Flamboyant Renault boss & missus attacked by irate tourists

Flavio Briatore’s August break took a nasty turn when he tried to go onshore from his luxury yacht. Italian newspaper La Stampa reports that the 58-year-old Renault boss and his charming new wife were pelted with water and sand (not the most painful weapons, you’d think) by angry bathers when they tried to land on the busy Capriccioli beach in Sardinia.

The aggressive manner in which they sped ashore enraged parents on the beach, while “terrorised children wailed between the waves”, La Stampa claimed. A painful image, we’re sure you agree.

The bathers shouted “Shame!”, “Louts!” and “Go home!” at Flavio and co, while a small group tried to push one of the Briatore dinghies back out to sea. Mothers hurled seawater from their children’s buckets, and piles of wet sand were thrown.

Flavio reacted to the incident in Corriere della Sera, a paper he often uses when he wants to make himself heard. He bitched: “We are nice people and we get rewarded like this… I will close down everything. I pay taxes, this is my right.”

Briatore was in town to open a new restaurant and check on his nightclub, the subtly named “Billionaire”. You see what happens when you flaunt your wealth.