDEN CONFIDENTIAL: Kate Middleton's brother James and a probe into £52,000 ... trends now

Though still only 35, the Duchess of Cambridge's brother, James Middleton, has already blazed an adventurous trail through the commercial world, founding three companies.

But the Midas touch exhibited by his parents, who've made millions from Party Pieces, the business they famously began in their kitchen, has so far stubbornly eluded him.

Regrettably, that's not all. For I can reveal that just six months after Boomf — the company James founded in 2013 to exploit the market for novelty marshmallows — went bust with accumulated trading losses of almost £2 million, administrators have enlisted legal firm Withers to assist them in investigating 'a payment made to American Express UK' of almost £52,000.

The money was handed over on November 24 — just three weeks before Boomf went into administration.

'We are obliged to review all the information available to us and conduct an initial assessment of whether there are any matters which may lead to recoveries for the benefit of creditors,' the administrators record in their progress report, published this week.

The American Express payment, they add, was made by Boomf's chief financial officer, who explained that she had made the payment 'solely to protect her personal credit position, as she was named on the card'.

One of the administrators, Peter Kubik of UHY Hacker Young, tells me that 'certain payments are allowed' even as a company heads into administration, particularly if they 'preserve the value of the business'.

But that was not the case in this instance, adds Kubik, who explains: 'She [the finance officer] shouldn't have done it. The creditor should not have received that money and we're asking for it back.'

The administrators managed to sell Boomf for £300,000.

Middleton was enjoying Wimbledon this week with his wife Alizee Thevenet. 'This is just a usual part of the administration process that certain payments are looked at,' he tells me. 'This is one of them.'

It's the Chelsea brasserie whose regulars include Sir Michael Caine, Dame Joan Collins and John Cleese, and where Hugh Grant lunched with his wife, Anna Eberstein, on their wedding day.

But I can reveal that Colbert, in Sloane Square, was the scene of a horrific incident at lunchtime on Monday when two men, armed with a machete and iron bar, rode in among Colbert's outside tables on a moped.

'They went for a guy sitting at one of the tables,' I'm told. 'They went for his watch.' Other diners fled as the attack happened. 'They rushed inside in terror.'

A Met Police spokesman tells me: 'A group were approached by two males on a moped and threatened with a knife and a baton. The suspects made off with the victim's watch. Detectives from the Central West Command CID are investigating. At this early stage there have been no arrests.'

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