MP backs calls for stripping of knighthood
9:16am Monday 6th February 2012 in Your Town
CALLS for the owner of Farepak to be stripped of his knighthood are being backed by a Bolton MP.
Scores of people in the town lost money when the Christmas savings scheme crashed with debts of more than £40 million.
David Crausby, MP for Bolton North East, is backing calls for Sir Clive Thompson, chairman of Farepak owners European Home Retail, to lose his knighthood, like disgraced banker Fred Goodwin.
He said: “It is outrageous it has taken all this time to try to bring it to some sort of resolution.
“People were robbed of their Christmas savings. There were quite a lot of people who lost money to this. I got a lot of letters about it at the time.”
The victims had a ruined Christmas when the firm went bust in 2006. The average loss was £400.
About 150,000 families will get money back, although it is likely to be just 15p for every pound lost.
Nine Farepak bosses will face a Government- backed move to ban them as directors in the High Court, in May, after an insolvency service probe concluded they were unfit to run a company.
The case has been delayed by more than a year as the nine took legal action to halt the move.
Louise McDaid, chairman of the Farepak Victims Committee, said: “I think they should be in jail. If I walked into a shop and stole £400 of goods I would be prosecuted
