He certainly had gall. I knew him in between the time he'd been at Oxford (as nothing much more than a successful, well-connected wheeler dealer) and when he burst on to a more public stage as someone alleged to be tied into international trafficking, deals with the security services...
I knew Howard Marks during the time he lived in Brighton and can vouch for some of his tales from those days. He led a somewhat messy life, to say the least of it.