When Barings, the UK's oldest merchant bank was brought down in 1995 it made headlines across the world.

19 years later the rogue trader behind the fall, Nick Leeson, is set to arrive in Tunbridge Wells as a guest speaker at the Billion Pound Gamble, a major dinner being held at the Salomons Estate.

He will go head to head with Peter Cullum who was honoured after amassing a personal fortune of almost a billion pounds building Towergate, an insurance empire.

Mr Leeson was jailed for fraud after losing close to a billion pounds through stock market gambling.

Born into his family in Watford, he started work in the city in the 1980s. He began doing well in the financial market making a bonus one year of £130,000 on a salary of £50,000, still in his 20s life was going well.

Until, suddenly his luck took a turn for the worst and he described how he knew that something was going wrong.

He said: "You know straight away, it’s not as if it creeps up on you. You know that you’re doing something wrong, you know you shouldn’t be doing it and you know you shouldn’t continue.”

The crisis came to a head in early 1995 when Leeson left Singapore and was arrested in Germany whilst trying to return to the UK.

“I am a firm believer that you have to accept the consequences of your actions, so in that regard it was entirely justified" - Nick Leeson...

He was sentenced to six and a half years for fraud and paid a heavy price for his actions. He spent years in jail, his first marriage broke up and he was diagnosed with cancer.

Mr Leeson added: “I am a firm believer that you have to accept the consequences of your actions, so in that regard it was entirely justified.

"The onset of cancer was definitely a consequence of the way that I was living; lots of alcohol; lots of eating out; not exercising enough, and of course extreme stress.

“I don’t think it has changed a great deal over the last 20 years or so. Some of the behaviour has clearly got worse.”

You can spend an evening listening to Nick Leeson and Peter Cullum tell their stories at the Salomons Estate on Thursday, November 6. Tickets are £59 and include a two-course meal, drinks on arrival and a chance to question the two business figures.

To book call 01892 779 650 or visit www.salomons-estate.com/events/the-billion-pound-gamble