WHEN Douglas Henderson found that his army pension and modest investments could no longer fund his lifestyle on the French Riviera, he was only too eager to accept a business proposition from a Russian financier.

The deal was simple. The Russian did not want anyone in Moscow to know that he was buying property along the Côte d’Azur, so he would provide the money for the former British cavalry officer to purchase it for him.

Fellow expatriates gave warning against it, reminding him of what seemed to happen to other Britons who fell out with their Russian partners.

A spate of violent deaths, mystery disappearances and police investigations involving British expatriates are all being blamed on Russian gangsters.

When Lord Shaftesbury vanished from his hotel in Cannes this month, many pointed the finger at the Moscow mafia who run some of the sleazier clubs that the Earl was in the habit of frequenting in search of female companionship.

Some of the most enviable properties — and most profitable businesses — from Cap d’Antibes to Monaco are now in Russian hands and there are increasing fears that vulnerable expatriates are being sucked unwittingly into the Russian-run underworld.

At first, Douglas Henderson dismissed the complaints and gossip as snobbery. “People were quick enough to take the Russians’ money, but regarded them as vulgar,” he said.

“I ignored the prattle (because) in over 20 years living on the Riviera I have met my fair share of scoundrels.”

He admits to being one himself. He calls himself Colonel Henderson: while he was in the military, his rank is exaggerated.

“Respectability goes a long way here and that is what I thought my Russian associate was buying,” he said.

At first the arrangement worked perfectly. All the “colonel” was required to do was sign a few contracts. He rarely had to socialise with his business comrade and asked no questions.

His attitude changed a few weeks ago after an alleged associate of his original partner threatened him in the lobby of a hotel in Nice.

“This man I had never met challenged me about money I was supposed to owe him from properties I knew nothing about.”

“Colonel Henderson” was advised that it would not be sensible to involve the police in this matter.

At 62, estranged from his family in Britain, he does not know what to do, although he is paying much closer attention to the stories of supposed Russian misdeeds. This month the British socialite Christopher Stephenson and his wife were found shot dead in their flat in the prestigious 24-storey Sun Tower development, which overlooks the Monte Carlo Casino. The bodies had lain undiscovered for six weeks.

Police believe that Mr Stephenson, 64, who was well known among the horse-racing fraternity, murdered his wife, Angela, after a domestic argument then turned the gun on himself.

None of the neighbours heard raised voices or the shots and the forensic evidence is reportedly inconclusive, but it appears that the files on the case are closed.

Family and friends back in Britain dispute this version of events, pointing out that the couple married only in May and nobody can remember them having a row.

They point out that Mr Stephenson, a former army officer, had been finding property and business in the area recently for wealthy Russians and wonder if these dealings might explain the deaths.

Their suspicions will likely lead nowhere.

One long-time British resident in the Principality was discussing the Stephenson killings at a cocktail party at the weekend and, tired of the speculation said: “Reality in Monaco is what the authorities say it is. Nobody talks about neighbours in Monaco and certainly not when they are dead. Privacy is why we live here”.

That and the tax laws.

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