So Simon is new at property development and apparently has never completed his first big project.
So how, or maybe why, does he have this big, flashy office with full time help? I mean, I get that he needs some kind of office, but the setup makes it look like he's a big, established developer -- his name/logo frosted on the glass, and quite a posh setup generally.
Is this just part of his poor business skills, dumping money into his image?
He's a wide boy. The image is an important part of the scam.
shareIs he actually a pure scam artist? I got the impression that he was just incompetent and got in over his head on his development project. The deal with the rich council member (and father of his mistress) wasn't a deliberate scam he set out to commit, but a desperation move because he needed the cash infusion to keep the project from collapsing.
I mean to a large extent, all businesses like this front a posh image even if they're not complete scams (to the extent that real estate development isn't inherently a scam...).