Lies, knives, and luxury real estate: The moral decay of modern London
by Nicholas Harris · Australian Financial ReviewNicholas Harris
May 11, 2026 – 1.39pm
Who could turn this scene down? We’re at Riverwalk, 161 Millbank, London SW1 – a rippling, attention-seeking luxury apartment block in Pimlico, where units sell for £2.1 million to £4.85 million ($4 million to $9 million). Inside, on the fifth floor, is one goon, one chancer and one naif: the career gangster Verinder Sharma, the bankrupt bounder Akbar Shamji, and the 19-year-old fabulist Zac Brettler.
They are talking, and drinking, and there is threat in the air. Shamji leaves, and is slaloming drunkenly around nearby Westminster in his red Mercedes, surging down famous streets (Whitehall, the Mall). It’s the early hours now, and Zac has moved to the balcony of the apartment. And then he jumps, and is falling, hoping to reach the water. He strikes the riverside balustrade with his hip, and probably falls into the Thames unconscious, where he dies.
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