Business Diary: March 2

Office agent Alex Duckett was crowned the champion of a charity singing competition last week after battling it out with other contestants from the region's property community.

Mr Duckett, who works at Savills in Leeds, won the Crypt Factor 2010 after winning over the audience at Elland Road in Leeds with his rendition of Mack the Knife, backed by a live band.

The competition, which is a satire of the X Factor, saw six contestants sing for the judges, headed by organiser Jonathan Morgan, of Morgans City Living in Leeds, who took on the role of Simon Cowell.

So has this encouraged Mr Duckett to step in front of the real Simon Cowell?

"I've actually already applied to go on the X-Factor this year," he admitted to Diary last night.

Tracking celebs

It normally works with lorry drivers but technology firm Masternaut Three X is in more glamorous company after being named the official tracking supplier for Sport Relief's Million Pound Bike Ride.

David Walliams, star of Little Britain, DJ Fearne Cotton, Davina McCall and comedians including Jimmy Carr hope to raise 1m by cycling from Lands End to John O'Groats over four days. Leeds-based Masternaut's GPS tracking system is being used with the event, which began yesterday. The team will take turns to cycle non-stop across the UK.

Martin Port, managing director of Masternaut, said: "It's fantastic that we've been chosen to provide the technology to support such a high profile event which supports such a fantastic cause."

When not tracking celebrities, Masternaut's systems are used by companies like Ann Summers, Nestl, United Biscuits and Tarmac who use the technology to lower their CO2 emissions and keep workers safe.

To track the celebrities live or make a donation go to www.sportrelief. com and click on the Million Pound Bike Ride.

Parting 'gifts'

Titter ye not, but sex toys are the number one item left behind by tenants when they move out of a property, according to a new survey by The Deposit Protection Service (DPS).

The poll of more than 1,000 landlords across the UK – including a number in Yorkshire – revealed that some tenants left strange mementoes.

Animals, both dead and alive, also scored highly on the list. Tenants left behind a stuffed parrot, guinea pigs, a large dead fish in a recycling bin and even a snake living under the floorboards.

Kevin Firth, director of The DPS, said: "One landlord told us that a former tenant, a postman, had left behind bags of unopened mail in the attic. Another told us that he found a batch of winning lottery scratch cards in the property, while another said that he had been showing a prospective tenant around the property and found a complete stranger asleep in the bedroom!"

As well as sex toys and animals, other bizarre items left behind included: the engine from a lorry, an inflatable Father Christmas and half a dozen milk crates.

Mafia membership

Diary hopes the Cosa Nostra doesn't have an interest in intellectual copyright or a group of Yorkshire businessmen and women could be in trouble.

More than 120 of the Yorkshire Mafia, a business networking club, gathered last week in City Inn, Leeds, for its second event – double the number of people who came to the previous one.

The group began life as an online networking club in November 2008. Organisers say the name is tongue-in-cheek and helps the club differentiate itself from other networking bodies. Now there are more than 2,000 members. The private club invites people to join and those who apply are screened. It says the emphasis is not on selling, which is discouraged, but rather on proactive support, collaboration and purchasing through the family. One particular member now runs almost all of his business-spend through "the mafia".

The Yorkshire Mafia is run by Geoff Shepherd, co-director at isource Group, an executive and IT recruitment firm based in Leeds. It also works with Candelighters, the charity for children with cancer, and has several events planned.

It claims there are no fees associated with membership – and why doubt them? After all, honour is everything to these people. More details can be found on Linked In.